1. The Captain of the 1964, Top of the Form Team
Carol Ann Duffy

2. Starter Task Split yourself in to 5 groups
You will be answering a series of general knowledge questions

3. Questions
1. What song was top of the Vodafone big top 40 ending the week on the 14th of February?
What is the capital of Hungary?
What is the capital of Belgium?
What year was Queen Elizabeth II born?
To the nearest thousand, how many miles long is the River Nile?
Name 2 countries that the Nile runs through
Who is the host of the evening quiz show ‘The Chase’?

4. Background of the Poem
The poem is about a man recalling his childhood, being captain of a school academic team and he had all the answers. It seems as if he is speaking the poem maybe to a friend or a family member, speaking about a competition called ‘Top of the Form’, a quiz show from the 1960’s. Carol Ann Duffy adopts the role of a man who has never seemed to get over the disappointment of growing up, suggesting that maybe time hasn’t been so kind to him, due to his successful and happy childhood. The poem shows the growing up of the man and how his life seems to spiral downhill from when he was young.

5. Structure
The structure of the poem is quite disjointed suggesting that this is his trail of thought and his minds works so fast that everything is rushed and not planned out, which is similar to his mind set towards answering questions.

6. Stanza One
“Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Baby Love, Oh Pretty Woman were in the Top Ten that month, October, and the Beatles were everywhere else. I can give you the B-side of the Supremes one. Hang on. ‘Come See About Me?’ I lived in a kind of fizzing hope. Gargling with Vimto. The clever smell of my satchel. Convent girls. I pulled my hair forward with a steel comb that I blew like Mick, my lips numb as a two-hour snog”

7. Stanza One
The first stanza represents the man’s life as a schoolboy, loving his life, clever (as we can establish from the title), full of optimism.
It seems he is quite popular, interested in ‘the top ten’ shown by the singing of the lyrics, and interested in girls hence the reference to ‘two-hour snog’ and ‘convent girls’. His life couldn’t be going better.

8. Stanza One
‘Fizzing hope’ and ‘clever smell’ represent this energy, optimism and pride that he takes in himself, and Duffy demonstrates this by using these phrases. ‘Fizzing hope’ is a good use of onomatopoeia to present this positive vibe that the young man created.
She also uses ‘clever smell’ to represent this pride that the man took in his knowledge.

9. Stanza One “Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Baby Love, Oh Pretty Woman”
These are songs titles/lyrics from popular songs from the 1960’s and the way Duffy writes this makes it seems as if he is singing the lyrics. This again creates the sense of satisfaction that the man always carried with him, as if he is singing the words out loud, not affected by what anyone else around him thinks, he couldn’t be happier than he was during his childhood. Genres of these songs were pop/rock which again could represent the young man’s popularity.

10. Stanza Two
“No snags. The Nile rises in April. Blue and white. The humming-bird’s song is made by its wings, which beat so fast that they blur in flight. I knew the capitals, the Kings and Queens, the dates. In class, the white sleeve of my shirt saluted again and again. Sir! … Correct. Later, I whooped at the side of my bike, a cowboy, mounted it running in one jump. I sped down Dyke Hill, no hands, famous, learning, dominus domine dominum.”

11. Stanza Two
The second stanza is him recalling how good his life was through stating facts that he learnt and still remembered, highlighting that it never leaves his mind, making a reference to him raising ‘the white sleeve’ ‘again and again’.

12. Stanza Two
‘Whooped’, ‘no hands, famous, learning’ and ‘Sir! … Correct.’ represents his pride and joy, another use of onomatopoeia with the word ‘whooped’ to represent his energy.
The last 3 lines just show how happy he was, especially with the phrase ‘a cowboy’, as this is a references to popular culture from the 1960’s.

13. Stanza Two ‘The Nile rises in April. Blue and White.’
This is another fact stated in the poem, the extra information of ‘blue and white’ representing the River Nile’s primary and secondary sources, this just sums up how much this young man knew.

14. Stanza Three
Dave Dee Dozy … Try me. Come on. My mother kept my mascot Gonk on the TV set for a year. And the photograph. I look so brainy you’d think I’d just had a bath. The blazer. The badge. The tie, the first chord of A Hard Day’s Night loud in my head. I ran to the Spinney in my prize shoes, up Churchill Way, up Nelson Drive, over pink pavements that girls chalked on, in a blue evening; and I stamped the pawprints of badgers and skunks in the mud. My country.

15. Stanza Three
The third stanza seems like a recasting of some of the specific memories he could remember from his childhood, creating his ideal world that he was once living, almost as if he is reliving it while travelling through the past.

16. Stanza Three
‘Dave Dee Dozy’ is a popular band from the 1960’s and is a reference to popular culture in the 60’s (the music industry).
‘My mother kept my mascot Gonk’ and ‘And the photograph’ – This could be seen as special to the man now he is grown up, as they are a physical memories of the past, from the poem is doesn't’t seem like he has many physical memories of the past. But the fact he stated that his mother kept it could show that he maybe doesn't’t want to be reminded of his past, because he knows that it’s not the present?

17. Stanza Three
‘Try me. Come on.’ – Short, sharp sentences, almost resembling his answers and thought process, it’s so quick that he doesn’t have to think, he just knows. Due to him remembering his answers almost seems like he wants to still boast his knowledge to whoever possible.

18. Stanza Three
‘The blazer. The badge. The tie’ – This is showing that he didn’t just carry the knowledge, but he also looked the part.
‘Pink pavements’ and ‘blue evening’ – The alliteration of pink pavements and the use of blue evening seem to create a sense of the man’s perfect/ideal world almost as if it’s like he is dreaming about what he once had.

19. Stanza Three
‘My country’ – Finally the use of ‘My country’ indicates that in his mind, he once ruled, and would give anything to get a glimpse of going back to what he had. The use of ‘My’ gives the impression that it was all his, and no one else could get close, the country was within his grasp, maybe he was getting slightly carried away with the fame that he thought he had?

20. Stanza Four
I want it back. The captain. The one with all the answers. Bzz. My name was in red on Lucille Green’s jotter. I smiled as wide as a child who went missing on the way home from school. The keeny. I say to my stale wife Six hits by Dusty Springfield. I say to my boss A pint! How can we know the dancer from the dance?’ Nobody. My thick kids wince. Name the prime Minister of Rhodesia. My country. How many florins in a pound?

21. Stanza Four
The fourth stanza recognises where his life has lead after going through the disappointment of growing up, and given some of the content in stanza four it again suggests that time hasn’t been so kind to him.

22. Stanza Four
‘I want it back’ – This is again just emphasising what he once had, and that he can’t get over the disappointment of growing up.
The use of ‘stale wife’, ‘thick kids’ and that he has a ‘boss’, showing that his ‘fame’ has been replaced by something that he doesn’t seem to be bothered about. The use of ‘thick’ and ‘stale’ show negativity sums up his mind potentially, the fact that things are so bad that he speaks lowly of him family?

23. Stanza Four ‘Six hits by Dusty Springfield’
This again is a reference to the music industry in the poem, as Dusty Springfield is another popular artist from the 60’s. Maybe the frequent reference to music could show that this was the man’s preferred topic, or one that he strived in?

24. Stanza Four
The use of ‘My Country’ again emphasizing that he thought he once ruled, or maybe that the thought of all of this was maybe getting a little too much for him.

25. Stanza Four
I think that Duffy is trying to show that the man feels like he is much more at home in the past, and feels that he doesn't’t fit in with present day.

26. Stanza Four
I also think that the use of asking the questions especially in the last stanza for example ‘Name the Prime Minister of Rhodesia’ show that he still wants to boast the knowledge that he had.

27. Answers 1. Lukas Graham – 7 Years 2. Budapest 3. Brussels 4. 1926
6. Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Congo-Kinshasa, Egypt, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, South Sudan.
7. Bradley Walsh