1. The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team
Carol Ann Duffy
WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT LOWER/MIDDLE SCHOOL?

2. Context
‘The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’ is spoken from the voice of a man who has never gotten over the disappointment of growing up
He was once captain of the Top of the Form team- a quiz show which aired in the 60’s.
He misses the uncomplicated life of a schoolboy at the top of his class, and these memories become a straightjacket on his older self.
THEMES:
Childhood
Change
Growing up
Pride
Nostalgia
Enthusiasm

3. Count how many times Duffy uses listing in the poem
Features worth noting
Opens with dramatic monologue
4 stanzas, 8 lines
Onomatopoeic “fizzing” “Gargling” “whooped” “Bzz” –excitement
Questions from the quiz show feature in italics- “How many florins in a pound?”- shows how strongly he envisions and recalls the memories
First paragraph introduces you to his frantic memories of childhood- “I can give you the B-side…. Hang on,”
Duffy uses her similar style of smells and sounds to create a vivid scene- “gargling with Vimto. The clever smell of my satchel” brings back the smell of school and learning and youthfulness
Count how many times Duffy uses listing in the poem

4. Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Baby Love, Oh Pretty Woman
“Hang on” could be seen as a double meaning- hang on as in wait, and hang on as in holding on to the memories of his best year
Opens with precise facts to present the narrator as intelligent from the start
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.
“I lived” “I pulled” and “I blew” are all first person and past tense. This creates the idea that these declaratives were only once true- he doesn’t live anymore
Simile. The description of “numb” being compared to a “two hour snog” manipulates the original meaning of the word “numb” being a negative
References to pop culture- suggests era
General knowledge questions- link to his desire to be back on the quiz team
Longing
Onomatopoeia
References to being smart/ proud of how great he once was. Repetition

5. No snags. The Nile rises in April. Blue and white.
Metaphor/ personification: his hand was constantly raised in class, as if saluting to his teacher. We know the shirt wasn’t making him salute- suggests he had no control over his intelligence
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.
Connotes freedom, lack of conformity
Latin for different variations of “Lord” or “Master- suggesting he has power/ ownership of his life
References to pop culture- suggests era
General knowledge questions- link to his desire to be back on the quiz team
Longing
Onomatopoeia
References to being smart/ proud of how great he once was. Repetition

6. Dave Dee Dozy … try me. Come on. My mother kept my mascot Gonk
Links with “hang on”, shows his memories are moving fast, the imperative is telling the reader/himself to try to catch up
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.
Stamping over other footsteps suggests a God complex that could correlate to his pride and his success
Could suggest a triumph of boys v girls, he’s running over pink pavements when the whole time-frame is “blue”, a childish competition between genders
References to pop culture- suggests era
General knowledge questions- link to his desire to be back on the quiz team
Longing
Onomatopoeia
References to being smart/ proud of how great he once was. Repetition

7. References to pop culture- suggests era
Suddenly using third person- he’s aware he isn’t the boy he once was
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?
Sibilance- “s” and “k” sounds make harsh, sharp words to emphasise his discontent at his current lifestyle
References to pop culture- suggests era
General knowledge questions- link to his desire to be back on the quiz team
Longing
Onomatopoeia
References to being smart/ proud of how great he once was. Repetition