The Captain Of The 1964 Top Of The Form Team Flashcards
(13 cards)
Themes:
Reflective of past, loss, rigidity, passage of time, nostalgia
‘Name the Prime Minister of Rhodesia’
-no longer exists
-italics significant as it acts as a moment of dialogue/ attempt to show off knowledge
-demonstrates the knowledge the poetic voice once knew and was praised for is no longer relevant (he is trapped in the past like his facts and greatness)
-Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe in the 1980s
‘My thick kids wince’
-scornful
-crude language
-somewhat colloquial
-reinforces the idea that the information he was once praised for is now embarrassing to his children
-holds some degree of bitterness over the fact that he is now outdated and no longer celebrated
-fractured final sentences
-fragments of the speaker’s psychology
-as nasty about his children as his wife
-‘thick’ to him too deluded to grasp that he is the thick one, unable to understand they have their own music and culture
-implication of ‘wincing’ doesn’t register with him: they find him tedious, unloving and maybe threatening
‘Dominus domine dominum’
-Latin (‘Lord’–> representative of how he was once heavily praised for his greatness)
-shows a degree of outdatedness emphasising his fixed nature and inability to change
-degree of superiority
‘I lived in a kind of fizzing hope’
-moment of past tense to suggest that his greatness has now passed even early in the poem
-suggests that his success and greatness was short-lived like a fizzy drink
-sensory overload excitement he holds at himself still being viewed as great
-adjective, with onomatopoeic ‘fizzing’ was used to describe an perfect era
-‘fizzing’ had a temporary nature (although something can fizz it will flatten and loose it)—> speakers subconsciously recognising that this own past hopes were merely temporary and bound to fade and disappear
Structure:
-dramatic monologue: story like retelling from the perspective of the captain of the school quiz team
-moments of speech/injection through the italics being used much clearer moments of perceived greatness from past as the leader of the team
-repeated use of enjambment throughout the poem allows it to flow being representative of a story/play
-regular stanza length used to show his current life and its rigidity and plainness
-1st person narrative
Overview:
The poem highlights how the persona’s knowledge and identity, once rooted in being intelligent and knowledgeable, are now outdated and misunderstood in the present day, leading to feelings of disappointment and a sense of being stuck in the past.
Tone:
Nostalgic - the persona feels unfulfilled in their adult life. Their outdated knowledge is met with confusion and people often misunderstand him. His energetic enthusiasm for knowledge goes unmirrored by his wife, boss and children. He wants aspects of his childhood back; ‘I want it back. The captain.’ He used to have a purpose and a role in the quiz show, but now he just has to pay bills and make references no one else understands.
Context:
-‘Top of the Form Team’ originates from the BBC radio and television quiz for secondary schools that was popular in the 1960s + the show was cancelled due to its overly competitive nature + the show was also overly male dominated maybe suggesting Duffy’s decision to use a male poetic voice (Feminist Criticism of male competitive nature at the detriment often of others)
-the mid to late 1960s were a time of change with the end of post-war austerity and the rapid increase in economic prosperity
-youth was filled with optimism: records and popular music were exciting and noisy a move away from bland romantic music previously (speaker has absorbed the optimism of the young people of the time)
Critics: Micheal Woods
‘Duffy’s poems explore how time is inevitably cruel and takes things away from us’
‘In class, the white sleeve of my shirt saluted again and again.Sir!….Correct’
-the ‘white sleeve’ may have been realting to the uniform or also suggesting the pure and clean nature of the boy
-fast paced nature and movement
-the schoolboy was a bore and a conceited goody-goody
-‘salute’ know-all and teachers pet nature, regulated
‘Stale Wife’
-bitter character becomes evident
-the narrator may be the one who is ‘stale’ with his wife bored with him
-reference to Ulysses
Summary:
The speaker remembers his youth as the captain of the trivia team in the 1960s. Looking back of popular music of the time, has specific academic achievements, and how he felt while he held the role of the captain. Though while resenting the present and as an adult he is let down by his missed potential. Everything as an adult seems difficult and not up to the expectation that he had
