The Full Text of “The Good Teachers”
The Full Text of “The Good Teachers”
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“The Good Teachers” Introduction
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"The Good Teachers" appears in British poet Carol Ann Duffy's 1993 collection Mean Time. Looking at an old school photograph, the speaker reminisces about some of her former teachers. The speaker genuinely loved her English teacher, who inspired her to reach the top of the class and write poetry. But she disliked many of the other teachers: "proud," "qualified" women who told the rebellious speaker she'd fail. The speaker grows up, eventually settling down into a safe, normal, and perhaps mundane life; it's not clear whether the speaker considers this a triumph or disappointment. The poem questions what it means to be a "good" teacher as well as the way youthful rebelliousness tends to be tempered by middle age.
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“The Good Teachers” Summary
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The speaker, looking at a panoramic class photograph from her school days, imagines running around the back of the group to the other side (before the camera finishes taking the photograph) in order to appear in the image twice. The speaker's former teachers, a noble group of women reduced to the size of the speaker's thumbs in the picture, are situated in the front row of the group. They look out from the photograph, judging the speaker. Not long after this photo was taken, the speaker would join Miss Ross's double-period history class. In the present, the speaker's breath creates fog on the photo's glass frame that makes Miss Ross look ghostly. The speaker recalls the names of two significant historical events that learned about in Miss Ross's history class: the South Sea Bubble and the Defenestration of Prague.
Miss Pirie was the speaker's favorite teacher back then, so she worked to become her best student. The speaker loved Miss Pirie so much that she felt compelled to appear in the school picture twice, looking dedicated and devoted. She'd memorized Rudyard Kipling's poem "The River's Tale." One of Miss Pirie's eyes was green, warm, and sharp; the other was cold and blue. The speaker wrote poetry for Miss Pirie in her mind.
The speaker didn't like Miss Sheridan, the French teacher; thinking of her, the speaker recites the phrase "What is your name" in French. She also didn't like Miss Appleby, the math teacher; thinking of her, the speaker recites part of the Pythagorean theorem. The speaker really didn't like Miss Webb, the geography teacher; thinking of her, the speaker recites the name of the largest city and mountain in Tanzania. The speaker can see them all now, those supposedly good teachers rustling down the hallway in their long, brown skirts, looking haughty, well-groomed, and capable.
Those teachers saw right through the speaker, who would roll the waistband of her skirt over in order to shorten it and show off her legs. She was thoughtless, rude, and rebellious then, always blowing smoke rings. She'd flunk and wasn't living up to her potential. But time passed and the speaker metaphorically climbed over the school's walls: she danced, kissed, got married, got a mortgage (or started to work for the mortgage provider), and eventually ended up in the present day. The same day all those "good" teachers said she'd regret her choices.
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“The Good Teachers” Themes
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The Powerful Influence of Teachers
In "The Good Teachers," an old school photograph prompts the speaker to reflect that the "good teachers" at her school weren't the ones people might expect. Looking back on her schooldays, the speaker recalls that the most polished and professional of her teachers used to fill her with dread, while her more down-to-earth literature teacher inspired her to write poetry. The poem suggests that truly "good" teachers unite academic rigor with kindness and passion.
The speaker's vivid memories of her teachers as she looks at an old school photograph suggest that these women made a deep impression on her. The speaker remembers all the teachers' names and the lessons they taught with ease. Even with their faces small as "thumbs" in a class picture, "Miss Ross," "Miss Pirie," and "Miss Sheridan" are instantly recognizable. In other words, the speaker's memory of these relationships runs deep.
Some of these teachers, however, left a better impression than others. It wasn't the most polished and "qualified" teachers who stuck with her, the speaker says, but the one who was "kind" and captured her imagination. The "good teachers" at the school were "snobbish and proud and clean and qualified": highly competent, but also distant and cold. The speaker remembers hollow soundbites from their classes—the French teacher's "Comment vous appelez" and the math teacher's "Equal to the square / of the other two sides"—and the way that they used to scold her, telling her she'd be "sorry one day" (presumably for not listening to them).
But the "kind" literature teacher, Miss Pirie, the speaker loved. This memorable teacher made the speaker feel "serious," "passionate," and committed, and inspired the speaker to learn poetry by heart and work her way to the top of the class. Truly good teaching, the poem thus suggests, demands not just skill and intelligence, but kindness and passion.
As the speaker grows up, leaving school behind for "dancing, lovebites, marriage," she remembers both her stern "good teachers" and the kind Miss Pirie (and is forced to admit that the stern teachers "[had her] number": she did waste a lot of time and didn't necessarily live up to her potential). But it's Miss Pirie's influence that stuck with her. If readers interpret this speaker as a version of Duffy herself, they might even imagine that Miss Pirie inspired the speaker to become a poet!
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-24
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Youthful Rebellion, Growing Up, and Regret
While the speaker of "The Good Teachers" clearly liked some teachers more than others, she wasn't necessarily the easiest student to handle. The speaker readily admits that she was, at the time, all "dumb insolence" and "smoke rings"—a rebellious teenager who couldn't be bothered with rules and propriety. The poem implies that this was in part a response to a rigid educational system that she couldn't connect with. Ironically, though, the poem also implies that she ultimately ends up part of the same conventional world the "good teachers" represented. It's not clear if her settling into a steady yet traditional path constitutes victory or a defeat for the speaker, or if she regrets her younger self's choices. The poem does, however, illustrate the way youthful rebellion so often fades into middle-aged mundanity.
As a schoolgirl, the speaker bristled against the strict authority of the "good teachers." She'd hike up her skirt (perhaps part of a uniform) to show more leg and blow "smoke rings." She says that the good teachers had her "number," meaning they could see right through her. And she remembers hearing, "You won't pass. / You could do better." It's not entirely clear if the teachers themselves said this or if these are ideas the speaker had internalized about herself. Either way, it's obvious the speaker resented these supposedly "virtuous women" for their snobbish propriety and didn't want to be part of their world.
Looking at it from her adult perspective, the speaker wonders whether there was some truth in this criticism. Even though the speaker scoffed at most of her teachers at the time, the poem suggests that, maybe, she could have done better. After all, she was at the top of Miss Pirie's class—proving that she could do well when she applied herself.
Now, her adult life is fairly conventional: the "dancing" and "lovebites" of youth turned into marriage, and she got a mortgage (or took a job working for the bank that provides mortages; the poem isn't clear). Despite having metaphorically (and perhaps literally) climbed "the wall" of the school (that is, escaping its rigid confines and expectations), the speaker seems to have ended up in the same conventional world the brown-skirted teachers represented all those years ago.
Today (the poem's present) is the day her teachers predicted: the "day you'll be sorry one day." It's ambiguous whether this phrasing is ironic. That is, the speaker might genuinely be proud of landing herself a steady, safe existence; she might consider this life a success, and thus believe that she proved her teachers wrong.
Of course, it's just as possible that she is "sorry" about the way things have turned out. Perhaps if she'd rebelled less and studied harder, she could have had a different, more successful, life, further from the world in which she grew up. She thus ultimately seems to look back on her teenage self with a mixture of fondness and regret, admiring her rebellious spirit while acknowleding her ignorance and naivete.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-3
- Lines 16-24
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Good Teachers”
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Lines 1-3
You run round ...
... the front row.When the poem begins, the speaker is looking at a class photograph from her school days. This is more specifically a panoramic photograph:
- Imagine a group of school children and their teachers posing in rows. Everyone stays still as the camera pans across the scene in order to fit everyone in the shot.
- The speaker "runs round the back" of the group so that she reaches the other side before the camera does—and thus appears in the photo twice.
The speaker is clearly excited to be in this picture. Readers might already get a sense of her rebellious personality as well, given that she refuses to stand still as the picture gets taken.
Notice that the poem is written in the present tense despite the fact that the speaker is describing scenes from many years ago. Indeed, these lines essentially set the poem in the present and the past at the same time: the speaker bounces back and forth between what it's like to be the child in the photograph and what it's like to look at the photograph as an adult. This makes the poem feel immediate and visceral, and it also illustrates the lasting hold these school experiences have on the speaker's life.
The speaker's teachers are in the front row of the group, and they stare out at the speaker from the photograph. Their bodies in the picture are "No bigger than your thumbs," the speaker says, conveying the literal size of the teachers in the photograph and also suggesting how these women have been figuratively diminished in the speaker's mind over the years. That is, these women who were once towering figures of authority in the speaker's life can now be blotted out by her thumb.
The speaker calls her teachers "those virtuous women," a line that readers might guess is ironic given that these women also "size you up." That is, they come across not at virtuous but as snobbish and judgemental. On some level, it seems, the speaker feels like these teachers are still judging her—just like they did then.
These opening lines give readers a sense of the poem's interesting form. The poem is written in free verse, making it sound authentic and conversational. Yet though the speaker is talking about herself, she doesn't use any first-person pronouns. Instead, she opts for the more unusual second-person: "You."
This divides the speaker into two distinct people: the woman she is now and the person she was then. It also places the reader into the speaker's shoes and creates a sense of camaraderie. By making the reader feel as though these memories belong to them, too, the speaker is more likely to garner readers' sympathy.
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Lines 3-6
Soon now, ...
... Defenestration of Prague. -
Lines 7-12
You love Miss ...
... in your head. -
Lines 13-16
But not Miss ...
... es Salaam. Kilimanjaro. -
Lines 16-18
Look. The good ...
... clean and qualified. -
Lines 19-21
And they've got ...
... dumb insolence, smoke-rings. -
Lines 21-24
You won't pass. ...
... sorry one day.
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“The Good Teachers” Symbols
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Skirts
The different skirts that the so-called "good teachers" and the speaker wear symbolize the conflict between their rigid authority and her rebellious spirit.
The speaker says that the teachers "swish down the corridor in long, brown skirts" (line 17). These skirts reflect the teachers' boring, buttoned-up, conformist lifestyle.
Contrast the teachers' style with the speaker's, as described in lines 19-20:
[...] You roll the waistband
of your skirt over and over, all leg [...]The speaker believes that she's not like those stuck-up, stuffy teachers, and she uses her skirt as a way of demonstrating this difference to the world. She rolls the waistband up in order to show off more of her legs—essentially doing the opposite of what those teachers do. It's a small but significant act of rebellion that also anticipates the blossoming sexuality referenced in the poem's later lines ("dancing, lovebites, marriage").
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 16-18: “The good teachers / swish down the corridor in long, brown skirts, / snobbish and proud and clean and qualified.”
- Lines 19-21: “You roll the waistband / of your skirt over and over, all leg, all / dumb insolence, smoke-rings.”
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“The Good Teachers” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
The speaker makes numerous allusions throughout the poem to things she learned in school. These allusions, presented as snippets of information without further context, capture the way bits of information from childhood often stay lodged in people's minds for years.
In the first stanza, for example, the speaker breathes on the photograph in order to "make a ghost" of her old history teacher, Miss Ross. As she does so, she says, "South Sea Bubble Defenestration of Prague." This mashes together two historical allusions:
- The South Sea Bubble was a financial crash in the early 18th century.
- The Defenestration of Prague refers to a 1618 event when Protestants tossed three Catholic officials out a window, leading to the bloody Thirty Years' War.
The speaker presumably learned about these events in Miss Ross's history class; seeing her teacher in the photograph makes them pop into her mind in the present.
In the next stanza, the speaker says that she learned "The RIver's Tale by Rudyard Kipling by heart" in Miss Pirie's class. This refers to a poem by the British writer Rudyard Kipling, which was originally commissioned as a preface to a history textbook. The fact that the speaker learned the entire poem conveys just how much Miss Pirie inspired her. The other allusions in the poem are just fragments of information, but this poem is something lodged in the speaker's "heart."
In the third stanza, the speaker mentions a number of teachers whom she disliked. She presents each name alongside a random scrap of educational content that implies which subject each teacher taught:
But not Miss Sheridan. Comment vous appelez.
But not Miss Appleby. Equal to the square
of the other two sides. Never Miss Webb.
Dar es Salaam. Kilimanjaro."Comment vous appelez" means "What is your name in French," implying that Miss Sheridan was the speaker's French teacher. The next allusion is to part of the Pythagorean theorem, which the speaker presumably learned about in Miss Appleby's math class. The final allusions are to two locations in Tanzania, which the speaker learned about in Miss Webb's geography class.
These scraps of information don't have any additional context. They've become near-meaningless fragments of language that gesture towards the boredom of learning by rote and repetition.
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Line 6: “South Sea Bubble Defenestration of Prague.”
- Line 10: “The River’s Tale by Rudyard Kipling by heart.”
- Line 13: “Comment vous appelez.”
- Lines 14-15: “Equal to the square / of the other two sides.”
- Line 16: “Dar es Salaam. Kilimanjaro.”
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Parataxis
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Metaphor
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Anaphora
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"The Good Teachers" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Double History
- South Sea Bubble
- Defenestration of Prague
- The River's Tale
- Comment Vous Appelez
- Equal to the square of the other two sides
- Dar es Salaam
- Kilimanjaro
- Swish
- Snobbish
- Got your number
- Insolence
- Cheltenham and Gloucester
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(Location in poem: Line 4: “Miss Ross will take you for double History.”)
A history lesson that lasts two periods.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Good Teachers”
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Form
"The Good Teachers" consists of 24 lines broken up into four sestets (six-line stanzas). Each stanza essentially provides a snapshot of the speaker's life. For example, stanza 2 presents the speaker's relationship with Miss Pirie, while stanza 3 describes the supposedly "good teachers" whom the speaker dislikes.
The speaker begins and ends the poem in the present day: in the first stanza, she describes looking at a school photograph, and in the last stanza, she references "today." In between, she speaks as though she's still a young student. In a way, then, her adult self "run[s] round the back" of the poem "to be in it again" at the end.
The poem is also, arguably, a subtle example of ekphrasis (a text that interacts with/describes an artwork or image). The poem's world materializes in response to the speaker's photograph, which here functions as a kind of portal into the past.
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Meter
"The Good Teachers" is written in free verse, meaning it doesn't follow a regular meter. This lends itself to the poem's stream-of-consciousness style, making it feel like an intimate, genuine, and spontaneous meditation on the speaker's past.
The speaker herself would readily admit that she's never been a particularly disciplined student. Given that a meter in poetry is effectively a set of rhythmical rules, it makes sense that the poem itself rebels against being held in a metrical straitjacket.
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Rhyme Scheme
Just like many of Carol Ann Duffy's poems, "The Good Teachers" is unrhymed. Strict, predictable end-rhyme might have felt out of step with this discussion of youthful rebellion against authority.
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“The Good Teachers” Speaker
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The speaker is an adult woman looking at a photograph from her school years. While she spends much of the poem speaking as though she were still in school, it's clear from the final lines that many years have passed since then (bringing with them marriage and a mortgage).
She uses second-person pronouns throughout the poem, which accomplishes two main things:
- "You" creates a distance between the speaker's present-day adult self and her younger self, as though the speaker was an entirely different person back then.
- Using "You" also places the reader in the speaker's shoes, making the poem feel more vivid, immediate, and emotional.
It's hard to pin down how the speaker feels about her life. On the one hand, she was smart, capable, and imaginative. When inspired, as she was by her English teacher Miss Pirie, she excelled in school and made up poems in her head (a detail that suggests the speaker is inspired by Duffy herself).
At the same time, she clearly butted heads with many of the other, more "snobbish" teachers at her school and bristled against authority in general. She hiked up her skirt, smoked, danced, and kissed. Her teachers told her that she "could do better," and, in a way, they were right: the speaker could probably have performed better in school had she wanted to.
She's since grown up and settled down, and it's ambiguous whether the speaker regrets her rebelliousness in the present day. She might truly be "sorry" about how things panned out. She might think her younger self naive or wish she'd tried harder to transcend the typical world of marriage and mortgages. Alternatively, she's happy and considers her adult self to have proven her teachers wrong.
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“The Good Teachers” Setting
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The poem essentially has two settings:
- It begins and ends in the present day, as the poem's speaker, now an adult, looks at a school photograph.
- Yet the bulk of the poem takes place when the speaker was still in school, presumably a teenager.
Her school is a strict one, it seems, populated by teachers who are "snobbish and proud and clean and qualified." These supposed "good," "virtuous" teachers don't seem to like the speaker very much, nor does she like them. Their "long, brown skirts" suggests that they represent institutional conformity and rigidity. The speaker, meanwhile, is rebellious and imaginative, hiking up her skirt and writing poems in her head for her favorite teacher, Miss Pirie.
The entire poem is written in the present tense, which suggests that the world of the speaker's childhood feels as real and vivid to her now, as an adult, as it did back then
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Good Teachers”
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Literary Context
"The Good Teachers" appears in Carol Ann Duffy's Whitbread Prize-winning collection Mean Time, published in 1993. This collection, Duffy's fourth, focuses on memory, childhood, and growing up, drawing on scenes from Duffy's life without being strictly autobiographical.
"The Good Teachers," with its reference to "virtuous women" in long skirts, was likely inspired by Duffy's own school days: Duffy attended convent schools taught by nuns. Duffy has also spoken of the vital influence of her literature teachers:
I grew up in a bookless house—my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.
These teachers likely inspired the character of Miss Pirie.
Other poems in Mean Time similarly look back into the past without losing touch with the present. For example, the speaker of "Before You Were Mine" considers her mother's carefree life before she was born, while "Litany" recounts the speaker's punishment for swearing at a "boy in the playground."
Education is also a consistent theme in Duffy's work. "Head of English," for example, portrays a hapless English teacher attempting to impress a visiting poet. And in "Death of a Teacher," Duffy poignantly explores the way one good teacher can shape a student's life for the better.
Of course, Duffy isn't the first poet to write about learning poetry or about school in general. There are many poems about these topics, including "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins and "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes.
Historical Context
"The Good Teachers" was certainly influenced by Duffy's own experiences as a student in the 1960s and '70s UK.
Like many other countries, England underwent a number of social revolutions throughout this period. "The Good Teachers" nods to the youthful rebelliousness of the era through the speaker's desire to make her skirt ever shorter, to blow "smoke-rings," and to go out in search of "dancing" and "lovebites."
The countercultural movements of the '60s and '70s also led to a renewed interest in artistic expression, as people saw art as a way to bring about change and progress. It's possible that these cultural shifts affected Duffy as a student, since she took an active interest in writing during this time and was pushed by her teachers to pursue her talents in poetry. One of her English teachers, the aforementioned Miss Scriven, even encouraged her to submit poems to a publisher when she was just 15 years old—poems that were accepted and subsequently published, marking the beginning of Duffy's long and fruitful career.
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More “The Good Teachers” Resources
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External Resources
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Duffy on Poetry and Education — Learn more about Duffy's attempts to get young people interested in poetry (which she deems "a form of texting"), along with some background on her own literary education.
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Duffy's Life and Work — Take a deeper dive into Duffy's life with this biography from the Scottish Poetry Library.
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A Duffy Reading and Q&A — Hear Duffy read a selection of her own work and talk about her life, including the strong influence of one of her literature teachers.
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"I Was Told to Get a Proper Job" — Learn more about the personal experiences underlying Duffy's poetry and why she understands poetry as a vocation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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