Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.

I have had enough of being ignored and today
I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,
a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets.
I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.
We did that at school. hakespeare. It was in
another language and now the fly is in another language.
I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name.
I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with half
the chance. !ut today I am going to change the world.
omething"s world. The cat avoids me. The cat
knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.
I pour the goldfish down the bog. I pull the chain.
I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.
#nce a fortnight, I walk the two miles into town
for signing on. They don"t appreciate my autograph.
There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio
and tell the man he"s talking to a superstar.
$e cuts me off. I get our bread%knife and go out.
The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.
This poem is a monologue of anonymous person who is very violent and destructive. The main
reason for his&her condition is boredom and being ignored. The speaker decides to take power
over his life and to make some changes.
In the first stan'a the speaker decides to kill something because his wants to make his life
more interesting and dramatic. The speaker says (anything" which implies that he is not
bothered about who or what he is going to kill because he kills only for pleasure, he doesn"t
have some particular reason for killing. In the second verse (I have had enough of being
ignored" he displays his anger and frustration. The speaker wants (to play God", to have
control over things because he doesn"t want to be ignored anymore. $e wants attention. $e
describes ordinary day as (grey with boredom stirring in the streets". The color (grey" indicates
something dull, not interesting or attractive. In fact, he describes his emotions and mood not
)ust an ordinary day.
In the second stan'a the speaker"s thoughts from the first stan'a have become reality. $e
fulfills his desire to kill something. $e starts with a fly and he says (we did that at school". The
speaker mentions hakespeare in negative conte*t because they have different points of view
or maybe it is some kind of revenge because he was ignored at school and he couldn"t e*press
his creativity and intelligence. $e doesn"t understand hakespeare and because of that he
considers him to be in (another language" +in another world,. $e doesn"t value hakespeare, a
symbol of education, which shows that he is uneducated person. In the final verse he tries to
convince us that he is very talented person and that he doesn"t need hakespeare or any other
kind of education to be genius and somebody important. $e can do whatever he wants
including to (breathe out talent on the glass to write my +his, name".
In the third stan'a the speaker continues to brag himself. $e considers himself too talented and
too intelligent and that he (could be anything at all, with half the chance", without effort. $e
wants to change the world, (something"s world" and he is convinced that he has a power to do
that. The speaker says that the cat avoids him because it knows he is a genius and he can do
everything he wants. !ut the true is that the cat avoids him because it can feel that he has bad
intentions. $e e*presses his power through violence, and the only way he can change the
world is to destroy it.
In the fourth stan'a his victim is a goldfish. $e en)oys the power he has and he thinks that
killing these animals is a good thing (I see that it is good". In this stan'a we can see his chase
for attention. We can also see that he is unemployed and that he has some social benefits. !ut
one more time he encounters re)ection, he is isolated and he doesn"t understand why (they
don"t appreciate my +his, autograph".
In the last stan'a the speaker reali'es that (there is nothing left to kill". The speaker thinks that
he should get some kind of pri'e for his deeds, for killing those animals so he calls a radio
station. $e considers himself a celebrity- a famous person and that people should be pleased to
have a contact with him. !ut again people ignore him, (he cuts me off". This was crucial for
him. This evoked something more serious. It is a transition between killing animals and human
beings. The speaker thinks that killing animals didn"t help him, he didn"t get attention from
other people so he decides to go further by killing people. The last words (I touch your arm"
connect the speaker and the reader. It indicates that the first human victim is a reader. We feel
like we are directly connected with the speaker. This verse is very dramatic and it is the first
time in the poem when the speaker gets attention, the reader"s attention.
The title of this poem (.ducation for leisure" doesn"t appear anywhere in the poem but we can
conclude that it refers to the speaker"s education. The speaker considers himself too educated,
too talented, too intelligent and because of that he doesn"t need other education. $e is
unemployed and he has a lot of free time to think about stupid things. Also, we can connect it
with the time when the poem is written +in /012s when 3argaret Thatcher was 4rime
3inister,. 4eople thought that in schools there was too much time for leisure and very little
for education so the title can be considered ironic.
The poem has five stan'as. .ach stan'a has four lines which are sometimes very short
(hakespeare", (I"m a genius", (Another". The poem doesn"t have formal rhyme scheme.
The language in the poem is colloquial and informal, and there is a lot of slang in the poem
(bog", (superstar". !ut there are some lines which are formal because they refer to
hakespeare +(I squash a fly against the window with my thumb", and the !ible +(I see that it
is good",.
This poem is written from a point of view of one unemployed, uneducated person who
commits terrible things due to boredom. The poet doesn"t specify the speaker"s gender- we
don"t know is it male or female. The speaker is angry, frustrated person because he&she is
ignored and doesn"t get attention he&she wants. We can conclude that too much energy and
free time can be destructive.