Education for Leisure

Published on May 23, 2006 in Poetry. 80 Comments

The Clock’s Loneliness’ poem for the day today, Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy, a corker:

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. Shakespeare. 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. But today I am going to change the world.
Something’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.
Once 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.
He cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.
The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

Be Sociable, Share!
  • more Education for Leisure
← Older Comments
  • ()()

    WHY??? WHAT IS THE POINT!!!!!….HOWEVER I DO LIKE THE INBRED MAN….

  • ( Y ) BUMBUM

    THIS POEM IS WHACK

  • lala la

    this poem is such a fucking waste of time!
    carol deserves to die!!! fuck her and fuck this poem

  • lala la

    in jamaica under a tree,
    selling condoms for 19 p,
    large or small its up to your pick,
    but it just depends on the size of your dick.

    there, im better than that carol cunt…
    fuck all the teachers that make me study this fucking pointless poem…

  • jump.

    Duffy is not disturbed. people interpret her poems as if they are how she as a person feels, but that is not true. this poem reflects a lot of events that have actually happened such as when that girl killed e number of her classmates one monday morning, in America. Duffy is not trying to express herself throught this poem, but expressing somebody else. She does this a lot, take her poem Havisham for instance. Similarly, this poem is not about her it is about a lady written about by Charles Dickens.
    Yeh anyway, what do people think the reason for not giving the gender of the subject is? And do you really think the subject IS a genious, or do they just THINK they are… this poem could be reflecting the big-headedness and ignorance of some people…
    reply.

  • Sandyman

    Why do people insist on writing worthless comments about this poem? I came here to get some help with my upcoming exam on poems like this one but i had to trawl through loads of worthless shit to read people’s comments which actually were insightful and useful.

  • luke

    this is a great poem aas it shows how some people are not sane as well as the word genius is related to killing is deluded but this is a great poem anyways can people stop saying bad things in the comments bit cus its desturbing

  • Rhys

    I loathe this poem xD
    I don’t know why, I just don’t like it :/
    To make things worse, I have to wrtie a story using this as a stimulus -.-”

  • meg

    hi i really need to find a good poem for my english homework that is not to long. i have to illistrate it so i do not want to do this one. i would greatly appricate any help offered. thank you

  • Annonamous

    ok i really love this poem, and im not the best at english as this comment will show you because the language i use isnt, propper enough. i read what you all write and i envy your knowledge, well some of you, not the imbosylic fools who droan on about “how shit this poem is” i think its brilliant, it gets you on the edge of your seat, its witty, and overall deep. i love your poems Carol ann duffy they make me laugh in a strange way. x

  • helen

    in response to Sandyman completely agree.
    Im in year 11 studying this poem for GSCE and some on the morons that come on here and make worthless comments are proving how illiterate they really are.
    To begin with I didnt particularly enjoy poetry and thought it was a load fo rubbish btu after a while I kinda opened up my mind and now i quite like it.

  • we r gay bois

    i love it it is inspiratioal, it brings poems to a new level

  • wateva

    if you read it carefully you see that it is a person neglected and egnored from society , this is influenced by his poor education. this poem is based on the quote from frankinstien, and the person in the poem has miss understood this as he did it in school which comes back to the poo education, he feels like he is famous and he ca play god.

  • joper

    this poem fucked me in the bum and carol ann duffy shagged my mum, she held her down and raped her it was amazing.
    i wish i could shag carol an duffy and then take a dump on her head and in her hair.
    carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer carol ann duffy is a lezzer

  • dally

    i hada wank ova dis…
    even tho its a wank piece of shit…
    lesboz are wack!no1 rote a poem bout me n ive bin in prison 4 murder byt usin a knife :S
    big up nn3 btw!! brup brup

    i love Joper..hes ma bezzy

  • joper

    my english teacher raped me :S
    it was scary
    and ted is a jew :)
    xxxx

  • I dont no x

    O M G this reminds me of the weekend, haha that mother fucker had it coming

  • I dont no x

    Jokes x

  • HI

    this poem is a piece of shait, just like meh teacher fkn hate itt :@ hahahahahahahahahahahah suck my nob

  • http://yes t nd j nd wot!

    this poem is crap i dont see any point in studying it whatsoever!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAARRRGGHH!!!!
    sexy ;)
    x x x x x x x x x x x

  • bob

    dis poem is shit but then again so is carol ann duffy
    she licks hairy balls and i teabaged her mum

  • bob

    i wiped my sweaty balls over carol ann duffy shit covered foehead

  • bang bang

    i m stadyin dis poem 4 GCSE bladz
    bang bang

  • bang bang

    did u

  • no chez

    NO chez you are very ghay

  • Lizzie

    I cannot believe that this poem has been removed the the Anthologies. This would have been a fantastic poem to write about in my GCSEs, however, it apparently shows mindless violence, and encourages youths to behave in a similar way. Pathetic. This poem would have to be one of my all time favourites, and yet brilliant poetry cannot be appreciated because it contains violence. Does that mean we should remove all films and books that contain violence as well?

  • anon

    omg some of the people on here need to grow up if your sad enuf to go on here and leave a comment at least make it something related to the poem not mindless shit tht no 1 cares about this poem is ace and u can all fuck off

  • an unknown author

    this poem is a powerful piece of emotive writing, it displays a person (of unknown gender as we are not told whether it is a male or female) who appears to have a delusion of grandeur believing they can play god. I believe it is a true poem describing the sheer terrifying truth of the inside mind of a killer I believe it is a truly brilliant piece of poetry and deserves to be more recognised for the genius of the mind that created it.

    And to the people who are being stupid on this site, just stop now, you ar just showing yourselves to be stupidly uneducated in the brilliance of literature.

    I am also a poet and a writer

  • saskia

    this poem is crap..i dont see the point in learning bout it at skool :@

  • Joshyy

    ugh.
    I love this poem =)
    a man OR a woman, noticed- just not noticed enough. obviously an egomaniac/megalomaniac..
    I can't believe they are taking it out the AQA GCSE syllabus just because it seems to violent and the book contains the image of a knife. There are far worse poems in the book…
    Damn people, eh?!

← Older Comments