Psychiatrist’s report
A person has been taken into police custody for the fifth time. On each occasion they
have stolen something different. The items stolen are listed below. Analyse each item.
What might they say about this character as a person? Are they a danger to the public?
Item 1: An acoustic guitar
Item 2: A bust of Shakespeare
Item 3: A car
Nothin
mess
Item 4: A camera (taken from a house that was broken into.
Nothing else was stolen although the house was left in a
mess. The culprit’s mouth shape was on the mirror).
Item 5: A snowman. This was taken from a garden and the
remnants were found in the culprit’s own.
In your exercise books begin to build an impression of this character:
How old are they? What sex are they? What is their occupation? What is their family
life like? What is their house like? How do they decide what to steal next? Who do
they target? Is this a dangerous criminal? What might they do next?
What 5 questions would you like to ask this person?
‘Stealing’ by Carol Ann Duffy
Duffy’s motivation for writing ‘Stealing’
'Stealing' was written around a real incident, when Duffy was living in London and
a snowman was stolen from a neighbour's garden. At the time the poet felt that
this bizarre crime could only have taken place in the political climate of Mrs
Thatcher's Conservative government, in a time of rising unemployment and lack
of consideration on the part of those in power for those 'at the bottom of the
heap'.
It is written in the voice of the thief, who could be either a girl or a boy, a man or
a woman. Duffy sees the poem as a political poem, as a way of giving a voice to
someone who in real life might not have the power to articulate their feelings.
She uses her power as a poet to get the reader inside the mind of this outcast
from society. The poem starts and finishes with a question addressed directly to
the reader. It moves between a lyrical poetic speech, which might be the inner
thoughts of the criminal - 'a mate / with a mind as cold as the slice of ice / within
my own brain' and what might be their actual speech - 'I nicked a bust of
Shakespeare once...'.
In places the poem reads like a movie - 'I watch my gloved hand twisting the
doorknob' - and the poet works on creating the violence of the character's actions
in the rhythms and sounds of the words on the page - 'I took a run / and booted
him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out / in rags'.
The poem pinpoints with great compasssion the feelings of someone who may be
unemployed or homeless and for whom the apparently pointless gesture of
stealing a snowman becomes a bid for celebrity, a desire to impress themselves
upon a world that seems to have left them behind.
What Carol Ann Duffy Said
'I think that ordinary speech is intensely poetic...
'The speaker is the star of his or her own movie, and that's all they have... that's
where they're famous.
'I wrote the poem because it did happen and it obsessed me. I did think it was a
wildly funny and original thing to do to steal a snowman because there was
enough snow to make your own.'
‘Stealing’ by Carol Ann Duffy
Directions: Answers the following questions. Integrate a quotation from the poem in
each response.
1. In which person is the poem written?
2. From whose point of view is the poem written?
3. What is the poem about?
4. After reading the first two stanzas explain why the thief steals the snowman?
5. After reading the fourth stanza, explain what happened to the snowman. Why?
6. What does the last line say about the thief?
7. What is the effect of the alliteration of “m” in the first stanza?
8. Find an example of Caesura.
9. Find an example of a simile in the first stanza and explain what is being compared.
10. Find a metaphor in the third stanza and explain what is being compared and why
the poet makes this comparison.
11. Find an example of enjambment.
12. Find an example of iteration in the fourth stanza. What is the effect of this?
13. Find a metaphor in the fourth stanza and explain what is being compared.
14. Examine the poem. What clues are there that we are dealing with a violent
individual? Look for violent words and phrases.
15. What clues are given to suggest the things that motivate him to commit criminal
offences?
16. How does the voice in the poem perceive himself?
17. How does he excuse his own actions?
18. How does he relate to other people/how does he feel about others?
‘Stealing’ by Carol Ann Duffy