Duffy and Pugh both explore the transition from child to adult and the loss of innocence through knowledge and experience. Duffy’s poems “In Mrs Tickers class” and “Boy” represent both ends of the spectrum, as one describes children naturally progressing and the other shows an adult longing to return to infancy, whereas Pugh’s poem “Sweet 18” describes the “perfection” of unspoilt innocence.

Duffy creates a familiar childhood setting in the poem “in Mrs Tilscher’s class” by using language such as “growed” and “chalky” to represent a typical classroom and emphasise the light – heated approach to life that innocent children have. By highlighting the trivial priorities that children have, such as finding “a good gold star” and “carefully” sharpened pencils, Duffy portrays the differences between the pressures and priorities of childhood to those of an adult life.

Familiar childhood memories give the reader a feeling of safety, this technique is also used in Duffy’s poem “Boy” with the phase “I put my pyjamas on ….” Which reveals that boy in this poem feels safe and comfortable in his pyjamas as perhaps this brings back treasured childhood memories.

The innocence of a childhood, however, is often spoilt, whether through growing knowledge or experience or whether through growing knowledge or experience or whether it is forced upon the child abruptly.

Duffy foreshadows the transition with the phase “inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks” showing a growth in knowledge from the previous stanzas which featured child-like, bad grammar such as “That for a hour …”. A “rough boy” spoils this child’s innocence and triggers emotional and physical change that is evident in the poem. The word “stared” is isolated on it’s own line to portray the blank and long lasting feeling of shock the child had after learning how they were born.

After this sudden expansion of knowledge, Duffy changes the tone of the poem from “coloured” and “like a sweetshop” to “feverish” and “looming”. This highlights the longing to make sexual advances as the child is now trying to discover their sexual identity. Duffy uses pathetic fallacy in the phase “heavy, sexy sky” to create a mood of sexual tension. This tension is also created in the poem “sweet 18” by Pugh, as she writes from the point of view of someone wishing to have contact with a young person the phase “who can see snow unbroken and not long to crunch the chill of it underfoot …. “again creates sexual tension that is brought into mind during the transition from child to adult; the age eighteen marks the beginning of adulthood and therefore her poem explores the new feelings and excitement of someone leaving childhood behind.

Duffy also reveals how some adults may long to be young again with a character in the poem “Boy” who states “I like being small”. The use of this phase as the very first line gives impact as it is written in first person narrative and therefore allows the reader to fell immediately connected with the character; Duffy makes it seem as though her poetry is your own words.

“Boy” makes a change from the expected transition from child to adult and the yearning to be old before one’s time. This twist of normal expectations is common for Duffy and it challenges the reader. Duffy uses short sentences such as “whoosh” and “off guard” to portray a train of thought from this character and to emphasise how he believes his childhood passed too quickly. This feeling of missing out on childhood is also hinted at in Pugh’s poem, “sweet 18” as the line “You are a choice meal, so perfectly set out…” and also the phase “to vandalise a gracious pattern,” portray a feeling of guilt as this person realise that may not want to spoil the young person’s innocence or damage their young perfection.

In conclusion I believe that both Pugh and Duffy try to explore the depth of childhood and the longing to be old, however Duffy realises that infact not all transitions from child run smoothly, and there are many cases in which emotional or physical growth is premature, leaving us with the question: why do we need to grow up so quickly? Duffy makes the reader realise that childhood should be cherished and knowledge and experience can taint, and even spoil, innocence.