The Laughter of Stafford Girl’s High Carol Ann Duffy

It was a girl in the Third Form, Carolann Clare
Who, bored with the lesson, the rivers of England –
Brathay, Coquet, Crake, Dee, Don, Goyt
Rothay, Tyne, Swale, Tees, Wear, Wharfe
Had passed, a note, which has never been found
To the classmate in front, Emily Jane, a girl
Who adored the teacher, Miss V. Dunn MA
Steadily squeaking her chalk on the board –
Allen, Clough, Duddon, Feugh, Greta, Hindburn
Irwell, Kent, Leven, Lowther, Lune, Sprint
But who furtively opened the folded note
Torn from the back of the King James Bible, read
What was scribbled there and laughed out loud

It was a miserable, lowering winter’s day. The girls
Had been kept indoors at break – Wet Play
In the Hall – the windows tall and thin
Sad with rain like a song list of watery names –
Rawthey, Roeburn, Skirfare, Troutbeck, Wash
Likewise, the sound of the laugh of Emily Jane
Was a liquid one, a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble
A babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laugh
Like the sudden jackpot leap of a silver fish
In the purse of a pool. No fool, Emily Jane
Clamped her turquoise hand – her fountain pen leaked –
To her mouth; but the laugh was out, was at large
Was heard by the pupil twinned to her double desk –