1. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
Starter Task
What social class would you describe yourself as and why?
Upper Class

2. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
Is ‘social class’ still important in the 21st century? Does it affect the way that you are treated by others, or the way that you treat other people?
HINT
Think about the word ‘chav’.
What social class do ‘chavs’ belong to? What are your preconceptions of ‘chavs?

3. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
Not much is known about Mary Casey, except that she was a housewife from Liverpool.
Casey was a contributor to a poetry magazine called “Voices,” which existed from
“The Class Game,” published in 1979, was one of four poems of Casey’s that appeared in the magazine.
“Voices” published poems by working class writers. These authors were not professional poets and had no literary reputation; they were ordinary people who wrote largely about their everyday experiences.

4. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
Some critics were rather snobby about “Voices,” and even the academic who had started the magazine, Ben Ainsley, wrote in the introduction that “I can make no great claims for these pieces, except that they are, it seems to me, varied, interesting, freshly written, and in most cases the work of men and women taking up a pen late in life; with some qualms, though with real curiosity as to how it will turn out.”
This implies that he had some doubts about the ‘literary value’ of the work.
Why do you think that most of the literary elite did not see the work of these working class poets as interesting or important?

5. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
wince = cringe, look pained
corpy = old liverpudlian slang for council house
Wirral = a suburb of Liverpool that has a reputation for being ‘posh’
toil = work
gullet = windpipe
docker = somebody who works in a shipyard

6. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Theme of Class
Casey is challenging the reader’s class stereotypes. She argues that she is labeled by others in a certain way
Although people judge her and are prejudiced against her she is very proud to be working class

7. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Theme of Class
The poet uses comparison to show the difference between the classes.
Working class council houses compared to middle class houses in nice areas
Working class hands that are made dirty through work, compared to the clean hands of middle class women who do not work

8. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Form & Structure
This poem is a monologue
Rhyming couplets used in places (AABB rhyme scheme)
Simple rhyme scheme reflects the ‘simple’ lives of the working classes
However, not always rhyme or sometimes half-rhyme is used
Reflects the stereotypical view of working classes as stupid

9. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Form & Structure
Irregular structure – one long stanza – but the repetition of the line breaks it up into sections
Rejects traditional elitist poetry format
Enjambment is used throughout
Again, reflects the stereotypical view of working classes being unable to write ‘proper’ poetry

10. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Form & Structure
Question/answer structure
Asks a question of her audience and then suggests an answer
Last few lines are different
Instead of asking the audience why they think she is working class, she asks why it matters

11. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Imagery
Metaphor
Her hands are marked from work, unlike the hands of middle/upper-class women who do not work
Simile
She is asking the upper classes whether they can accept her and her class. They are unable to ‘swallow’ her and the way she speaks - it makes them choke.
Also links to the idea of having a ‘posh’ accent as ‘speaking with a plum in your mouth’

12. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Language
Colloquial (informal) language, Liverpudlian slang and non-grammatical forms used throughout
Reflects her class and her ‘real’ way of speaking
Rejects the traditional elitist language of poetry
When she is describing ‘posh’ people, she self-consciously uses standard English.
This is a parody of ‘posh’ speech – she is making fun of them and the way they speak

13. The Class Game by Mary Casey
LO: To have a clear understanding of the poem
How can you tell what class I’m from?
I can talk posh like some
With an ‘Olly in me mouth
Down me nose, wear an ‘at not a scarf
With me second-hand clothes.
So why do you always wince when you hear
Me say ‘Tara’ to me ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Bye Mummy dear’?
‘Cos we live in a corpy, not like some
In a pretty little semi, out Wirral way
And commute into Liverpool by train each day?
Or did I drop my unemployment card
Sitting on your patio (We have a yard)?
Have I a label on me head, and another on me bum?
Or is it because my hands are stained with toil?
Instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil?
Don’t I crook me little finger when I drink me tea
Say toilet instead of bog when I want to pee?
Why do you care what class I’m from?
Does it stick in your gullet like a sour plum?
Well, mate! A cleaner is me mother
A docker is me brother
Bread pudding is wet nelly
And me stomach is me belly
And I’m proud of the class that I come from.
Questions
Who is the poet speaking to?
What does she want from the upper classes?
What does she want from the working classes?
What is the tone of the poem?
Why do you think there are so many rhetorical questions in the poem?