Adam Painter
Compare and contrast at least three of
Fanthorpe's poems, taking into account
of her aims, observations, techniques etc.
Four of Fanthorpe's poems, Dear Mr. Lee, You'll Be Hearing From Us Shortly, Half Past Two and Not My Best Side all have things in common yet on different subjects. In her poems, Fanthorpe challenges our views particularly on stereotypes and prejudices both traditional and modern.
The serious point of Dear Mr. Lee is to get across that looking at writing, so intensely can ruin the original idea the writer had. Some pieces of writing should just be read and enjoyed. Fanthorpe as a teacher often has to take apart pieces of work and analyse them yet she seems in this poem to disagree with the over analysing of writing.
Also similar in all four of these poems is the structure. All are written as prose, the most obvious prose like poem is Dear Mr. Lee. It seems to be written as a letter by a student who has read Mr. Lee's book. Yet looking further into the poem the reader discovers that it is actually written as the thoughts of the student. The way the student talks about and criticises the teacher. "Mr. Smart is my least favourite person" and "Mr. Smart has to explain why they're jokes..." are good examples of thoughts. Dear Mr. Lee's lines end randomly, which is odd for a poem, rhythm and pattern are not present and generally the poem has no traditional poetry techniques such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhyme. Also not all the lines begin with capital letters, which is very strange for a poem.
Compare and contrast at least three of
Fanthorpe's poems, taking into account
of her aims, observations, techniques etc.
Four of Fanthorpe's poems, Dear Mr. Lee, You'll Be Hearing From Us Shortly, Half Past Two and Not My Best Side all have things in common yet on different subjects. In her poems, Fanthorpe challenges our views particularly on stereotypes and prejudices both traditional and modern.
The serious point of Dear Mr. Lee is to get across that looking at writing, so intensely can ruin the original idea the writer had. Some pieces of writing should just be read and enjoyed. Fanthorpe as a teacher often has to take apart pieces of work and analyse them yet she seems in this poem to disagree with the over analysing of writing.
Also similar in all four of these poems is the structure. All are written as prose, the most obvious prose like poem is Dear Mr. Lee. It seems to be written as a letter by a student who has read Mr. Lee's book. Yet looking further into the poem the reader discovers that it is actually written as the thoughts of the student. The way the student talks about and criticises the teacher. "Mr. Smart is my least favourite person" and "Mr. Smart has to explain why they're jokes..." are good examples of thoughts. Dear Mr. Lee's lines end randomly, which is odd for a poem, rhythm and pattern are not present and generally the poem has no traditional poetry techniques such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhyme. Also not all the lines begin with capital letters, which is very strange for a poem.
