Lindsay Houston
D. H. Lawrence became a qualified teacher in 1908; he took up a post at Davidson Road School, Croydon. The school had some very poor boys and it was not to be an easy introduction for the young schoolmaster. However, he was dedicated and innovative. For example, he encouraged the boys to act out 'The Tempest', rather than sitting at their desks reading it.
The poem "The Best of School" was wrote through the eyes of a teacherIt is an optimistic vision of young boys learning in the classroom. "Last Lesson of the Afternoon" it was written through the eyes of a teacher but it shows a more negative approach by the students and the teacher.
The poems both have a different layout, "The Best of School" has a more irregular pattern, sentences are of varying lengths and each stanza is of different length. The layout for "Last Lesson of the Afternoon" is much more regular, the sentences are of regular length and the stanzas are the same size. In addition, in "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", the sentences show enjambment.
"Last Lesson of the Afternoon" opens with the line,
"When will the bell ring, and end this weariness?"
From this line, we can tell that the teacher is facing an uphill struggle and he is waiting for the bell to ring so he can be relieved of teaching these children. The first stanza refers to the children as being a, "pack of unruly hounds!" When Lawrence refers to the children as being unruly hounds, I think he is trying to explain that there are many disobedient children and there is only one teacher to control this pack of hounds. The fact that the children are being referred to as animals means that man should control them but the teacher cannot control his hounds. The teacher says,
"How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart."
Again, the teacher uses violent imagery of these hounds pulling in different directions. The teacher is holding their leash and is trying to guide them, "on a quarry of knowledge". However the hounds "hate to hunt", the children hate learning and are not interested in gaining knowledge. In this first stanza of "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", we can see that the teacher is weary and feels fatigue and we are also introduced to the violent imagery of the unruly hounds.
The opening stanza in "The ...
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"How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart."
Again, the teacher uses violent imagery of these hounds pulling in different directions. The teacher is holding their leash and is trying to guide them, "on a quarry of knowledge". However the hounds "hate to hunt", the children hate learning and are not interested in gaining knowledge. In this first stanza of "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", we can see that the teacher is weary and feels fatigue and we are also introduced to the violent imagery of the unruly hounds.
The opening stanza in "The Best of School" contains many references to soothing natural imagery. The atmosphere is completely opposite to the atmosphere in the classroom in "Last Lesson of the Afternoon". The opening lines give the reader the sense of the children being protected inside the classroom.
"The blinds are drawn because of the sun"
This gives the reader the sense of the classroom providing a protective atmosphere whereas in "Last Lesson of the Afternoon" we get a sense of violent imagery in the classroom. The second and third lines are a contrast to each other. The second lines says that,
"The boys and the room in a colourless gloom"
The classroom is a dark and gloomy place but "bright ripples run". The second lines gives the reader a negative description of the gloomy classroom but the third line gives the reader a positive contrast of the boys studying, even though it is dark they are bright.
D. H. Lawrence uses a lot of natural imagery, but in particular, he uses water imagery. He uses water imagery to explain his relationship with the boys. Lawrence refers to the teacher as sitting on the shores of the class, and the boys are like the seawater coming into the shore. We can see another contrast between the two poems. In "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", the boys are tugging on the leash, and want to go in a different direction to the teacher but in "The Best of School" it indicates that the boys are focused on the task that the teacher has set them.
"As they write, their heads busily bowed"
The words "busily bowed" show the reader that the boys are actively thinking and I think that the word "bowed" refers to their acknowledgement of the teacher's input and a sense of respect that the boys share for the teacher.
As "Last Lesson of the Afternoon" progresses towards the third and fourth stanzas, the teacher takes a more frustrated and angry tone. The boys in the class were from working class backgrounds. This meant that they were destined for jobs in the factories and other working class industries. The imagery contains words associated with factories and industrial production, words such as "fuel", "kindle", "flame", and "dross". The teacher seems to lose hopes in the boys,
"I will not waste my soul and my strength for this"
Words such as "abyss" refer to a pit this suggests that they are all heading along the same route and will end up as 'Factory fodder', young children working in dead end jobs.
"The Best of School" gives the reader a sense of the children growing. Words such as "sweet" and "ripening", gives the reader a sense of the boys' knowledge growing as time goes on, just like a fruit they are ripening and becoming sweeter. In contrast to Lawrence's industrial imagery of gloomy factories and mines in "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", the reader gets more positive imagery in "The Best of School", natural imagery such as "sunlight waves" and "brightening souls", are used to describe the boys learning experience. Imagery of the boys growing in "The Best of School" is portrayed by words such as "grain", "climb" and "ripening". In the fourth stanza of "The Best of School" Lawrence uses a simile to describe the boys taking knowledge from the teacher.
"Discovery, like birds that steal and flee"
The boys are "like birds that steal and flee" with the teacher's knowledge. The teacher is generous and willing to help the boys in "The Best of School", but in "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", the teacher is stubborn and gives up easily. He is not willing to "waste his soul and strength" for the boys in the class. Throughout "The Best of School" the teacher is portrayed as a vast source of knowledge, the boys in the class just need to look at him for inspiration.
In the final stanza of "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", the teacher thinks forget it and he will not waste his time on the class.
"I do no, and will not; they won't and they don't; and that's all!"
The teacher also says,
"Why should we best our heads against the wall?"
Again, the reader is reminded of the violent imagery, and the pain of teaching the boys. The final stanza again refers to the children having no decent future. The teacher says,
"I shall keep my strength for myself; they can keep theirs as well"
The reader gets the sense that the teacher is letting the boys keep their strength for the hard labour in the factories.
In the final stanza of "The Best of School" is much more positive than "Last Lesson of the Afternoon". The teacher uses words such as "cling" and "cleave", these "C" words suggest the closeness between the teacher and the boys.
"As vines going up eagerly up; they twine"
The imagery of the vines interlocking shows that they have gained knowledge and grown. When the vines twine they become stronger but separately they are easily broken. I think that the last two lines sums up the poems well because it expresses the symbiotic relationship whereby the boys and teacher gained knowledge and developed a relationship with each other.
"My lifer with other leaves, my time is hidden in theirs, their thrills are mine"
I think we can use Lawrence's reference to the vines to explain how the boys developed a relationship with the teacher. In "Last Lesson of the Afternoon", the teacher gives up and the boys are not inspired by him, they are like separate vines. Where as in "The Best of School", the teacher inspires the boys and the teacher is "generous" in sharing his knowledge, their vines have grown stronger and are stronger because they twine with each other. The boys who are referred to, as vines need a support to grow on, the teacher are their support and help them to grow. In "The Best of School" it is not only the boys who enjoy the learning experience but the teacher also finds joy in teaching the boys and watching them learn, "their thrills are mine".
