In the poem “Not My Best Side,” the reader perceives her skill in using the other voice, by creating the different voices for the Dragon, the Maiden, and the Knight. She portrays the dragons’ emotions as a wounded gentleman, discouraged because his “victim was so unattractive as to be inedible” The dragon is displayed very much against the stereotype of itself. She presents him as an intelligent young man who is more worried about his image and appearance than anything else. When having his portrait painted, the artist “did not give him a chance to pose properly.” He was upset because the painter “left off two of his feet.”
The dragon, commenting on his death, says,
“I should have liked a bit more blood”
This understatement contradicts the violent reputation of a dragon, making the poem like an amusing fairy tale in that the dragon knows he will rise again.
Fanthorpe depicts the princess as a small, chatty, plain yet slightly pretty woman. She in addition to the dragon does not fit the stereotype of a princess in distress. Instead of wanting to be rescued by the noble knight, “to be honest, I didn’t much fancy him.” “I quite took to the dragon.”
St. George, who is known in other poems as a heroic knight who rescues the princess and carries her away to marry her, living happily ever after, is revealed as being “ostentatiously beardless”, and the princess worries that he may “have acne, or blackheads, or bad breath”. He thinks very highly of his armour, his horse, and himself.
The author destroys the stereotype view of all the characters in the tale of St. George slaying the dragon. Instead of being the noble knight, he appears as a male chauvinist, whilst the princess, instead of being helpless, is an opinionated girl who speaks her own mind.
Fanthorpe also frequently creates humour in the poem, for example when the princess says,
“that green sexy tail”
“You Will Be Hearing From Us Shortly,” is another show of why she is such a successful poet today. There is a great deal of skill involved in creating this masterpiece. Whilst the voice of the interviewer is the only one she uses, in contrast to “Not My Best Side”, she still makes it possible for the reader to understand and follow the poem. She causes the reader to dislike the arrogant personnel officer, and to feel sympathetic towards the man whom is being interrogated.
Fanthorpe likes to open poems with a sentence that gets the reader’s attention immediately, and causes an interest in the character. “Once upon a school time, he did Something Very Wrong”, causes the reader to wonder what he did, in the poem “Half-past Two.” “Do you feel adequate to the demands of this position?” is a line which certainly would not make the interviewee at ease and relaxed, but creates tension, again causing the reader to wonder what will happen next.
Although the reader cannot know what answers the interviewee gives during his interview, he still finds out many facts about him, which leads the reader to feel compassion and empathy towards him. We see the age of the man in a very subtle way. The interviewer is not impressed by the age of the interviewee: he wanted someone, “…with precisely the right amount of immaturity.” This little passage shows that the person that was being interviewed was too old for the job.
At first we see the interviewer as a polite and concerned man, but as we near the middle of the poem we see that he is quite the opposite. An inappropriate remark that the interviewee makes is on the looks of the person that is being interviewed. They interviewer had just said something about looks being a delicate matter when he brings it up just in more detail, “You do appreciate this work involves contact with the actual public.” This shows that the interviewer not keen on the appearance of the person that is being interviewed.
The point Fanthorpe makes very well is that the proud, pompous interviewer prejudges the man seeking employment. He criticizes his looks, accent, background, age, and number of children; not giving him a fair interview based on his qualifications.
There are no major weak points in the style of Fanthorpe’s poetry. Not only does she display her use of the other voice, but she also creates humour and makes her views on society today known. This is also shown in “Dear Mr Lee”, in which the student loves reading, but fails exams, because she disagrees with the exam board, and cannot meet their expectations. Fanthorpe creates ample amounts of emotion and feeling in all her poems as we covered briefly. Her poems are written in an irregular form, with no rhyme scheme, yet her exceptional use of words makes her poetry very interesting.
