Both poets increase the sense of being a child in their poems by showing the reader the child’s unawareness of the full meaning of the situation. U. A. Fanthorpe portrays this well, as the child in her poem has no comprehension of the reason for him being placed in detention:
“And She said he’d done
Something Very Wrong…”
The capital letters used on specific words represent the teacher’s emphasis that she would have placed on the words. Additionally, the use of the word “Something” creates a sense of vagueness in the reader trying to impersonate the scene in their mind. From this, it’s apparent that the child has no idea of what he has supposedly done, which may spark off nostalgia in the readers who may remember times where teachers would shout at them for no obvious reason. Similarly, we also realise that Scannell’s narrator is in the dark, implied both literally and metaphorically. He establishes the fact that the reader’s comprehension of the situation is greater then the narrator’s and does this when the child hears his playmates stumbling and muttering outside. The child is wrapped in the thought that his hiding place is so good that they couldn’t be able to see him. On the other hand, the next line makes the reader realise differently:
“Their words and laughter scuffle and they’re gone.”
Having found him, they spitefully leave him there and their laughter signifies their ridicule of his attempts to hide from them and the reader is left with feelings of sympathy towards the child hiding.
The language used by the poets to describe their experiences give subtle hints of the sense of being a child, however, Fanthorpe does this more successfully in her poem than Scannell. For example, in ‘Half-past Two’ uses words such as “Gettinguptime” and “Timeyouwereoffnowtime”. These are not real words but a string of words run together to create the sense of being a child who does not yet know how to read the time on a clock. To the reader, the phrases would invoke an image of a child who are in the early years of their primary school education so whereas in ‘Hide and Seek’ the punctuation helps heighten the sense of being a child, U. A. Fanthorpe uses words strung together to communicate the sense of child-like behaviour. In contrast to this, we initially get the sense of being a child with ‘Hide and Seek’ from reading the title. Also, Scannell uses exclamation marks in the narrator’s speech:
“’I’m ready! Come and fine me!’”
By using exclamation marks, the quote creates a sense of excitement which mimics the same feeling a child playing hide and seek would have.
The narrator in ‘Half-past Two’ generally speaks in third person whereas in ‘Hide and Seek’ it is mainly in second. Because the narrator of ‘Half-past Two’ speaks mostly in third person and not in second, we get a sense of distance between the reader and the narrator. And because of this, we don’t emotionally experience the event in our minds, like we do in ‘Hide and Seek’ as we feel empathy towards the child when his “friends” leave him. In contrast to ‘Half-past Two’, the narrator of ‘Hide and Seek’ speaks mainly in second person:
“They’ll never find you…”
This could suggest that the child is speaking to himself, which could imply that he could be crazy but in this case, he is merely just commentating on his hiding place and also hints his childish excitement.
Out of both poems, I feel more sympathetic towards the child in ‘Hide and Seek’. This may be due to more figurative language being used in ‘Hide and Seek’, which makes the reader re-enact the scene in their mind effectively or due to the sense of unrealism in ‘Half-past Two’:
“(I forget what it was.)
Using the word “forget” undermines the importance of what the child has done so therefore portrays the incident as insignificant. The figurative language used in ‘Half-past Two’ has no sense of reality, which heightens the sense of unrealism:
“And knew he’d escaped for ever”
Unrealism in ‘Half-past Two’ is justified further when Fanthorpe uses an oxymoron in her poem:
“Into the silent noise his hangnail made”
By placing the two opposites together, we realise that hangnails do not make noises. Also, the last two lines of ‘Half-past Two’:
“He escaped into the clockless land of ever,
Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.”
adds to the fairy-tale sense because it is metaphorical. There is no clear meaning surrounding this but one of the ambiguous meanings could be that by the child not knowing about time, he’d somehow escaped into a timeless “world” pending further education where he will learn about time.
Out of the two poems, I think ‘Half-past Two’ establishes the sense of being a child more successfully than ‘Hide and Seek’. This is because Fanthorpe uses child-like language and I particularly like the fairy-tale sense established from the first line. However, ‘Hide and Seek’ is equally a very good read and possesses some child-like qualities too.
