The poems I am comparing in this essay are 'Half-past two' and 'Reports' by U.A. Fanthorpe and 'Leaving school' by Hugo Williams.

20th Century Poetry comparison

The poems I am comparing in this essay are ‘Half-past two’ and ‘Reports’ by U.A. Fanthorpe and ‘Leaving school’ by Hugo Williams.

All three of the poems are about school, and about the different aspects of it. There are several points of view expressed in the poems, such as that of a teacher, the confusion of a child starting boarding school, and a child who cannot tell the time.

In the poem ‘Half-past two’, the poem tells of a child who, after being told off as been told to stay inside until half-past two and then he can go. To the dismay and confusion of the child, he cannot tell the time and so wonders what to do when and if, half-past two ever came. In this poem, the style is very much that of a child speaking firsthand to himself and thinking in his head. The poem begins with ‘Once upon a…’ which is a harsh cliché of old fairytales of which the majority of them started in this way. In the first paragraph, as he is so young he did ‘something very wrong’ but then carries on to say that he had forgotten what it was that he had done to deserve his punishment.

At the end of the lines in the first verse, there is no punctuation so that the reader doesn’t pause and is forced to carry on reading to reach the end of the sentence, and enable them to have a pause. This is written just how a child would tell a story, by not taking a pause until the most important bit of a story is told. When the child speaks of phrases that he hears often, they are written as, ‘Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime.’ As the child cannot tell the time, he classes these as ways to tell the time.

U.A. Fanthorpe attempts to recreate the voice and thoughts of the child by describing a clock as having ‘little eyes’ and ‘two long legs for walking’ meaning the hands of the clock.

In the 8th verse, the deliberate repetition of the opening words of each line ‘Into the’ are used to suggest a change of mood. The longer lines suggest how his mind escapes and his imagination starts to unwind. This contrasts with the other verses and situation.

When the child writes about his teacher, he uses capitals when addressing ‘Her’. U.A. Fanthorpe has done this to show how ...

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U.A. Fanthorpe attempts to recreate the voice and thoughts of the child by describing a clock as having ‘little eyes’ and ‘two long legs for walking’ meaning the hands of the clock.

When the child writes about his teacher, he uses capitals when addressing ‘Her’. U.A. Fanthorpe has done this to show how important the child regards the teacher. When the teacher starts talking, U.A Fanthorpe uses italics to show how he regards her, and also as a contrast to the normal font used so that her speech catches the readers eye, and also to show how different in status the teacher and child are.

In the 10th verse, the ends of the sentences are deliberately repeated, this emphasises the seriousness of what he has done wrong.

In the final verse, the significance of the experience is reflected against, and the mystical metaphors the writer uses make the poem seem as though it didn’t happen.

Just as the beginning, the poem ends with clichés that resemble fairy stories in order to make the experience seem like a dream or a distant foggy memory where the writer cannot remember the exact details and so elaborates and exaggerates them.

‘Reports’ by U.A. Fanthorpe is written in the voice of a teacher who is writing school progress reports. As the amount of reports the teacher is doing increases, the more she makes them as clichéd and cynical as possible, perhaps not thinking about doing so, but in order to cut down on time, she uses the same, dull, un-descriptive words and phrases for each report.

In the poem when we hear what the teacher has written, italics indicate what the teacher has said, just as the first line of the poem shows.

In order to get the right tone of the tired, bored teacher, U.A Fanthorpe uses worn out, over used descriptive words such as ‘fair, quite good’ and, ‘satisfactory’. She uses these meaningless words in order to be cautious so that parents are not offended by the report. She knows that child, parent and the head of the school will read the poem, so it is best to be safe with what is said. When the writer writes about the child, the parents and the head, the next line starts ‘Unholy trinity’. This means that the people she is going to give the report to are, in her eyes classed as biblical and religious. However I think that she is perhaps saying it sarcastically, as though these three groups of people must be pleased even if the truth about the child is not told.

In verse 6, U.A Fanthorpe writes about how the report should start with very encouraging words and phrases, but then finishes with a poor report with phrases such as ‘could have done better, which are far less encouraging. I think that in this verse she is making references to life, and how when we are ‘born at sound beginning’ we move on through life and through the different stages. These could be growing up, getting a job, losing a job, and then at the end of life looking back and wishing that we could have done more.

In the final verse, she makes an analogy to death and writes about getting reports all your life with one final one at the end, being death.

The tone of the poem is strong and is a harsh comparison to life and how events are often clichéd and that no-one really cares if you do well or not.

‘Leaving School’ by Hugo Williams is a poem about growing up and about how small children feel as though life is very difficult.

‘Leaving School’ is written in the voice of the child, as is not actually about leaving school, but about the child leaving day state school to go to boarding school. He feels as though he is leaving school and going into the wider world as he is leaving his home, parents and all sense of normality.

The vocabulary used in the poem is short and simple, like that of a child. Sentences are usually in 1st person pronoun, which is a child-like way of starting sentences. Hugo Willams also jumps from one event to another in order to recreate the childish way of not linking sentences together.

In the start of the poem, the child starts out optimistic and seemingly hopeful, but towards the end of the poem the tone changes and the child becomes confused and alienated as he is not adjusted to the new surroundings of his school. Hugo Williams writes ‘I was fully dressed again, ready for bed’ and everyday things become a huge effort for the child as he struggles to remember how to do things, although certain things he is expected to know and do, he has never been taught.

The poem is quite upsetting as you can see how the child struggles to adjust to his bewildering new life and how he copes with being away from his parents, and all sense or normality he had ever known.

English Coursework Comparison- 20th