How does U.A. Fanthorpe create different personalities within the poems 'Not My Best side' and 'Old Man, Old Man'?

How does U.A.Fanthorpe create different personalities within the poems 'Not My Best side' and 'Old Man, Old Man'? 'Not My Best Side' and 'Old Man, Old Man', both by U.A.Fanthorpe, create different personalities and changes within these throughout the poems. Fanthorpe uses humour, different styles of language, imagery and stereotypes to put her point across. 'Not My Best Side' is based on Uccello's painting from the Renaissance period, of St. George and the Dragon. Fanthorpe has in many ways reversed the personalities portrayed in the picture, and used modern stereotypes to show how hard it is to break out of stereotypes created by society. 'Old Man, Old Man' focuses more on change. It uses the stereotypes of an old man and a successful businessman. A narrator, who can be taken to be the old man's daughter, tells the poem 'Old Man, Old Man'. The poem uses imagery and different poetic techniques to strengthen the imagery and personalities. One of the main techniques used in both poems is enjambment. In 'Not My Best Side' it involves the reader and encourages them to guess what is about to happen. Alternatively, in 'Old Man, Old Man' it creates an element of confusion, giving the reader an in-sight into the old man's feelings. 'Now you ramble / In your talk around London districts, fretting / At how to find your way from Holborn to Soho.' This highlights the confusion an

  • Word count: 2728
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Discuss the way that Fanthorpe creates and uses characters in her poetry - 'You will be hearing from us shortly' and 'Telephone conversation'.

"Sophie Distefano 11Bcbe" U.A.Fanthorpe Using any two or three of the poems you have studied, discuss the way that Fanthorpe creates and uses characters in her poetry. In this essay I will be talking about the poems 'You will be hearing from us shortly' and 'Telephone conversation'. All of the poems that we have read from her collection are about different cultures, society's, ways of life, and just basically people in general. Her poems are all very similar in her way of thinking and how she sees things in one typical point of view. She seems very set in her ways and very stereotypical when she talks about people in society; She is very critical and seems, despite her broad minded take on things, very fascist in the ways that she views different issues. Despite being a minor poet, Fanthorpe seems to have a major yearning for power, and so uses it in quite a few of her poems to enhance some of the points she has made. This search for power may have come from an experience that she has been through in her earlier lifetime, or it may just be the way she likes to write. Most of her poems have roles which take on a huge power, of which is mainly used to belittle others. Both of the poems that I am writing about are about being interviewed for either a job or a flat. In both poems, Fanthorpe uses very formal, strict language with a very blunt and patronising tone; I think this

  • Word count: 636
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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I will be focusing on three poems, which are written by U.A fan Thorpe and Hugo Williams.

I will be focusing on three poems, which are written by U.A fan Thorpe and Hugo Williams. The title of these three poems is quiet and basic and they will give some clues to the reader. The title of Leaving School, which is written by Williams, is very straight and it gives you some clues. This is poem is about a boy who is describing his felling of going to school. This poem starts very positively. First he tells about his age and he and he is mentioning that he thought going to school will be fun but as he go to school and suddenly the phrases shows that he has changed his mind about going to school. For example he says "everyday my name was red out because I forgotten to hang up something" this shows that he get punished for simple reasons such as not hanging his jacket. This is like an autobiographic and its first person. The word I has repeated so many times in this poem and he is talking directly to the reader. There are no verses in these three poem and the ending is exactly opposite of the start. At the start of this poem the boy said that he thought going to school would be fun and the end of the poem he says " I was miles away, with my suitcase, leaving school" he is saying that he wishes that he could leave the school, this is a very negative ending. The title of reports is also very simple and basic. This poem has a very negative opening. In my opinion this

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Half Past Two

Half Past Two Half Past Two is a poem about a boy who is told off for something and made to sit in a room for what he feels is a long time. He starts to go into a dream world, a timeless world. The poem is told in a childlike way, with simple words used throughout the poem. The poet uses the childlike language to make the reader feel as if they are a child again. The poet has used a fairytale opening "Once upon a" which sets the scene and makes the reader feel relaxed and calm. The poet wanted to emphasis that the boy had done "Something Very Wrong" so she used to capital letters to show that. She has also used brackets around the words "(I forget what it was)". Which makes the sentence before it "he did Something Very Wrong" sound as if it wasn't that important so that's why she doesn't remember what it was. Again in the second stanza the poet has written the words "Something Very Wrong" to make sure the reader understands that the boy did something terrible. When the poet doesn't ever mention what the boy has done wrong, which gives the impression that he doesn't know what he's done. The boy is constantly just thinking about the time throughout the poem, he thinks about all the different times that he knows. The boy is probably wondering when his teacher will come back and tell him to go home. That would make any child feel scared and probably worried if there teacher

  • Word count: 719
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Two poems

English Coursework Ben Preece ARA Tuesday, 17 September 2002 I am going to be writing about two poems "old man old man" and "warning". In old man, old man the poet U.A Fanthorpe relates old age to a loss of freedom e.g. a timetabled cigarette. The stanzas are always written in three lines in Old man old man. Old man old man is a very bad or negative view on old age as he is always talking about what he used to do "a dab hand with the black and Decker". He is an anonymous person who is totally explained in the title "old man old man" this emphasises his old age. As you get older, your body does not work as well for some as you start to have heart problems and lung problems and in "old man old man". He has to take pills but he does not like doing this and he fights from doing it "Recalcitrant things in bottles with tacky labels". He used to be independent "He was always a man who did it himself" and he still wants to be, but he has to take pills to stay alive. There are a few qualities of being old in the poem. If you are old like the anonymous man you do not have a worry in the world because you have no job you have to turn up to and nine o'clock or whenever. You have no business to run and all you have to worry about is to get the local paper every week and go shopping this is all that the have to worry about or something like that. The other story is Warning

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A reviewer of ''Safe as Houses'' claimed that Fanthorpe's poetry is ''rotted in the real world and in ordinary language

April 11 2005 . Anna Carlisle A reviewer of ''Safe as Houses'' claimed that Fanthorpe's poetry is ''rotted in the real world and in ordinary language.'' How far do you agree with this view? Although it would be simplistic to say that all Fanthorpe's poetry is related to the ''real world'', connections certainly can be made in terms of language style and theme that convey everyday life. One of her principal focuses seems to be that of war but never concerning the actual combat: she instead concentrates on the destruction caused on the home front; to the ''ordinary'' people, particularly exploring the influence of war on children. Indeed, her own experience of childhood, one in which she felt she did not ''fit in'' also shapes her poetry, arguably appealing to all her readers who have, most likely, felt out of place at one time or another in their every-day lives. The language used to communicate these ideas is fairly common, rarely in ''traditional'' rhyming couplets and even when taking on the persona of some of the most famous characters in literature, the language she ''gives'' them would not look out of place in our contemporary world. Of course, Fanthorpe is a modern poet, discussing issues that matter to her so it would not be unreasonable to take the view that her poems are ''rotted in the real world.'' Though it is difficult to make a general judgement

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Looking at the poems 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph and the poem 'Half past Two' by U.A Fanthorpe.

When looking at the poems 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph and the poem 'Half past Two' by U.A Fanthorpe they seem very different. When you look closely at the two poems you start to see many similarities. The little boy in 'Half past Two' escapes into his own fantasy world where there is no time no limitations and no restrictions. The women in 'Warning' goes off into a sort of fantasy where there are no constraints or restrictions. 'Half-past Two' is told by someone else about the little boy whereas 'Warning' is told by the women in the poem telling people what she is going to do when she is old. Both poems use language that allows the reader to capture more of an image of what the poet is saying. The Structure and language of the poems is similar. 'Warning' has four stanzas, the first one is long the second and the third one are the same and the fourth one is the shortest. 'Half past Two' has eleven stanzas that are all three lines long. Every new line in both poems starts with a capital letter, which makes each line just as important as the one before it. In 'Warning' the poet uses words like 'gobble' which are imagery words, you can imagine a child gobbling up something when she says it. 'Half past Two' also has words that provoke your mind to imagine the kind of thoughts inside the little boys head. 'He knew the clockface, the little eyes And two long legs for walking.'

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How does U.A Fanthorpe express her attitude to our Education system in her poems Half past two, Reports and Dear Mr. Lee?

Amie Bevan 10JB How does U.A Fanthorpe express her attitude to our Education system in her poems Half past two, Reports and Dear Mr. Lee? Ursula Askham Fanthorpe is a modern British poet. She was born in London in 1929 and studied at St Anne's college in Oxford from 1949 to 1953. She then went onto the University Of London Institute Of Education from 1953 to 1954 where she obtained a teaching diploma. Ursula then used this diploma to become an assistant English teacher, and then later 'Head of English' at an all girls' school called 'Independent girls' school' in Gloucestershire. However, this job did not appeal to her all that much. It put her under too much pressure and stress, so she decided to leave in 1972 to go on to work as an admissions clerk. This job was in a hospital in Bristol. She did this job until 1983. In her spare time she started to write poems. By this time she was almost 50 years old and in 1978 she compiled her first collection of poems called Side Effects. From 1983 to 1988 she was involved with St Martin's college, Lancaster and the universities of Newcastle and Durham in the literary field. U.A.Fanthorpe was the first woman ever to be nominated for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry. In newspaper reviews she has been referred to as 'a national treasure' and as 'a poet of real importance'. Her poetry is 'rooted in the real world and in

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What does Fanthorpe have to say about power and control in 'you will be hearing from us shortly,' and 'dictator'?

What does Fanthorpe have to say about power and control in 'you will be hearing from us shortly,' and 'dictator'? Both poems have a sense of someone being controlled by someone who is higher then they are. What I think Fanthorpe is trying to make a point about is that we as humans are shallow, we judge before we actually get to know people properly. We will not change our minds about someone quickly as we base people on our first judgement of them, which is usually wrong. In 'you will be hearing from us shortly' the person is so unimportant to the interviewer that no matter what their answer to a question is, it is always wrong. We as the reader knows that the answer will be wrong so we do not need to see the interviewee's answer. Fanthorpe has purposely left a big gap between the interviewer's questions and comments to have an effect on the reader, making it obvious to the reader that the interviewee is not important. The interviewee has no voice and so seems intimidated and insignificant for what he/she is, you can tell the interviewer is superior and in control by his use of sarcasm and rhetorical questions. In verse one the use of the word 'adequate' and 'position' make up the rhetorical question. By the interviewer simply using the word adequate you have the sense that he already does not think that the person is up to the position in hand. The next question uses

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparing the poems "Dr Mr Lee" and "Reports".

Comparing the poems "Dr Mr Lee" and "Reports". In many of U A Fanthorpe's poems, she explores the themes of education and school. In my essay I am going to focus on two of her poems, Dr Mr Lee and Reports. I will discuss the similarities and differences between the two poems. The poem Dr Mr Lee is written from the point of view of a student, writing to the author of a book "Cider with Rosie". She is apologising for failing the exam and says how much she dislikes English and how much she enjoyed the book. Fanthorpe's critical of the way English literature is taught and examined. The student shows this by writing to the author of the autobiography "Cider and Rosie" and apologising for failing the exam. Even though it wasn't her fault and the student found the subject difficult, she still liked to read the book. "I didn't much like those questions about the social welfare of the rural community and the seasons as perceived by an adolescent". The language used by Fanthorpe's in the poem is effective in that It clearly illustrates the way the student feels and gives the reader a sense of what school is like from the students perspective. He uses a lot negative words towards Mr Smart and Shakespeare he also dislikes T Hughe and P. Larkin they are both poets that spoil the enjoyment of English. "Mr Smart is roughly my least favourite person, and for Shakespeare (we're doing him

  • Word count: 739
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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