‘He knew the clockface, the little eyes
And two long legs for walking.’
U.A Fanthorpe used that as a child’s description of a clock face as it presents an image in your mind, which really makes you feel close to the little boy. U.A Fanthorpe has also used childlike language throughout the poem ‘notimeforthatnowtime,’ she joined the words together to make the words seem as if a child really is saying it. Presenting the words like that makes the reader feel slightly childish when reading them.
‘Warning’ danger I am telling you this now in advance. The title is a warning to people and to the woman in the poem. The poem is what she is warning herself and other people about. The poem in many ways is uplifting the poet writes in a way that when you read the poem aloud you begin to get exited at some parts and also feel the let down during other parts. The poet has used repetition to do this.
‘And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth,’
The repeat of the word ‘And’ gives you this exiting rushed feeling and as there are no full stops or commas one line runs to the next quickly. The let down feeling is when she begins half way through the poem by saying ‘But’ this gives off a negative let down feeling. The reader is no longer exited as the women is no longer exited.
‘Half past Two’ the poem is about a boy who did ‘Something Very Wrong’ and had to stay at school until ‘Half-past Two’. U.A Fanthorpe describes a little boy and takes us into his mind so we can see things from a child’s point perspective. U.A Fanthorpe used to be a teacher so she may have been describing something that once happened when she was a teacher. In ‘Half-past Two’, you can read the little boys fantasy which is stopped by the adult teacher.
‘into ever.
And then, My goodness she said,’
The teacher interrupted the boy’s fantasy and interrupts the readers fantasy of the boy having his fantasy. Nearer the end of the poem after the boys has his fantasy the boy is sent home by his teacher.
‘And he got home in time for teatime,
Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime,’
Just by reading that short stanza you can see the adult world of time and how they do not seem to have any time for the boy.
Both of these Poems are powerful in the way that they touch on subjects that one might not think about every day. I never have time to even think about the time and I certainly do not have time for acting like a child. The poems get the readers to think about things like time and old age as those are things not many people seem to be thinking about. The use of childlike language in ‘Half-past Two’ defiantly brings the reader much closer inside the poem. The language in ‘Warning’ is also what makes the poem so easy to connect with.