‘There was the burn of the cane in my palm, still smouldering.’
Another inadequate school experience is told through Hugo Williams, poem named ‘Leaving school.’
I think this poem is autobiographical because he refers to himself in the first half term,
‘I was eight when I set out into then world…I thought it would be fun.’ This suggests that he was not happy at school.
The speaker also makes a point of including ‘Billy Goat Gruff’ books and the ‘Beacon’ series from which I can almost immediately consider an age the speaker must be writing about.
Hence, what I have understood from the poem ‘Leaving school’ that the child has had to stay at the school inasmuch as he says:
‘I was so far away from home I used to forget things…I was miles away with my suitcase, leaving school.’
This painful experience has mentally damaged the child in the poem, comparable in the poem ‘Welltread.’
He was taken away from his home and family environment proposing serious homesickness.
Unlike ‘Welltread’ and ‘Leaving school,’ ‘Dear Mr Lee’ is not a sad and lonely tale. It is more about a childhood obsession with a book written
by Mr. Laurie Lee. U.A. Fanthorpe starts the poem with a light-hearted introduction:
‘Dear Mr Lee (Mr Smart - teacher – says it’s rude to call you Laurie, but that’s how I think of you, having lived with you all year.)’
The girl habitually interrupts the letter with inform comments. She goes on to say that she used hate English, the teacher and Shakespeare. She boldly entitles Shakespeare in being a ‘national disaster.’ She says because she does not understand the ‘jokes’ that Shakespeare uses and misunderstands that they aren’t meant to be funny but witty. The speaker also mentions Mr Ted Hughes and Mr Philip Larkin, but writes them as T. Hughes and P. Larkin; this maybe, I think to make a point of her feelings towards Mr. Lee in an informal way e.g. just like friends. This is found in a number of occasions such as: ‘Dear Laurie (sorry).’
The girl also suggests that the book, ‘Cider with Rosie’ is not a book to her but more like a friend, ‘if you could see my copy you’d know it’s lived with me, stained with Coke and Kit Kat.’
Mr Smart (her teacher) criticises Mr Lee’s mother and the speaker doesn’t like it. She despises having to character-sketch Mr Lees mother in class. ‘it seemed wrong somehow when you’d made her so lovely.
In conclusion of the poem, the child tells ‘Laurie’ that she has failed her exam but insists that he not feel guilty. She blames her bad mark on herself, Shakespeare and her English teacher, Mr Smart. But the girl is not discouraged and adores Mr Lee still.
‘I still live Cider it hasn’t made any difference.’
Unlike ‘Welltread’ and leaving school is doesn’t follow a particular pattern, I have found. I believe the poem to be in free verse with run on lines similar to the other poems I have analysed and evaluated.
All three poems make a point of the school education system to be nothing short of a failure. However, all three are set in altered circumstances; time and place. On the contrary they all are accurate in suggesting the psychological effects caused by the break down in the education network. But fortunately in this day and age nothing that extreme is happening or will become of today’s society.