re-enforces the idea of her intimacy with the writings.. This is more than just a book for her, it is something she can relate to and seek comfort in. It is certainly very precious to her;
“If you could see my copy you’d know it’s lived
with me, stained with coke and KitKat,
and when I had a cold I often
take you to bed with me to cheer me up”
This last quote, for me at least, conjures up some really fantastic, solid imagery. I can clearly picture the child, wrapped in a duvet, with her book in one hand and a half-unwrapped KitKat in the other. This is a book she really likes, and this mental-picture makes us increase our understanding of this.
“[she] used to hate English, and Mr Smart
is roughly my least favorite person,”
But now they are studying this book it is not quite so bad “your book’s the one that made up for the others”.
Throughout this poem the child goes on about her love for the book, and how the system has let her down. However this poem is not just one sided, we also get views voiced by two other people; those of Mr Smart and the examiner. Of course though, the girl is the one who actually voices the other opinions, she is writing the letter after all. It would be very odd indeed if the teacher suddenly started writing his opinions in her letter. The girl speaks of how she not only dislikes the way that students are forced to study these books, but also the actual study methods that the education facilities effectuate. She feels that completing all these detailed analyses completely spoils the ‘magic’ of the story and breaks down the feeling of intimacy between the book and reader.
“I didn’t want to write a character-sketch
of your mother under headings, it seemed
wrong somehow when you’d made her so lovely,
and I didn’t much like those questions
about social welfare in the rural community
and the seasons as perceived by an adolescent,
I didn’t think you’d want your book
read that way…”
The child feels that these questions ruin the book, and she feels that the book should be written for pleasure, and not just to study. The parts where the girl is almost quoting the examiner, so we are getting their view, are all in italic. This helps to signify the switch in perspectives and also may hint at a sort of anger from the girl, with the change in type face indicating a change in tone.
She is criticising the examination methods, explaining that, at this point in time they do not work, for her at least.
Mr Smart is also critical, but unlike the pupil, not of the education system he upholds. He disagrees with the child’s sentiment towards the book ‘Cider with Rosy’. In the letter, the child is always saying how “Mr Smart says…”, when the girl has one idea in her head, he always tells her things, which completely conflict with her prior beliefs.
“…But Mr Smart says Spain isn’t
like that all Timeshare villas and Torremolinos”anymore, it’s
He implicitly undermines her faith, destroying her self-esteem and causing her to lose what little interest in the subject she had to start with. This is a terrible relationship, certainly not one that any child should have with their teacher. They should be comforted and encouraged, not put down. Unfortunately, it seems that this is happening a lot in our schools, Fanthorpe has certainly picked up on this, not only in this poem, but also in “Reports” where the writer has commented on the relationship of teacher and student.
‘Reports’ is essentially about what the teachers think of the students and how this differs from how they portray them in the reports. It seems that in the poem we have the voices of two teachers. One seems to be a more experienced teacher than the other, a veteran of their trade. The more experienced teacher is explaining to the other teacher how to write the student’s reports in a way that will not cause too much of a stir. They explain how a teacher should use generalisations and clichés to hide the truth without blatant lying. Also, to be more polite they use this euphemistic language. The clichés, like the voice of the examiner in “Dear Mr Lee”, are all in italics. Again this highlights them, and adds to the idea of the over-use of the phrases.
Fanthorpe implies that the teachers try to make the reports that they give to the students as vague and impersonal as possible. Essentially the reports they give could apply to any student. “Even pronouns are dangerous” This refers to how teachers should not even address the students by ‘he’ or ‘she’, but just to use phrases like “must try harder”. They cannot write anything that will allow any discussion or cause any reaction to the parents or head teacher.
“Parent, child, head,
Unholy trinity, will read
Your scripture backwards.”
Although the poem is about the relationship between teacher and pupil, it can be seen to relate to school as a metaphor for life.
“Born at Sound beginning,
We move from Satisfactory
To Fair, then Find
The subject difficult,
Learning at last we
Could have done better.
It is saying that we spend all our life endeavoring to live as best we can, when ultimately, as in school we will end up disappointed. “With rest in peace”.
Whether Fanthorpe experienced this during her teaching career or as a child………………………………………………………….. BLAHHHH
The poem starts with a fairytale-like beginning, “Once upon a schooltime” which demonstrates the child like innocence of the story. It also puts into context the age of the child, who is most certainly still in primary school and is the subject of the poem. The poem is written in first person narrative and features three characters; the narrator, the child and the teacher. We can tell this is first person narrative from the use of brackets, that the narrator uses to give additional information and the uses of ‘he’ and ‘she’ to refer to the teacher and the student. The narrator informs us of how he has done wrongly and must be detained until half past two. However we are led to believe that the ‘something’ was perhaps not as bad as the teacher made it out to be,
“He did Something Very Wrong
(I forget what it was).”
because if they had acted so very wrongly, surely it would be quite memorable?
Also the fact that the child has committed such a teribble act is emphasised by the use of capital letters for the “Something Very Wrong”. Capitals are also used in other parts of the poem, other than where you would expect to find them, included to emphasise the importance of a word or phrase. “She had taught him Time” This use of capitals to highlight parts of the text is comparable to the use of italic in the other poems, in her ‘school’ anthology.
This phrase explaining of his mistake is also repeated a few lines later. This iteration of the phrase reinforces the fact that it is something so terrible, even though it was probably not. The teacher seems to have made something very trivial into something rather more significant, she has made “a mountain out of a molehill”.
The child is made to stay until two-thirty, however the teacher has not taught him how to recognise the time.
“(Being cross, she’d forgotten
She hadn’t taught him Time.
He was too scared of being wicked to remind her.)”
It says that he was fearful because of what he had done. He was probably not so much scared of the teacher and of the punishment, but of being labeled as “wicked”. We can see also the teachers strong emotions at the child when it says that “Being cross” had made her forget that actually it was not much point telling the child he was to stay in until half two, because she hadn’t taught him when that was.
The next part of the poem illustrate the child’s innocent understanding of the measurement of time, not as we understand it, in hours and minutes, but by simply associating phrases with events.
“Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,
Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime,”
These are typical phrases that a child would encounter in a normal day and it is interesting to note that all the times are based around positive events, exempt maybe “Grantime”! The child has no real method of perceiving the constant flow of measured time, he has this child-like innocence, which we will have had in the early regions of our child hood. This innocence is something quite special, in this modern world that we inhabit today, our lives are totally governed by time. Once we have tamed it, we are ultimately bound to it. But at this point in our maturation we are innocent to the control that time has over the world. The child’s day essentially just merges into one long playtime. He tries to comprehend the concept, as adults around him do, but he can not fathom the notion
“He knew the clockface, the little eyes
And two long legs for walking,
But he couldn’t click its language,”
“Click” is onomatopoeic, it sounds like the word it is describing, but also is a clever pun on the clicking of the mechanical movement as the clock hands gyrate. The clock is described as if it were his friend, it is given human characteristics, which is how the child thinks of things. “the little eyes And the two long legs for walking,”. As in “Dear Mr Lee” the child has been let down by the teacher. Although, possibly some people may be envious if the child in “Half-past Two” as he waits “Out of reach of all the timefors”.
There is certainly a general criticism of the education system in all these three poems. In particular they seem to highlight the systems inability to cater for students singularly, rather than as a whole class. At the end of “Dear Mr Lee” there is a ‘P.S.’, this seems to be a sad apology which explains that essentially, it was the school that let the pupil down.
“please don’t feel guilty
for me failing the exam, it wasn’t your
fault, it was mine, and Shakespeare’s,
and Maybe Mr Smart’s.
In each of the poems U.A Fanthorpe has focused in on one person, and through them has relayed inadequacies in the education system.. The poet has voiced her negative feelings very strongly throughout her poems to in order to highlight flaws in the system. The poems are written with a certain personal feeling of someone who has actually ‘been there’. These may be her opinions as an ex-teacher or, more likely, from remembered experiences when she herself was a girl studying at school. From whichever point of view not all her experiences of school were positive and she has highlighted some of her frustrations in the education system. …Many of which are still evident at Simon Balle school today
