Half past two

1. Half past two By U A Fanthorpe Analyzed by Josh and Adam

2. Learning Objectives: • To learn how to interpret the poem • To know the use of compound words • To understand the use of capitalization

3. The Poem Once upon a schooltime He did Something Very Wrong (I forget what it was). And She said he’d done Something Very Wrong, and must Stay in the school-room till half-past two. (Being cross, she’d forgotten She hadn’t taught him Time. He was too scared at being wicked to remind her.) He knew a lot of time: he knew Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime, Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime, Timeformykisstime (that was Grantime).  All the important times he knew, But not half-past two.  He knew the clockface, the little eyes And two long legs for walking, But he couldn’t click its language, So he waited, beyond onceupona, Out of reach of all the timefors, And knew he’d escaped for ever Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk, Into the silent noise his hangnail made, Into the air outside the window, into ever. And then, My goodness, she said, Scuttling in, I forgot all about you. Run along or you’ll be late. So she slotted him back into schooltime, And he got home in time for teatime, Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime, But he never forgot how once by not knowing time, He escaped into the clockless land for ever, Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.

4. The background info of Poet Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, was an English poet. She published under the form U. A. Fanthorpe. She was educated at St Catherine’s School, Bramley in Surrey and at Anne’s College, Oxford, where she received a first-class degree in English language and literature, and subsequently taught English at Cheltenham Ladies’ College for sixteen years. She then abandoned teaching for jobs as a secretary, receptionist and hospital clerk in Bristol - in her poems, she later remembered some of the patients for whose records she had been responsible. In 1987 Fanthorpe went freelance, giving readings around the country and occasionally abroad. In 1994 she was nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Her nine collections of poems were published by Peterloo Poets. Her Collected Poems was published in 2005. Many of her poems are for two voices. In her readings the other voice is that of Bristol academic and teacher R. V. "Rosie" Bailey, Fanthorpe's life partner of 44 years. The couple co-wrote a collection of poems, From Me To You: love poems that was published in 2007 by Enitharmon Fanthorpe died, aged 79, on 28 April 2009, in a hospice near her home in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire

5. There are eleven stanzas, all broken down into three lines per stanza • A free verse poem • There is repetition of the word “time” which is assumed when looking at the title of the poem. • The words that are joined together may refer to how a boy interprets time and with that certain time an action goes along with it. Structure

6. Some key ideas in the poem that we think was portrayed well by the U. A. Fanthorpe is childlike senses. • There is the sense of Time in the young boys mind for example in the fourth stanza; “He knew a lot of time: he knew Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime, Timetogohomenowtime, Tvtime” • The way the boy describes the classroom as • “Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk, Into the silent noise hishangnail made, Into the air outside the window, into ever.” • Time and the usage of time • Discipline, all the times he had required discipline. Meaning of the poem

7. Language Language being used is almost childlike, according to the way how the author use his language. He makes a word by just mixing few shorter words together. Examples are: “Timetogohomenowtime”- 6 words joined to make a word. Adults would never join the word because they are not children and know better words. More examples: “onceupona”- 3 words and “timeyouwereofftime”- 5 words. The language standard is very low so that the children would be able to understand the poem. The audience might get confused with some of the words joined together. Effect- It makes the imagery or the things the author is talking about to easily imagine. The effect the poem has is because of the vocabulary usage, it helps you to visualize the poem really easily as the language of the poem is at a level which most English speakers can understand. 8th stanza- There is a repetition as all the lines starts with into the… This also helps to visualize more easily, because the word, ‘into’ convey a meaning and add impactful changes in the phrase. Pun- “Couldn’t click its language”- first of all, no one speaks time and there is no language called time. Click is an important term because it is an expression you make when you understand or realize how the thing works.

8. In the beginning of the poem there isn’t much imagery but in the last few stanzas there is a lot of imagery described in a young child’s mind • Stanza 6- “He knew the clockface, the little eyes And two long legs for walking, But he couldn’t click its language” • Stanzas 7-8 “So he waited, beyond onceupona, Out of reach of all the timefors, And knew he’d escaped for ever. Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk, Into the silent noise his hangnail made, Into the air outside the window, into ever.” Imagery

9. By looking at the last stanza which practically sums up the whole poem, we can gather theories to what the true meaning of the poem is or what we think it is. • Day dream • Wonderland • Simplicity Effect on the reader

10. Activity In a group of 2 or 3, chat for about 2 minutes what you think is U.A Fanthorpe’s intention of this poem