Half past two

Question 1

Themes in half past two

Answer 1

-innocence and childhood
-time
-authority
-miscommunication

Question 2

Structural features

Answer 2

-free verse
—>reflecting the unpredictable and natural thought process of a child
-divided into 11 short stanzas
—>slow reading pace making it feel fragmented, mirroring the child’s memory
-parenthesis
—>uses brackets to show the child’s personal way of understanding the world
-capitalisation
—>shows the importance of daily rituals to children
-enjambment
—>creates a sense of drifting thought, fitting the child’s wandering experience

Question 3

Stanza 1 ideas

Answer 3

-storytelling language, traditional fairytale opening setting the tone of the poem as whimsical and childish
-capitalisation makes the thing he did seem official and serious from the child’s perspective
-irony, forgotten something portrayed as very important
-short, simple lines reflect the undeveloped thought process of a child

Question 4

Stanza 2 ideas

Answer 4

-child’s limited understanding, “something very wrong” is vague and suggest the child doesn’t fully grasp what he has down wrong
-use of “adult” time contrasts the boys understanding of what time actually is, highlighting the gap between adult expectations and a child knowledge
-repetition of “something very wrong” making the judgement of the adult feel larger

Question 5

Stanza 3 ideas

Answer 5

-“she’d forgotten” suggests no resentment, tone is forgiving, showing that the child doesn’t question the adults mistakes, but rather accepts it

Question 6

Stanza 4 ideas

Answer 6

-childlike vocabulary, the child doesn’t understand formal clock time, but rather he understands time through routine events, which shows the child’s world is shaped by meaning and habit
-they are instructional
-compound words to reflect how children think and speak, mimicking a child’s inner voice
-creates a stream of consciousness effect, capturing the child’s thoughts

Question 7

Stanza 5 ideas

Answer 7

-contrast as he understands meaningful time but can’t grasp arbitrary adult time, showing a lack of connection between child and adult worlds
-final clause emphasis, underlines the central idea that he understand time in meaningful ways, just not it the ways adults expect
-contradictory language, lists what he does know only to undercut it by what he doesnt which reinforces the idea of miscommunication

Question 8

Stanza 6 ideas

Answer 8

-the clock is personified as it is described using human-like terms
-this shows how the child imagines the clock as something alive , which highlights how children interpret unfamiliar objects through metaphor
-confusion and limitation, as although he can see and describe it he can’t interpret its meaning

Question 9

Stanza 6

Answer 9

-alludes to fairy tales, suggesting the Boyd has drifted into a magical world
-“escaped forever” suggest not just a physical escape, but also a mental one, suggesting that in his imagination he has left adult constraints behind, gives a sense of closure and emotional resolution