half past two Flashcards
(18 cards)
‘Once upon a schooltime’
‘Once upon a’ creates a fairytale image which indicates that this is a childhood experience and has fantasy themes.
This fairytale imagery juxtaposes the harsh school experience that the boy has.
‘schooltime’ is grammatically incorrect and it is a compound neologism, this signifies a childishness about the character and a lack of understanding about the concept of time.
‘He did Something Very Wrong’
By describing the act as ‘something’ is quite ominous, this indicates that the act was relatively unimportant also it emphasises boys innocence or misunderstanding as he dosent know what he’s done wrong
The capitalisation of ‘Something Very Wrong’ highlights his childhood perception of the gravity of the situation.
The capitalisation could also indicate the authority of the teacher who has given him a punishment. (the teacher is very important and he words are capitalised)
‘And She said he’d done Something Very Wrong’
The capitalisation of ‘She’ shows the god-like authority that the teacher has over the child, and the respect that he has for her, this is further seen as the teacher commands that he ‘must’ stay behind.
‘Something Very Wrong’ is repeated because these words stuck with the boy and perhaps he had feeling of guilt despite his lack of knowledge.
He was too scared of being wicked’
The fact that the boy was ‘‘scared of” correcting the teacher reflects his childish innocence and perhaps the teacher insights fear into her students. sympathy for the boy
The use of the word ‘wicked’ reminds us of many fairytale villains, which continues the previous imagery.
‘she’d forgotten’
criticism of the teacher’s irresponsibility and ineffective role. Her name is not capitalised, perhaps this is a bitter tone. evokes sympathy for boy
‘Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime’
This is a neologism, it reflects the childhood perception of time and that it is very routine-based, it creates a sense of security (juxtaposed with ’half past two’ ) compared to the abstract notion of time as we know it.
The repetition of time throughout the poem highlights the authority that time has over everyone’s life.
‘He knew the clockface, the little eyes, And two long legs for walking’
The boy personified the clock, this reflects his childhood innocence as his imagination runs wild.(only thing he understands about the clock)
emphasis on ‘knew’ gives power to time and shows its authority over life.
‘But he couldn’t click its language’
The use of onomatopoeia in ‘click’ allows us to imagine the ticking sound of the clock.
By metaphorically not knowing the “language” of the clock emphasises boy’s lack of understanding
‘And he knew he’d escaped forever’
His ‘escape’ is purely metaphorical, as his imagination allows him to be distracted from the punishment, (triumphant tone.)
This could be the adult narrator taking on a nostalgic tone as they remember their own childhood, the solace that they had without the constraint of time, possibly envious of this age.
‘Into the silent noise’ and ‘Into the air outside the window’
The anaphoric repetition of the phrase ‘into the’ reflects the timeless void that the boy has entered and his escape from reality as he is lost in his imagination.
The ‘air outside the window’ is symbolic of freedom from punishment.
This could be the adult nostalgia considering the freedom of childhood.
Scuttling in’
Scuttling in’
The teacher is presented in a panicked and hurried tone.
“scuttling” creates an image of an insect such as a beetle. (zoomorphism)
This could be a bitter tone to criticise the irresponsibility of the teacher.
‘Run along or you’ll be late’
This is a dismissive tone without regard to the boy or his emotion, this is again a criticism of the lack of care on the teacher’s behalf. No apology
She says that he will ‘be late’, this is an indicator that she has returned him to “conventional time” and highlights the adult control over a child’s life. imposing time on child again
‘So she slotted him back’
The use of sibilance could have connotations of evil and hate if referring to the teacher, this is a negative portrayal and a continuation of the criticism.
The boy is objectified as he is ‘slotted’ and creates an image of a file or book, this shows the lack of care and empathy that the teacher has for the boy.
‘escaped into the clockless land for ever’
‘escaped’ is repeated to perhaps highlight the narrative voice’s envy of the boy’s freedom from time. also ‘never forgot’ emphasises how important it was
the ‘clockless land’ is metaphorical of the childhood freedom and the lack of constraint from time.
‘time hides tickless waiting to be born’
time is always here but it just ‘hides tickless’ for children and it is personified to show its power and how it dictates our lives everyday.
‘waiting to be born’ is metaphorically referring to the boy developing an understanding of the concept of time
structure
There is some regularity as the poem is split into 11 tercets, this reflects the constant passing of time regardless of our action.
The majority of the structure is irregular to reflect the boy’s perception of the passing of time.
The tercets are contrasted with irregular sentence length, this reflects a childhood perception of time.
Enjambment shows the passing of time through his punishment and general life.
The poem is free verse, this could reflect his inability to measure time and so he is not confined to its constraint,
it could also be reflective of a memory that comes from the sub-conscience without consideration.
tone
The narrative voice presents a nostalgic tone as they are envious of the freedom of the child without conventional time, they also display a bitter and critical tone towards the teacher.
The teacher shows a dismissive and careless tone to the boy.
The simple language and structure of sentences refelcts the way that the young boy would probably think, creating a childish theme.
