Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ASSIGNMENT
SEMESTER 1
BCOM (P)
SECTION “A”
22/34136
Summary
‘Afternoon in School: The Last Lesson’ by D.H. Lawrence is told from
the perspective of a teacher exhausted with his thoughtless class of
students.
Structure
‘Afternoon in School: The Last Lesson’ by D.H. Lawrence is a two stanza
poem that’s divided into one set of eleven lines and another set of twelve.
These lines do not follow a specific rhyme scheme but there are scattered
instances of full rhyme and half-rhyme throughout the text. For example,
full or perfect rhyme can be seen at the endings of lines two and three of
the first stanza with “apart” and “start” as well as at the end of lines four
and six with “hunt” and “brunt”.
Poetic Techniques
Lawrence makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Afternoon in School:
The Last Lesson’. These include alliteration, enjambment, anaphora,
and caesura. The first, alliteration, occurs when words are used in
succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same
letter. This is one of the most prominent and important techniques in the
piece. There are examples throughout the two stanzas, such as “bear” and
“brunt” in line six of the first stanza and “Some,” “strength,” and “sell” in line
ten of the second stanza.
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
Lines 1-5
In lines two and three, Lawrence uses a metaphor to compare the teacher’s
students to a “pack of unruly hounds”. They “tugged the leash” he tried to
keep them on and pushed back against all his attempts to bring them to
“knowledge”.
The teacher expresses his exasperation in the next lines over his student’s
unwillingness to “hunt” for knowledge. Despite his best efforts, it appears
the students have won and he is exhausted. He declares that he can “haul
them,” as one would pull a dog, “no more”.
Lines 6-11
Stanza Two
Lines 1-5
Lines 6-12
I will not waste myself to embers for them,
Not all for them shall the fires of my life be hot,
For myself a heap of ashes of weariness, till sleep
Shall have raked the embers clear: I will keep
Some of my strength for myself, for if I should sell
It all for them, I should hate them –
– I will sit and wait for the bell.
In the final lines of ‘Afternoon in School: The Last Lesson,’ the speaker
concludes by saying that he’s not going to waste the last of his motivation
and strength on these students he’s supposed to be in charge of. His life is
compared to the “embers” of a fire that’s slowly burning out, he’s going to
utilize what’s left of himself for something he actually wants to do. He’s
going to “keep / Some of [his] strength” for himself.
The speaker concludes by declaring that if he did waste the last of himself
on these terrible students then he would “hate them”. Rather than trying,
he’s going to “sit and wait for the bell” just as they are.