Half-past Two

by U A Fanthorpe

GCSE Poetry Analysis

Resources created by Michael Flynn
flynnseducationalgrotto@gmail.com
Learning Objectives
Our Intentions for Today

• In this lesson we are going to be

exploring the meaning within
Fanthorpe’s ‘Half past two’. Our
analysis will centre on the
content, language and structure
features of the text.
Key Words and Phrases: (Critical Knowledge)
Understanding Critical Language

• Narrator: a person who narrates something, especially a character who recounts the events
of a novel or narrative poem.
• Third Person: the third-person point of view belongs to the person (or people) being talked
about. The third-person pronouns include he, him, his, himself, she, her, hers, herself, it, its,
itself, they, them, their, theirs, and themselves.
• Repetition: the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
• Portmanteau: a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for
example motel or brunch.
• Emotive Language: words that make the audience think or feel something.
• Personification: giving human traits to inanimate objects.
• Contraction: the process of making a word smaller.
• Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Who was U A Fanthorpe?
Context
• Born in south-east London, Fanthorpe was the daughter of a judge. She
was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she "came to life,“
receiving a first-class degree in English language and literature. She
taught English at Cheltenham Ladies' College for 16 years. but 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. Fanthorpe's first
volume of poetry, Side Effects (1978), has been said to "unsentimentally
recover the invisible lives and voices of psychiatric patients.“ She was
"Writer-in-Residence" at St Martin's College, Lancaster (now the
University of Cumbria) in 1983–1985, and later Northern Arts Fellow at
Durham Newcastle universities.
• 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. Fanthorpe died of cancer aged 79 on 28
April 2009, in a hospice near her home in Wotton-under-Edge,
Gloucestershire. Fanthorpe was a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature, and was made CBE in 2001 for services to poetry. In 2003 she
received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Starter Activity: Think, Pair, Share
Let’s Begin

• If somebody does something

wrong why do we punish them?
• Is punishment a good way to
change a person’s behavior?
• What other strategies could we
use instead of punishment?
Task: Read, think and understand
A New Device

• There are thousands of language

devices present in the English
language.
• There are a small range of language
techniques where a writer can invent
words or phrases (this is called,
coining a phrase). There is also
another device where a writer can
bring a series of words together to
make a new word, this is called
portmanteau: ‘I have had enough’…
becomes … ‘ivehadenough’
Task: Let’s complete a first reading of the poem
Ask questions, clarify meaning
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 of 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 of ever,
Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.
Task: A quick question … (Essential Knowledge)
Establishing existing knowledge

What is a ‘target audience’? Why is it important that

we identify the ‘target audience’ when analysing
poetry?
Top Tip: When analysing a poem, always start with the
title
Exploring Initial Meaning
• This poem is called ‘half-past two’.
What do you immediately think of and
why?
• How important is time to you?
• How much of your time is truly your
own and how much of it is directed by
others?
 Task: Establishing the TONE
Developing Analysis Skills
So, when we say TONE, we are commenting on the atmosphere of the words that
the writer uses.
Words/phrases that make us think or feel something are referred to as, EMOTIVE
LANGUAGE.

Take your copy of your poem and underline any emotive

phrases you come across.

The emotive words and phrases you have underlined will allow you to establish the
overall atmosphere of this poem.

What tone do you think this poem has and why?

Once upon a schooltime
He did Something Very Wrong
(I forget what it was).
Do my annotations
And She said he’d done
Something Very Wrong, and must
Stay in the school-room till half-past two.
match yours?
(Being cross, she’d forgotten He knew the clockface, the little eyes
She hadn’t taught him Time. And two long legs for walking,
He was too scared of being wicked to remind her.) But he couldn’t click its language,

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.
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 of ever,
Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.
And now the big ‘possible’ answer….?
And it’s perfectly acceptable to disagree …

• The poem is narrated by the writer,

through the voice of her inner child.
• Although the teacher is characterized in a
scary way, the teacher themselves is very
understanding and fair.
• Therefore, I believe the poem has a wary,
frightened or confused tone.
 • Use the responses from questions 1-3 to
Task: Content Questions create a paragraphed response.
Exploring the Narrative
• Use the responses from questions 4-5 to
1. What is the story within the create a second paragraphed response
poem, what is the poem about? (you will need to think about how you
2. How would you describe the join these responses together to create a
tone poem of the poem and why? fluid paragraph).

3. What is the purpose of this

poem?
4. Who is the target audience for
this poem and why?
5. Why are the messages in this
poem still important today?
Task: Language Questions – Stanzas 1 and 2
Exploring the Devices
‘Once upon a schooltime’ – what does the first line of
Once upon a schooltime the poem remind you of and why?
He did Something Very Wrong
(I forget what it was). Why does the writer use repetition of the adverb,
And She said he’d done
‘very’? What effect does it create and why?
Something Very Wrong, and must ‘(I forget what it was)’ – what does this line reveal
Stay in the school-room till half-past two.
about the narrator?

Who do you think is narrating this

poem and why? (Think about the
spelling and grammar)

Why does the writer refer to

themselves in the third person?
Task: Language Questions – Stanzas 3
and 4
Exploring the Devices
‘She hadn’t taught him Time’ – explain the
writer’s use of capitalization – what can we
infer from this?
What emotive words does the writer use
to describe the atmosphere between the
teacher and the students?
(Being cross, she’d forgotten
She hadn’t taught him Time.
He was too scared of being wicked to remind her.)
He knew a lot of time: he knew
Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,
Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime,

What confuses the narrator about the

concept of time?
What effect does the use of portmanteau
create for the audience, what does it make
the audience think or feel?
Task: Language Questions – Stanzas 5 and 6What is the personified
clock unable to tell the
Exploring the Devices
narrator and why?
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,

In what ways does the use of

portmanteau make the concept of time
an entity connected to events, and not
the passing of time?

How and why is the clock personified in

stanza 6?
Task: Language Questions – Stanzas 7
and 8
Exploring the Devices
Where is the contraction ‘oneupona’ taken
from?
“Timefors” is a portmanteau word — a
contraction of ‘time’ and ‘for’. How does this
word show that the young narrator has
absorbed the adult method of dividing the
day into appropriate tasks matching given
times?
How could the ‘old chrysanthemums’
represent the thoughtlessness or
carelessness of the teacher who has
neglected the little boy?
What does the use of
enjambment connote?
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.
Describe/explain the use of oxymoron in
stanza 8.
‘Into the air outside the window, into ever’
– what does the last line of stanza 8
convey about the narrator’s regard
towards his current environment?
Task: Language Questions – Stanzas 9 and 10
Exploring the Devices
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,
‘My goodness’ – who is this statement aimed at
and why? What does it communicate about the
relationship that the teacher shares with the
student?
What does the word, ‘scuttling’ mean?
‘Run along or you’ll be late’ – how would you
describe the tone of the teacher’s words here
and what do they communicate to the
audience?
How does the verb ‘slotted’ have a de-
humanising quality? 
Task: Language Questions – Stanza 11
Exploring the Devices
‘But he never forgot how once by not
But he never forgot how once by not knowing time,
knowing time, He escaped into the He escaped into the clockless land of ever,
clockless land of ever’ – what closing ideas Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.
does the writer want the audience to
consider?
What language device is being used with
the ’t’s suggesting the sound of the ticking
clock?
 5 Minute Discussion Task
Speaking and Listening

The world is a confusing place, even for adults. Is it

right that we further confuse life for children by not
telling them the absolute truths of life?
Task: Structure Questions
Exploring the Presentation

• How many stanzas does this

poem contain?
• Does this poem have a beat
structure?
• Does this poem have a rhyme
structure?
Academic Writing Task: Complete the tasks in red to create
PETAL paragraphs
Point Evidence Technique Analysis Link
The writer presents Provide a quote to What language How do the audience When do children
time as a confusing support the point. devices are present gain meaning and learn the true
concept for children. within the quote? understanding from meaning of time?
the quote. How does
the writing device
highlight `the poet’s
ideas?
The writer uses the Provide a quote to What language How do the audience What does
device of support the point. devices are present gain meaning and portmanteau show or
portmanteau to within the quote? understanding from demonstrate
express the age of the the quote. How does generally?
narrator. the writing device
highlight `the poet’s
ideas?
Extension Task: Extended Response
Final Academic Sprint

Think back to your own early

childhood. What things do you
remember finding confusing?
How did you feel when you
discovered that both Father
Christmas and the Tooth Fairy were
not real?
 Homework: Extended Response
Independent Learning

How does the poet present the concept of childhood to

the audience?
Plenary
What questions are we left with?

• In her poem, Half-Past-Two, U. A. Fanthorpe utilizes

childish vernacular and mismatched capitalization to
reflect the stress of a young child who in the past was
punished for “Something”, but did not understand the
“Time” in which the punishment occurred.
• That child was not worried over what he had done or
how his parents would react, but rather the uncertainty
involved with not understanding what a detail as large
as “time” meant in that particular context.
• The parallel between the adult and child highlights a
difference in thought while still allowing for a bit of
similarity to shine through as both adult and child
showcased changing views in the duration of the poem.