Poetry Analysis: U. A. Fanthorpe’s “Half-past Two”

U. A. Fanthorpe’s “Half-past Two” presents the concept of time through the eyes of a child. Time is a concept for some. For others, it is a source of measurement. For those who detest it, it is the Eternal vanquisher and the Universal enemy of beauty. Here the poet puts forward the notion of Time as viewed by a child, who does not actually comprehend the idea of time. It also explores the psychology of a child who is too small to understand his mistake juxtaposed against a callous teacher who ticks him off for something beyond his comprehension.

The style of the poet and his stylistic histrionics are reminiscent of Dylan Thomas, when he asserts :”Once upon a schooltime.” Note that the words ‘school’ and ‘time’ are compounded to imply how intricately that part of time was linked with school. It may also point to the little kid’s notion of time, for whom activity defined time, and was not bothered about time guiding his activities. Once upon a time, the child had did “Something Very Wrong.” The capitalization of the word exemplifies the gravity of the mistake of the kid that is blown out of proportion for his age . The fact that the speaker himself forgets what the “Something Very Wrong” was, points to the frivolity of the situation.

And She said he’d done

Something Very Wrong, and must

Stay in the school-room till half-past two.

The teacher was a woman, yet she failed to be aware of the mentality of the child. Rather than constructively criticize him, she does not even explain to the kid what his error was. Her manner was, one based on logic, one that is guided by cause and effect. ‘Because’ he had done something wrong, ‘so’ he is punished. Being cross, she forgets that she had not taught him Time. This drives home the age and immaturity of a child recklessly punished into detention.

He was too scared of being wicked to remind her.

The child is not scared of his own actions, or of the act of being punished. He is ra ther scared of the adjective “wicked”:the criticism he gets from the teacher. He does not want to be termed wicked anymore; this is his concern. He longs for some token of appreciation. A child attaches significance to things he likes. This explains the Times he knew:

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.

It is the teacher who is actually supposed to ingrain in him the concept of time. As she talks of “half-past two”, he is dumbfounded. All he knows is that half-past two is something unpleasant.

His perception of time was concrete and not abstract. It consisted of :

… the clockface, the little eyes

And two long legs for walking,

But he couldn’t click its language,

He could not decipher the language, it was beyond his little carefree conception. He could only be well-versed with the language that was communicated to him, like any child.And he waited endlessly for he did not know what “half-past two” was. He waited beyond “onceupona”. His ‘wait’ was even beyond that a fairytale imagination could conceive. The ‘onceupona’ stands for a fairytale imagination. Even fairytales depend upon Time,eventhough they are not real, as all of them typically begin with ”Once upon a time.” He escaped into a cloud-cuckoo land:

Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk,

Into the silent noise his hangnail made,

Into the air outside the window, into ever.

He is occupied by three major sense perceptions. Note that it does not include his seeing or vision as he is in a state of trance. The silence makes him realize the painful noise that his hangnail made with none to offer him a token of sympathy and love.He tries to escape into the timelessness of Time, as described by ‘ever’. The insensitive teacher totally forgets about the little child locked way:

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,

For the teacher, time is a slot to fix the child into. It takes priority than the communication of its real meaning to the child. And by fixing into him into that time -slot, he delved for sometime into everlasting eternity, just because of the lack of awareness of time. Wordsworth mentions how children are nearer to heaven owing to their lack of awareness, their unconscious awe.

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.

Rukhaya M.K

A Literary Companion