Half past two

Question 1

What are the key themes in half past two?

Answer 1

• Child hood
• Nostalgia
• Innocence
• Time
• Freedom
• Memory
• Critsim of education

Question 2

What are the key structaral features used in half past two?

Answer 2

• Enjambment
• Free verse
• Listing
• Irregular line lengths
• Compound words
• Contrast

Question 3

What effect does enjambemnt have on the poem?

Answer 3

• Makes it the poem more fast passed, maybe reflecting the fast pass that children can often talk in
• Lack of understanding
• Endless

Question 4

What effect does free verse have on the poem?

Answer 4

• Reprsent the escapsuim that the hcild felt
• Reflect the confusion and innocence of the child
• Makes the poem seem more like a memory than a story representing how memories are not nesscarily in chronological order

Question 5

What effect does listing have on the poem?

Answer 5

• Creates a sense of longing and comfort in the things the boy is used to
• Makes the punshiment seem ubrupt compared to the list of things the boys routine is made of

Question 6

What effect does irregular line lengths have on the peom?

Answer 6

• Creates a sense of innocence and a lack of understanding
• Makes the poem seem more like a memory than a story

Question 7

What effect does compound words have on the poem?

Answer 7

• Shows a lack of udnerstanding that the boy still has not fully learnt
• Highlights the boy age and gives an idea that teh boy is very young
• Provides innocence
• Contrasts to the punshiment given and makes the punshiment seem harsh

Question 8

What effect does contrats bring to the poem?

Answer 8

• Creates a comparrison between the innocence of the boy and the harshness of the punshiment
• Helps to critise the education system

Question 9

An example of listing used in the poem:

Answer 9

Stanza 4 - begging of stanza 5 (lines 10-14)

Question 10

An example of compound words?

Answer 10

schooltime and Timetogotohomenowtime

Question 11

What are key features of stanza 1?

Once upon a schooltime
He did Something Very Wrong
(I forget what it was).

Answer 11

• Begins with ‘Once upon a’ (connotes to fairytales and innocence)
• ‘schooltime’ compound words (shows childness, innocence and a lack of understanding.)
• ‘Somthing Very Wrong’ (creates empahsis and suggests athourity and importance)
• Simple langauge and structure is used (reflecting the boy thoughts)
• (I forgot what it was) (personal prounoun makes it sound personal and suggests that this story is real but from whos perspective it is still unkown)

Question 12

What are the key features of stanza 2?

And She said he’d done
Something Very Wrong, and must
Stay in the school-room till half-past two.

Answer 12

• ‘And She said he’d done somthing very wrong’ (‘She’ is anyoumous could represent anyone, and ‘She’ compared to ‘he’d’ is in captail representing authority and belittling the boy)
• ‘Somthing Very Wrong’ (Captiulsm creates improtance and is ambigous the actiosn the boy has done is hidden and to not reavled perhaps empahsing on the harshness of the eductaion system)
  *

Question 13

What are the key features of stanza 3?

(Being cross, she’d forgotten
She hadn’t taught him Time.
He was too scared at being wicked to remind her.)

Answer 13

• The brackets (show an inner thought of the teacher and the boy there is a ocntrast made between both of there thoughts)
• ‘cross’ and ‘scared’ (contrast each other and show the difference one is amde to be seen as innocent and the other more evil)
• Verb ‘forgotten’ (creates a disregarding tone)

Question 14

What are the key features of stanza 4?

He knew a lot of time: he knew
Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,
Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime,

Answer 14

• Listing (seems endless but comforting and common to the boy)
• Compound words (revealing the boys age and innocence)

Question 15

What are the key features of stanza 5?

Timeformykisstime (that was Grantime).
All the important times he knew,
But not half-past two.

Answer 15

• ‘Timeformykisstime’ (compound word and part of the listing from the arlier stanza but it stands alone sepreate from the other stanzas showing importance and suggests that the boy has a loving family)
• ‘Grantime’ (compound words and brackets show the innocence of the brackets empahises that this is personal to the boy)
• ‘But’ (the connective creates a shift from the comfort in the endless caring routine to a sudden abrubt break into ‘half past two’ sounding harsh)

Question 16

What are the key features of stanza 6?

He knew the clockface, the little eyes
And two long legs for walking,
But he couldn’t click its language,

Answer 16

• Personfication of the clock (shows innocence and empahises the idea of teh harshness of the punshiment)
• ‘click’ (onomatpia creates a reminder of time and makes it seem harsh and empahises the innocen of the boy and how dauting it must be for him)
• ‘clockface’ (compound words empahises on the innocence and youth of the boy)

Question 17

What are the key features of stanza 7?

So he waited, beyond onceupona,
Out of reach of all the timefors,
And knew he’d escaped for ever

Answer 17

• ‘onceupona’ (repittion and compound words, the repition acts asa reminder of the fairy tale feel of the poem and the compound words shows how this is a child and is a change from the begging spelling suggetsing that this section is coming from the child)
• ‘timefors’ (copound words and shows innoncence)
• ‘escaped’ (verb makes it sound triphant

Question 18

What are the key features of stanza 8?

Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk,
Into the silent noise his hangnail made,
Into the air outside the window, into ever

Answer 18

• ‘Into the’ (anophoara creates a sense of timlesness and seems endless and seems to evoke a sense of giddness and happiness in the boy)
• ‘smell… noise’ (senses take the readers into the boys experience and is vivid showing the importance of this moment)
• ‘air outside the window’ ( noun and preposition connote to freedom and show how the boy has found freedom contrasting in what he felt before)

Question 19

What are the key feature sof stanza 9?

And then, My goodness, she said,
Scuttling in, I forgot all about you.
Run along or you’ll be late.

Answer 19

• Lack of dialgoue (shows hwo this could be related ot more than tecaher an dis not direct to that one teacher it makes the reader focus on the actions taken rather than a specfic person)
• ‘Scuttling’ ( verb creates animalistic charctersistics and dehumanises the tecaher also scuttling is not a confidnet action perhaps the teachher know sthe msiatke she has done but doenst feel like admiting it openly)
• ‘Run along’ (impperative is used to show the dismissve and disreagrding tone of the teacher)
• ‘late’ (indication to time)

Question 20

What effect does stanza 10 have?

So she slotted him back into schooltime,
And he got home in time for teatime,
Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime,

Answer 20

• ‘slotted’ (verb suggets that the teacher views the boy as an object belittling him and showing the authority and ocntrol she has)
• First line (sibilance creates a concentration in the tecahers actions and makes it sound sinster and unfriendly but also sounds soothing that thinsg are going back to normal)
• Listing and compound words (Shows the innoncence and endlessness of the routine but cmforting way and is laink back to the lost early on suggetsing thinsg are back to normal)

Question 21

The last stanza is a reflection on the events taken place

What effect does stanza11 have?

But he never forgot how once by not knowing time,
He escaped into the clockless land for ever,
Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.

Answer 21

• ‘never forgot’ (adverb and verb show how signficant the events were)
• ‘escaped’ (repitiion highlightes the importance and perhaps longing of that one time)
• ‘clockless land… tick-less’ (metaphors for the freedom of childhood