Half-Past Two
U.A. Fanthorpe

WHAT Half-Past Two
Poetry Anthology
Half-Past Two
This poem is about a young boy in school who has
committed an unknown offence and has to stay for
detention. Unfortunately, he cannot tell the time and
does not know when to leave.
There is an element of criticism of the education
system for punishing pupils for a lack of knowledge.
The boy becomes a symbol of the innocence of youth in
comparison to the harshness of adulthood.

U. A. Fanthorpe (Ursula Askham Fanthorpe)
U.A. Fanthorpe was born in Kent in 1929. After boarding school in Surrey, she read English at St. Anne’s College, Oxford,
before training as a teacher. She taught at Cheltenham Ladies' College for sixteen years and was Head of English for eight
before deciding to do something radically different. It was while working as a receptionist at a neurological hospital in 1974
that she started writing poetry.
In 1980 she won third prize in the massive Observer / Arvon / South Bank Show poetry competition judged by Charles
Causley, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin. She was awarded one of the two £1,000 Travelling Scholarships for
1983 by The Society of Authors. After various residencies (Lancaster 1983-85, Northern Arts Fellow, 1987) she left the
hospital in 1989 to pursue her poetry full-time.
In 1994 U.A. Fanthorpe was the first woman in 315 years to be nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
In 2001 she was awarded the CBE for services to literature and awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2003, only the
fifth woman in 70 years to get it.
U.A. Fanthorpe died in 2009.

Half-past Two
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.
“Half-past Two”
Genre:
•Nostalgic, narrative poem
•Free verse
•Timeless in tone
Audience:
•Evokes memories of childhood
Subject:
•Child admonished
•Then forgotten
•Child’s experiences of non-
numerical time compared against his
compartmentalized view of the world
Purpose:
•To respect the childhood
experience?

Form and Structure
Tercets – Three line stanzas. A very rigid structure, like the ticking of a
clock.
Enjambment – Lines run into one another, like time passing easily and
steadily.

Symbolism and Imagery
Compound Words – Childish tone. Usually ending in ‘time’ to
emphasise that the boy knows what time is, but cannot tell time.
Onomatopoeia – ‘click its language’/‘slotted him back.’ Resembles the
sound the clock makes, as if time – or the speaker’s lack of ability to tell
time – is a problem for him every moment.

Symbolism and Imagery
Capitalisation – ‘Something Very Wrong’ emphasises
the innocence and youth of the speaker along with the
fear that he feels.
Personification – ‘the little eyes / And two long legs for
walking.’ Time and clocks are an alien concept to the
speaker. He is so familiar with them that they might as
well be unknown creatures.

Themes
Memory
Childhood
Isolation
Reality

Fanthorpe includes the boy’s memories of the day. The
narrator tells us that he goes to school and this is shown as a
compound word: ‘schooltime’. Fanthorpe uses capital letters
at the start of words to express how important and significant
the incident was to the teacher. The words ‘(I forgot what it
was)’ and the use of brackets show that it wasn’t all that
important to the boy.
Fanthorpe uses capital letters again in stanza 2 ‘She’ to give
the teacher a god-like status. Fanthorpe also uses repetition.
WHAT Half-Past Two Stanza 1 and 2

The narrator explains to us that the boy has not been
taught how to tell time yet. The childish nature of the
language also illustrates how irresponsible and innocent
the boy is.
In stanzas 4 and 5, the boy explains what he knows about
time and how he uses it. He has broken up his day into
recognisable units: ‘gettinguptime’.
WHAT Half-Past Two Stanzas 3, 4 and 5

In stanza 6, the boy explains how he interprets the clock. Fanthorpe
uses personification ‘long legs’ and ‘little eyes’ to again emphasise
the nature of childhood and innocence. The author reiterates that
‘he couldn’t click its language’ which shows that understanding time
is hard for him because it is like learning a new language.
In stanzas 7 and 8, the boy falls into the deep silence around him and
begins to admire his surroundings and falls into ‘daydreaming’- a
typical trait of a child. This could imply that adults are so obsessed
with work and time that they don’t appreciate life for its simplicity.
Childhood is the only time in life where time does not control you.
WHAT Half-Past Two Stanzas 6, 7 and 8

Stanza 9 reinforces the harsh attitude of an adult controlled by time
as she ‘forgot’ the boy was in the classroom. She feels no guilt or
remorse for her actions. This shows a complete distinction between
adulthood and childhood.
Stanza 10 and 11 summarises the boy’s day and how he fell into a
‘clockless’ land. This suggests that within the classroom, the boy felt
like he was in a different reality, a reality without responsibilities or
duties.
WHAT Half-Past Two Stanzas 9, 10 and 11

Verse 1: establishing time and voice
Once upon a schooltime
He did Something Very Wrong
(I forget what it was).
• How is the time established?
• With whom, or what, do you associate “once upon a…”?
• What is the purpose of the capital letters?
• Who is the “I” and why does (she) speak in brackets?

Verse 2: techniques
And She said he’d done
Something Very Wrong, and must
Stay in the school-room till half-past two.
• Who is the “She” character?
• Why no name for the teacher? Why capitals?
• Why lower case “he” for the boy?
• What is gained by using a simple 3 line stanza form?

Verse 3: the internal thoughts of both
(Being cross, she’d forgotten
She hadn’t taught him Time.
He was too scared of being wicked to remind her.)
• What is ‘voice’?
• “Cross; wicked” – whose language?
• What is the significance of the capitals?
• De-cipher the final line.
• Whose voice is this stanza in?

Verse 4: language and viewpoint
He knew a lot of time: he knew
Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,
Timetogohomenowtime, Tvtime,
• What are these 4 “times” the boy knows?
• Why present them in these compound ways?
• Where does the final comma lead….?

Verse 5: non-numerical time
Timeformykisstime (that was Grantime).
All the important times he knew,
But not half-past two.
• To whom are these “time zones” relevant in the poem?
• So far, how does the poem show differences between the child and adult
experiences?
• Look ahead – what change occurs between this verse/section of the poem, and
the next?
• Subject of sympathy…or humiliation?

Verse 6: devices used?
He knew the clockface, the little eyes
And two long legs for walking,
But he couldn’t click its language,
• Find the: personification; figurative imagery; onomatopoeia
• Which voice are we in here?
• Note the change from conversation to poetic language. Is this sustained from
hereon in?

Verse 7: language and experience
So he waited, beyond onceupona,
Out of reach of all the timefors,
And knew he’d escaped for ever
• The run together words tell us what of the boy’s experience of time?
• Look up the technique “enjambment”: how does it operate in this verse; to what
effect?

Verse 8: escape into fantasy
Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk,
Into the silent noise his hangnail made.
Into the air outside the window, into ever.
• This is the final stanza of the middle section
• Why? What is so special about this one?
• What does the use of the following bring to the theme here:
• repetition (into)
• Sense of smell and sound (flowers and nail)

Verse 9: final section of poem
And then, My goodness, she said,
Scuttling in, I forgot all about you.
Run along or you’ll be late.
• Final section: how does the pace ‘change gear’?
• What is the poet trying to show by this?
• How is a change of voice achieved?
• Scuttling – what impression do you get from this verb?

Verse 10: a hybrid of times?
So she slotted him back into schooltime,
And he got home in time for teatime,
Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime,
• Opens with conjunction “so”; second line with “and” The impact is…what?
• “slotted”: explain the image
• Is the teacher dismissive of him? Or simply efficient?
• Translate what the boy hears of the teacher into what she might well actually
have said.

Verse 11: euphoric profundity
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.
• Text’s summation becomes gently profound
• “clockless land” = a fantasy image: how?
• Where is the personification in the final line?
• What impact has the boy been left with?
• Sense, and celebration, of momentary timelessness he gained – we all wish for
this, sometimes