Half Past Two Poem Analysis

The memories of childhood are very different for every single one of us, as some may be joyful but some may be heart-breaking. The three major poems ‘Piano’ by D.H. Lawrence, ‘Half Past Two’ by U.A. Fanthorpe and ‘Hide and seek’ by Vernon Scannell all portray the theme of a child growing up; these poems focus on the feelings of betrayal and regret. The three minor poems ‘Prayer Before Birth’ by Louis MacNeice, ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ by Chinua Achebe and ‘Once Upon a Time’ by Gabriel Okara bring out the negative images and experiences of the process of growing up. All six poems focus on the theme of loss, and also links to moving from childhood to adulthood, the breaking down of the parent-child bond and dealing with looking back at the past nostalgically.
‘Half Past Two’ was written by U.A. Fanthorpe who was born in Kent in 1929. After gaining a first class degree at St Anne’s College, Oxford she became an English teacher. In this poem, it could be argued that she is the teacher which makes the child stay in the room until “half past two”, as this could be written from personal experience of giving a child detention when she was a teacher. This poem is about being in the present but thinking back about the past, and …show more content…
‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ shows the hardship faced by a mother and child in a refugee camp due to war, which contrasts to ‘Hide and Seek’ as it takes a completely different perception of childhood, and this is because ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ was written during the Nigerian Civil War. “The air was heavy with odour of diarrhoea of unwashed children”, emphasizes the suffering they faced in the refugee camp. It paints a shocking picture of how ill the children felt and how dirty the place was. The pictures of “flowers” are instantly contrasted by “grave” to show a sudden change in the tone of the