Compare and Contrast at least three of Fanthorpe’s poems Essay

Fanthorpe’s poems: Half-past Two, Dear Mr Lee, and You will be hearing from us shortly offer us an insight into the views and thoughts of Fanthorpe, as well as making the reader think about their own preconceptions. She does this by making quirky and sometimes satirical poems, which seem almost like prose. Fanthorpe’s aims are unmistakable; her way of inviting the reader to look at life through her tongue-in-cheek writing makes people question their belief on the matter(s) that the poem explores. For example in Half-past Two the poet queries the strange idea of time. Adults see time as a number organised into a sequence that continues through out the day with out stopping. However in this poem Fanthorpe shows that children develop a different sense of time, almost like a dream world where time, as we know it, stops to exist. She also delves into the way that children see time as an event not a number, for example ‘timeformykisstime’. Likewise, in Dear Mr Lee, the poet disputes the way of teaching English, stating that the way teacher deconstruct and analyse poems makes it impossible for the piece to be appreciated for its face values. Similarly, You will be hearing from us shortly dissects the truth about interviews and the way that pressure in an interview can make the interviewee feel looked down on and prejudged. The poem is slightly satirical towards the end, but this only exaggerates the point that Fanthorpe is trying to convey. While under pressure, interviewees can hallucinate in a surreal manner. For example, ‘And you were born-? Yes pity’. Overall, the aims of all three poems suggest that Fanthorpe has some strong views about things we don’t really see as serious issues but do affect people. Technique plays a big role in all of Fanthorpe’s poems, especially You will be hearing from us shortly, where the text aligned on the right indicates what the interviewer is thinking at that point in the interview. This is unique to Fanthorpe’s poems. Likewise in Dear Mr Lee irregular and haphazard line endings and even a P.S. in the poem contributes to the idiosyncratic nature of it. However in Half-past Two there are well-organised stanzas, typical of the common types of poem. Capital letters are used to exaggerate or highlight an important idea that Fanthorpe wants to be recognised, for example ‘on Her desk’ represents the way the child imitates something said to him. Another variant from the norm in all three poems is the use of brackets or italic writing to represent either private thoughts or another voice. During the three pieces various voices are regularly used; the poet will do this to show either a different viewpoint or the words of a narrator. In the poem Half-past Two voices are used extensively to represent what the child was thinking, what the teacher said and also the narrating. During Dear Mr Lee there seems to be no arrangement in the text at all, however it does resemble a prose letter. However, looking more closely, the poem seems to represent the child’s feelings about teaching methods. Voices in this poem seem to consist of the child’s thoughts and her teacher’s remarks. However in You will be hearing from us shortly the only voice is of the interviewer(s). I imagine Fanthorpe does this so that the reader can add in his or her own response to the observations of the interviewer. Fanthorpe’s style is very prose-like and the colloquial nature invites the reader into a new dimension of humour. The register in all three poems is varied, for example in Dear Mr Lee goes from, ‘you’d know it’s lived with me, stained with Coke and Kitkat’ too, ‘good at terse and cogent’. This varied approach to the poem may be due to the different voices that Fanthorpe puts in. All three poems especially contain a satirical and sarcastic tone, and towards the end of You will be hearing from us shortly there is an almost surreal and dreamy feel to the tone. However all the poems, as well as having humour and tongue-in-cheek style, also harness a serious intention. For example in You will be hearing from us shortly, even though it is quite funny, the way you can be looked down on in as an interviewee is a prejudice. For example the interviewer says ‘And now a delicate matter: your looks. Do you appreciate this work involves contact with the actual public?’ This is clearly is meant to be a realistic event so that Fanthorpe can insight the reader to believe that prejudice does happen. Generally all the poems are very well written, however close analysis reveal even more about the poet’s way with words. In Half-past Two the last stanza is a brilliant description of the way that a child can slip into ‘the clockless land of ever, and time hides waiting to be born’. This end fraction of the poem portrays the child’s dream world and how there is ‘no time’ until the child is taught how to read time and it is then that time, as adults know it is ‘born’. In You will be hearing from us shortly the poet could not only be referring to the way that interviewers look upon interviewees, but how candidates assume surreal events will occur in the interview. For example it is very unlikely that an interviewer would comment on the very existence of an interviewee. During Dear Mr Lee Fanthorpe takes on the role of a child and doesn’t tell the reader she has done this but instead writes like one. She achieves this by having no indents, no punctuation, random line lengths, no rhythm or rhyme and no paragraphs. For example there is not one full stop until the forty-ninth line. Writing like a child makes the reader think that the poem is being told by a child. To conclude, the three Fanthorpe poems looked at in the Essay help us to understand the way that Fanthorpe regards incidents happening in the world today. It also uses a colloquial tone that provides a jovial piece to read as well as getting a serious point through. All in all the prose-like texts let the reader enjoy an idiosyncratic and meaningful set of poems.