“Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe: A Critical Analysis

Introduction: “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

“Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe, first appeared in 1978 as part of her poetry collection “Side Effects”, captures a poignant, childlike perspective on time, authority, and innocence. It tells the story of a young boy who is punished at school and told to stay in the classroom until “half-past two”—a time he does not understand because, as the poem says, “she hadn’t taught him Time.” This misunderstanding allows him to experience a timeless, dreamlike moment of freedom and sensory discovery, away from adult-imposed schedules. The poem is often featured in textbooks because of its accessible language, subtle irony, and deeper commentary on how children perceive time and authority. Its charm lies in blending humor with insight, using invented phrases like “Gettinguptime” and “TVtime” to reflect the boy’s innocent logic, while subtly critiquing adult forgetfulness and institutional rigidity. Fanthorpe’s clever use of form and voice makes it a powerful classroom piece for exploring themes of childhood, imagination, and the boundaries of structured education.

Text: “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

Annotations: “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

Line from Poem	Simple Explanation	Literary Devices
Once upon a schooltime	Starts like a fairytale but set in a school setting	Allusion (fairy tale), irony
He did Something Very Wrong	The boy did something wrong (not specified)	Capitalization (emphasis), ambiguity
(I forget what it was).	The speaker doesn’t remember the boy’s mistake	Parenthesis (narrator aside), understatement
And She said he’d done	The teacher accused him of doing something wrong	Capitalization (“She” shows authority), third-person tone
Something Very Wrong, and must	Emphasizes the wrongdoing and coming punishment	Repetition, emphasis
Stay in the school-room till half-past two.	He is told to stay behind as punishment until 2:30	Irony (he doesn’t understand time)
(Being cross, she’d forgotten	She was angry and forgot something important	Parenthesis, irony
She hadn’t taught him Time.	He doesn’t know how to read a clock because no one taught him	Personification (“Time”), irony
He was too scared at being wicked to remind her.)	He was too frightened to speak up	Tone (fear), irony
He knew a lot of time: he knew	He understood time by daily routines	Colloquial tone
Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,	He knew times like waking up and going to school	Neologism (made-up compound words), child’s perspective
Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime,	He knew when school ended and TV started	Neologism, relatability
Timeformykisstime (that was Grantime).	He remembers affection from his grandma	Neologism, tenderness, parenthesis
All the important times he knew,	He understood meaningful times in his own way	Rhythm, emphasis
But not half-past two.	But he didn’t understand the time on a clock	Contrast, irony
He knew the clockface, the little eyes	He recognized the clock but misunderstood its parts	Metaphor (clock hands = eyes), imagery
And two long legs for walking,	He saw the clock hands as legs	Personification, metaphor
But he couldn’t click its language,	He didn’t understand how the clock “spoke” time	Metaphor (“language of time”), irony
So he waited, beyond onceupona,	He drifted into a dreamy timeless state	Allusion (fairytale), metaphor
Out of reach of all the timefors,	He was free from schedules and routines	Neologism, metaphor
And knew he’d escaped for ever	He felt he had escaped reality completely	Hyperbole, tone of freedom
Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk,	He noticed small, real-world details around him	Imagery, sensory detail
Into the silent noise his hangnail made,	He focused on tiny, imagined sounds	Oxymoron (“silent noise”), imagery
Into the air outside the window, into ever.	His mind wandered out the window, into a timeless place	Repetition, metaphor, imagery
And then, My goodness, she said,	The teacher suddenly remembered him	Dialogue, tone shift
Scuttling in, I forgot all about you.	She hurries in, realizing her mistake	Word choice (“scuttling”), irony
Run along or you’ll be late.	She sends him back to routine	Irony (rushed back into “time”)
So she slotted him back into schooltime,	She reinserts him into the system like a puzzle piece	Metaphor (“slotted”), contrast
And he got home in time for teatime,	His day resumes like normal	Routine, rhyme
Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime,	The future is full of scheduled times again	Neologism, repetition
But he never forgot how once by not knowing time,	He remembered how not knowing time gave him freedom	Irony, reflection
He escaped into the clockless land for ever,	He imagined a timeless world	Metaphor (“clockless land”), fantasy tone
Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.	A poetic image of time not yet existing or controlled	Personification, metaphor, paradox

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

Device	Example from Poem	Explanation
Allusion	“Once upon a schooltime”	References fairytale language to contrast fantasy with real school punishment.
Ambiguity	“Something Very Wrong”	The action is never specified, creating mystery and focusing on its consequences.
Assonance	“He knew a lot of time: he knew”	Repetition of vowel sounds creates internal rhythm and musicality.
Capitalization	“She”, “Something Very Wrong”	Gives symbolic weight or irony to characters or events.
Colloquialism	“TVtime”, “Gettinguptime”	Informal, childlike phrasing mirrors a young child’s internal language.
Contrast	“All the important times he knew / But not half-past two”	Opposes meaningful routine to abstract adult time to show misunderstanding.
Enjambment	“And knew he’d escaped for ever / Into the smell…”	Lines flow into the next to mimic thought and continuous sensory awareness.
Hyperbole	“He’d escaped for ever”	Exaggerates the boy’s feeling of timeless freedom.
Imagery	“Smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk”	Sensory detail brings the scene to life and shows his attention to surroundings.
Irony	“She hadn’t taught him Time”	Highlights the absurdity of punishing someone for not knowing something.
Metaphor	“Two long legs for walking” (clock hands)	Child imagines the clock in human terms, showing innocent misunderstanding.
Neologism	“timeyouwereofftime”, “notimeforthatnowtime”	Invented compound words reflect how children experience time.
Oxymoron	“Silent noise his hangnail made”	Contradictory phrase emphasizes heightened sensitivity and imagination.
Parenthesis	“(I forget what it was)”	A side comment from the speaker adds a reflective, casual tone.
Personification	“She hadn’t taught him Time”	Time is treated like a subject or living concept, giving it human qualities.
Repetition	“time…time…time”	Emphasizes the central theme and the boy’s obsession with the idea of time.
Rhyme	“schooltime / teatime”	Soft rhyme links beginning and end, showing circular routine.
Rhythm	Natural speech-like phrasing	Mimics the flow of a child’s thoughts and internal storytelling.
Symbolism	“Clockless land”	Represents freedom, imagination, and timelessness away from adult control.
Tone Shift	“And then, My goodness, she said…”	Sudden shift from dreamy escape to abrupt adult interruption and routine.

Themes: “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

---

1. Theme of Innocence and Childhood Perception
“Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe explores the purity of a child’s mind and how children interpret the world differently from adults. The boy in the poem is punished for doing “Something Very Wrong,” yet he does not understand what it is, nor does he understand the concept of clock time. Instead of numerical time, he measures life through personal experiences like “Gettinguptime,” “TVtime,” and “Timeformykisstime.” These invented terms reflect how children see the world through emotion, routine, and affection rather than structured systems. His inability to tell time highlights his innocent detachment from adult expectations, making his quiet escape into imagination a symbol of childhood purity.

---

2. Theme of Authority and Miscommunication
“Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe critiques the gap between adult authority and child understanding, especially within institutional settings like school. The teacher, referred to only as “She,” enforces punishment without realizing the child cannot comprehend it. She tells him to stay until “half-past two” but, ironically, “hadn’t taught him Time.” This moment underlines a key failure in adult communication and exposes the blind spots in authority figures who assume knowledge. The capitalized “Something Very Wrong” mocks adult seriousness, while the boy’s silence—”too scared at being wicked to remind her”—reveals how power imbalance silences children. The poem suggests that authority, when detached from empathy, leads to confusion rather than learning.

---

3. Theme of Time and Timelessness
“Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe presents time not just as a concept, but as a boundary between the adult world and childhood imagination. Because the boy cannot “click its language,” time becomes meaningless, allowing him to enter a dreamlike state “out of reach of all the timefors.” In this moment, the child escapes measured time and experiences timeless being—absorbing sensory details like “the smell of old chrysanthemums” and the “silent noise” of his hangnail. The phrase “clockless land” symbolizes a place of emotional and sensory freedom. This theme challenges the rigid, often oppressive structure of adult timekeeping and celebrates the beauty of unstructured experience.

---

4. Theme of Memory and Lasting Impact
“Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe reflects on how certain childhood moments, especially those filled with confusion and wonder, remain etched in memory. Although the teacher eventually “forgot all about” the boy, he “never forgot” the feeling of being suspended in a world without time. His experience of timelessness becomes a lifelong memory, standing apart from everyday routines like “schooltime” and “teatime.” The final lines suggest that the boy’s mind briefly opened a window into a deeper, more poetic sense of existence “where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.” This theme emphasizes that seemingly small moments in childhood can leave profound, enduring impressions.

---

Literary Theories and “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

Literary Theory	Application to the Poem	Reference from Poem
Reader-Response Theory	Focuses on how the reader interprets the child’s innocence and emotional experience through their own perception.	The boy’s invented times like “Gettinguptime” and “TVtime” evoke personal memory and subjective understanding.
Structuralism	Examines how language and binary oppositions (child vs. adult, time vs. timelessness) structure the poem’s meaning.	Contrast between “half-past two” (adult time) and “timeformykisstime” (child logic) structures key oppositions.
Psychoanalytic Theory	Explores the subconscious feelings of fear, repression, and escape in the child’s inner world.	The boy is “too scared at being wicked” and escapes into a timeless, dreamy world of imagination and sensation.
Feminist Theory	Investigates the role of female authority and how gender is subtly presented, especially in institutional power.	The teacher, referred to as “She” with capitalisation, represents a dominating female authority figure.

---

Critical Questions about “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

1. How does “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe explore the conflict between a child’s world and adult authority?
The poem highlights the disconnect between the structured expectations of adults and the imaginative, emotional understanding of children. The boy is punished for “Something Very Wrong”, but the poem never specifies what the wrongdoing was, which emphasizes how arbitrary adult discipline can feel to a child. The use of capital letters in “Something Very Wrong” mocks the seriousness with which the adult treats the situation, while the child remains confused and scared. He is told to wait until “half-past two”, but as the poem reveals, “she hadn’t taught him Time”. Too frightened to speak up—“He was too scared at being wicked to remind her”—he submits to a punishment he doesn’t understand. This clash between institutional authority and a child’s innocent worldview underscores the poem’s central tension.

---

2. In what ways does “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe portray time as both structured and abstract?
Time in the poem functions on two levels: as a rigid adult system and as a flexible, emotional concept for the child. The teacher’s instruction—“Stay in the school-room till half-past two”—represents the formal, measurable time adults rely on. However, the boy doesn’t understand clock time; instead, he operates by internal markers like “Gettinguptime,” “TVtime,” and “Timeformykisstime”. These invented phrases show how children measure time by routine and emotional events rather than numbers. When left alone, the boy escapes into a moment outside of structured time: “Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk, / Into the silent noise his hangnail made”. This timeless state contrasts with the adult world and suggests that for children, time can be sensory, personal, and unbound by ticking clocks.

---

3. What role does memory play in “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe?
Memory plays a significant role in transforming a small childhood incident into a moment of lifelong emotional impact. Although the teacher quickly forgets the boy—“I forgot all about you”—the child never forgets the experience. The final lines show how the memory lingers: “But he never forgot how once by not knowing time, / He escaped into the clockless land for ever”. The phrase “clockless land” symbolizes a place of pure freedom and imagination, made possible only because of the child’s misunderstanding of time. Through memory, the boy’s quiet punishment becomes something almost magical and transcendent. Fanthorpe shows how children often remember feelings, not facts, and how moments that seem trivial to adults can define a child’s inner world.

---

4. How does “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe use poetic techniques to reflect a child’s perspective?
Fanthorpe uses a range of poetic devices to convincingly capture the voice and perception of a child. The boy’s invented times, such as “timeyouwereofftime” and “notimeforthatnowtime”, mimic the way children blend words and concepts to express their understanding of the world. These neologisms reflect a playful but sincere attempt to make sense of adult rules. The description of the clock as “little eyes / And two long legs for walking” is a metaphor that reveals how the boy anthropomorphizes the clock, turning something abstract into something relatable. The poem’s free verse form and enjambment allow thoughts to flow naturally, like a child’s unfiltered stream of consciousness. These techniques immerse the reader in the boy’s mind, capturing the confusion, wonder, and quiet liberation he experiences.

---

Literary Works Similar to “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

1. “Hide and Seek” by Vernon Scannell
   Explores childhood innocence and isolation, similar to Fanthorpe’s portrayal of a child left alone and unaware of adult intentions.
2. “Piano” by D.H. Lawrence
   Reflects on childhood memories with emotional depth, mirroring the nostalgic and sensory recollection in “Half-Past Two.”
3. “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy
   Captures the transition from childhood to awareness within a school setting, much like Fanthorpe’s school-based reflection on time and authority.
4. “The Schoolboy” by William Blake
   Critiques formal education from a child’s point of view, aligning with Fanthorpe’s subtle challenge to institutional rigidity.
5. “Before You Were Mine” by Carol Ann Duffy
   Blends memory, time, and personal reflection, echoing Fanthorpe’s use of remembered moments to explore larger themes of perception and growth.

Representative Quotations of “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
“Once upon a schooltime”	Opening line; frames the poem like a fairy tale, blending fantasy with real-world schooling.	Reader-Response Theory
“Something Very Wrong”	Ambiguous phrase used by the teacher; highlights vague adult authority.	Post-Structuralism
“She hadn’t taught him Time”	Irony of punishing a child for not understanding something never taught.	Feminist Theory
“He knew a lot of time: he knew Gettinguptime…”	Shows the boy’s personal, emotional understanding of time through invented terms.	Structuralism
“But not half-past two”	Central conflict; child doesn’t grasp institutional time.	Psychoanalytic Theory
“He couldn’t click its language”	Metaphor for not understanding the adult code of clocks and schedules.	Semiotics
“Out of reach of all the timefors”	Symbolizes escape from structured life into imaginative freedom.	Romanticism / Reader-Response
“Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk”	Sensory detail of the boy’s moment of heightened awareness.	Phenomenology
“I forgot all about you”	Adult voice returns abruptly, showing carelessness or obliviousness.	Feminist / Psychoanalytic Theory
“He escaped into the clockless land for ever”	Describes the boy’s timeless experience as a permanent emotional memory.	Memory Studies / Psychoanalysis

Suggested Readings: “Half-Past Two” by U.A. Fanthorpe

---