4. The Poet- Roger McGough
• Born on 9 November
1937
• In Liverpool, England
• Philip Larkin correspond
him in poetry.
• poem : humor and
popular
• genre: children, drama,
non-fiction and poetry
5. Overview
The poet epitomize the innocent,
ignorance, insecurity, confused and
misunderstanding of a child on his/her first
day at school.
In stanza 1, the content is a typical observation that
could be expected by the children on the first day at
school.
The poet conveys the state of confused. [in stanza 1,
line 2, “Waiting for the way to go. ( To go where?) ]
The poet also arouses the sense of
insecurity and anxiety inside the child.
6. In stanza 2, the poet also portrays the theme of
insecurity and innocent of a child.
Examples: „to keep out wolves and monsters', 'things
that carry off and eat children‟
There are several misspelled words such as “lessin” ,
“glassroom” and “millionbillionwillion” ,these words show
that the child is not expert in vocabulary and he/she is
frightened and not-confidence.
7. In stanza 3, the poet shifts into his own
childhood and he is also innocent as the other
children.
On his first day at school, he missed the
moment that his mother just left him for a few
minutes. He also desires the presence of his
mother to comfort him as well.
When it was raining, he also missed his yellow
wellingtons when he walked through the puddles
on the road.
8. There are many children that do not
know what their names are when they are
still small.
When the poet was young, he
misunderstood the meaning of teacher.
“cher” in French word means expensive.
So, the poet might think that teacher is
the one who will make the tea or the
teacher is an expensive tea.
19. THEME : INNOCENCE OF A CHILD
• Child has been told about what to expect but
he has only half understood them
• He gets confused
• Let him plays with his own imagination
• strange words and concepts make the child
experienced the moment of confusing and
slightly scary
20. EXAMPLES
First line
• expresses childhood confusion
describes the school as a strange place and far from home
“A millionbillionwillion miles from home”
Second line
• Child has been told:
“Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?)”
• He now becomes aware of something scary
“Why are they all so big, other children?
So noisy? So much at home they
Must have been born in uniform.”
• He immediately sees them as something alien. They also display
alienation towards him.
“Spent the years inventing games
That don't let me in. Games
That are rough, that swallow you up.”
21. THEME : INSECURITY OF A CHILD
• voices the feelings of the child on his unknowing
mind of the new world
• misinterpretations of his new life and how he
had gotten the wrong idea
• child's confusion in facing the new world he yet
has to explore and discover
• insecurity when went through this life-changing
experience
• Funny things happen - repeated wrong spelling
words ('...lessins','...glassrooms')
