The poem celebrates the persona's father as their number one hero who is unafraid of anything, including monsters and ghosts. However, the last lines reveal that while the father is brave in many situations, he is afraid of spiders and the persona's mother has to remove any spiders found in the bath. The poem uses this humorous contradiction to show both the father's bravery but also his human vulnerability of being afraid of spiders.

1. MY HEROMY HERO

2. • The poem is for both children and adults
• With pride, the persona first recounts how
heroic the father is. ‘Dad’ is unafraid of anything
including mythical monsters. Therefore, dad is
the persona’s ‘Number One’ hero.
• However, the rhetorical question in the last two
lines of the poem shows the persona’s curiosity
and puzzlement because the heroic father is
afraid of a spider. In fact, the persona’s mother
has to remove the spider.
Overview of the poem

3. Meaning of Verses
My Dad’s as brave as a dad can be,
I rate him Number One,
He’s not afraid of the dead of night,
Or anything under the sun.

4. Meaning of Verses
He’s not afraid of a late-night film,
Full of horrors on the telly,
And is he afraid of skeletons?
Not Dad, not on your Nelly!

5. Meaning of Verses
He’s not afraid of meeting ghosts,
He’d even smile and greet ‘em,
And things that scared most dads the most,
My dad could just defeat ‘em.

6. Meaning of Verses
He’s not afraid of vampires,
Or a wolf-man come to get him,
If Frankenstein monster knocked on our door,
He wouldn’t let that upset him.

7. Meaning of Verses
My dad’s as brave as a dad can be,
And he’s always ready to prove it.
So why, when a spider’s in the bath,
Does Mum have to come and remove it?