Schoolroom On A Wet Afternoon Analysis

From "Ten Contemporary Poets" compiled and edited by Maurice Wollman, Harrap 1963The unrelated paragraphs of morning

Are forgotten now; the severed heads of kings

Rot by the misty Thames; the roses of York

And Lancaster are pressed between the leaves

Of history; Negroes sleep in Africa.

The complexities of simple interest lurk

In inkwells and the brittle sticks of chalk:

Afternoon is come and English Grammar.Rain falls as though the sky has been bereaved,

Stutters its inarticulate grief on glass

Of every lachrymose pane.The children read

Their books or make pretence of concentration,

Each bowed head seems bent in supplication

Or resignation to the fate that waits

In the unmapped forests of the future.

Is it their doomed innocence noon weeps for?In each diminutive breast a human heart

Pumps out the necessary blood: desires,

Pains and ecstasies surf-ride each singing wave

Which breaks in darkness on the mental shores.

Each child is disciplined; absorbed and still

At his small desk.Yet lift the lid and see,

Amidst frayed books and pencils, other shapes:

Vicious rope, glaring blade, the gun cocked to kill.

.: :.

This is a very intriguing poem. Vernon Scannell is a brilliant peot and has a great way with words. Another excellent poem of his is "A Case Of Murder". As a student who has been studying this peom for a folio piece i find it very easy to write about as it is full of depth and lots of hidden detail, which once picked out, holds a totally differnt and fascinating story behind it. I think i find it most interesting as i can relate to it easily from my own personal experience from my school years especially as i am being schooled in Scotland and know what he means when he writes about the rain fall on the glass

| Posted on 2005-02-03 | by Me05

.: :.

RE-DONE: questions relevance of schooling,by making the morning seem bland , "The unrelated paragraphs of morning
Are forgotten now" ,as if the routine as been over played and simply bores the students poet uses symbolic lexus to potray the loss of the childs innocence "Is it their doomed innocence noon weeps for?" - does education civilize us. with the last two lines their is the idea of primate, killer, intinct at work, probably implying the animal nature of us may not be concealed even with education.

| Posted on 2004-10-17 | by Approved Guest

.: :.

questions relevance of schooling,by making the morning seem bland main question"1963The unrelated paragraphs of morning
Are forgotten now" as if the routine as been over played and simply bores the students poet uses symbolic lexus to potray the loss of the childs innocence "Is it their doomed innocence noon weeps for?" - does education civilize us. with the last two lines their is the idea of primate, killer, intinct at work, probably implying the animal nature of us may not be concealed even with education.

| Posted on 2004-10-17 | by Approved Guest