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ANALYSIS This poem is called “First Day at School” and is written by Roger McGough. Roger himself was a teacher, which can be some of the reasons why he has written a poem about attending school. I did not find out when the poem was written, but the writer was born in 1937. The poem is about someone's first day at school. There is a child experiencing the first day at school, a first person singular speaking. He or she is philosophising on everything new. Where the bell is going, why they wear uniforms and why there are railings all around. The child has a very young and childish view of the school. For example he think lessons are called lessins and are small and slimy creatures. The classrooms are glassrooms where the lessins are kept. The poem has not got traditional stanzas. The stanzas have different amount of lines. The first has got nine lines, the second eleven lines and the third seven lines. There is neither any kind of rhyme throughout the poem, except from the four last lines. There we see a rhyme with pattern AABB. The rest of the poem have a free form of rhyme and rhythm. There are a lot of incomplete sentences. For example “And the railings.” “When there's puddles.” “Tea-cher.” The mood of the poem is probably confusion and surprise. The child is experiencing school for the first time and is very confused and does not know how it is to go to school, why things are the way they are and maybe surprised because he had different expectations? It says “I wish she was here.” The child is loning for his or her mother to be there as well. That is a mood too. Maybe the poem can be about anyone being confused or in new situations. Not just at the first day of school. The first day of school is a happening many can relate to, and maybe this situation is used as a symbol of every new, scary and confusing situations? Our opinion of the poem is that is was a little bit difficult to understand right after we read it. But after a couple of times, it became easier. The author writes well. The poem is kind of serious but at the same time he writes in a funny and childish way.
