This poem humorously mentions the typical incidents that children may experience while in school which allows them to relate to the poem more. What makes the poem comical, is the unexpected responses that are given from the teacher. According to a list I saw the other day, Please Mrs Butler is one of the top ten favourite children's poems in the UK. It is the first poem in this collection and we used to have it read to us in infant school every day so it felt. Due to oversaturation, it is not my favourite of the collection, but I do think this whole book is filled with very clever observations of the absurdities of both children and teachers and creates a lot of nostalgia. They are a little old-fashioned. Even when I was in school, teachers didn't smoke in the staffroom and headteachers couldn't punish children with slippers, and that was over thirty years ago, so I've no idea how accurate it is to MODERN primary school life, but it certainly feels accurate to what I remember. I always think this would make an excellent school play. The final line is perfect as it breaks from the pattern of the two previous verses, but maintains the effective structure; There are a few different themes that one might interpret from this poem. One of the primary options is self-reliance. The teacher is unwilling to provide the student with the answers they are looking for. Instead, they are forced, in theory, to solve their own problems. I have been reading the poems from this book over and over from my own childhood as I enjoyed them so much from a young age. Now, as a teacher, I see them for more than their entertainment value.

Death of a Naturalist’ – the title poem from Heaney’s first collection of poems, published in 1966 – is a poem about a rite of passage, and realising that the reality of the world does not match our expectations of it. Here, specifically, it is sexuality which is the theme: the speaker is appalled and repulsed by the reproductive cycle of frogs, which doesn’t quite tally with the view of nature offered by his teacher, Miss Walls. This views the start of another school year in September from the schoolmaster’s perspective, rather than his pupils’. He associates the chalk and the board and the classroom with his own mortality, with each September bringing him closer to the grave – and this feeling is only made more piquant by gazing out upon all the ‘April faces’ of the young schoolchildren, who have their whole lives ahead of them. This is a light hearted, humorous verse written about playtime. I like the way it is easy to read as a verse and by adding a touch of humour to a subject all children can relate to gives added interest to the listener. The speaker continues, complaining again to Mrs. Butler about Derek Drew. The young speaker tells her teacher that the boy is taking her rubber or eraser, and she wants him to stop. The third stanza follows a very similar structure to the first. Then, the fourth stanza conveys the same dismissive attitude readers saw from the teacher in the second stanza. This poem appeals to both children and teachers alike, thanks to its structure: the odd stanzas are spoken by a particularly talkative child complaining about what other children are doing, and the even stanzas comprise the teacher Mrs Butler’s responses to the child’s requests, with mounting frustration. Anyone who’s endured a particularly fraught and annoying class at school (and let’s face it, which of us hasn’t?) will find something that strikes a chord here.The lines conclude with, “But don’t ask me!” Although the teacher is the only one who has the power to do anything about these minor inconveniences, she is not willing to. This is clearly quite frustrating for the student but, very likely, not nearly as frustrating as being constantly barraged by questions and issues is for the teacher.

Whether it’s Wordsworth recalling his schooldays in The Prelude, or Shakespeare’s Jaques describing the schoolboy ‘creeping like snail / Unwillingly to school’, poets have often written about school, whether fondly or critically, from the teacher’s or the pupil’s perspective. Here are ten of the finest poems about school and schooldays, teachers and pupils, classrooms and chalkboards. Goldsmith’s depiction of a genial village schoolteacher, who is viewed by the locals as a kind of demigod, is not one that has lasted, alas, into the modern age. But when Goldsmith was writing, learning and literacy were looked up to, and the man who possessed their gifts was revered:

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The first time I read Please Mrs. Butler was as a year 6 pupil. .it is a journey through the school day - School time, Play time, Dinner time, School time again and Home time - all from the prospective of the children. After this, the teacher refers to the student as “my lamb.” This is no doubt meant as a term of endearment, but it also comes across as patronizing and dismissive. It’s clear the teacher doesn’t want to spend any time on this issue. I read this poem to my year 1 class during BSE and they absolutely enjoyed it. Although this poem is fairly outdated, the comical content still produced a lot of laughter from the children. Moreover, the repetitive nature of the poem engaged the children to participate in the reading of the poem. Allan always dreamed of being a writer, but first he became a primary school teacher. However, nothing has been wasted. The children in his class, his daughter, his passion for football and even being a postman for a while … all have found their way into Allan’s stories and poems. This is a brilliantly child friendly book that they can relate to due to the wording and the way the poems are written. Children will really love the poems as they are a focussed around children's everyday lives and their lives within school. The poems are also written in a way that adults can relate to, as quite often the poem is from the view point of the teacher or the adult. There are many types of poetry used throughout the book, mainly written to sound like children speaking, and also full of humour.

Haircut' depicts a common fear in many children's lives - standing out. At school consistency is key; the minute you change your appearance someone will have something to say about it. Ahlberg captures the annoyance at being told the blatantly obvious;

The teacher has a surprising answer. Readers are likely expecting to hear the teacher chastise the child, Derek, and possibly praise the young speaker for doing what’s right. But, the teacher does something very different. Using anaphora, the poet describes the teacher telling her student to “sit in the hall” or “sit in the sink.” The book is a collection of verse, all set in the school environment on familiar themes. Organised in to sections that follow the pattern of the school day (school time, play time, dinner time etc), there are nice poems of different sorts about things like supply teachers, telling tales, excuses for being late, notes and parents. I remember how my primary school teacher would read this to the class during story time. We loved the rhyme and being able to relate to the poems so much that we kept reciting the "Please Mrs Butler" poem for weeks. Allan Ahlberg (5 June 1938) and Janet Ahlberg (21 October 1944 – 13 November 1994) , née Janet Hall, were a British married couple who created many children's books, including picture books that regularly appear at the top of most popular lists for public libraries. Classroom ’by Dave Calder– uses personification to describe how lonely a classroom is when there are no students there.