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First Day at School / A millionbillionwillion miles from home / Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?) / Why are they all so big, other children? / So noisy?
- Half-Past Two
Once upon a schooltime / He did Something Very Wrong / (I...
- Half-Past Two
- Summary
- Themes
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Detailed Analysis
- Similar Poetry
”]‘First Day At School’ by Roger McGough is about a child’s experiences on their first day of school. The poem starts with the child speaking hyperbolically about how long they’ve been at school and how far from home they are. The child also emphasizes the size of other children, those who are older and have a better understanding of their environm...
Throughout this poem, the poet engages with themes of fitting in and new experiences. The speaker goes through a great deal on his first day of school. He’s baffled by all the things he sees and the people he meets. The child wants to make friends but doesn’t know how to fit in with the older kids, who seem so much bigger. Readers should also consi...
‘First Day At School’ by Roger McGough is a four-stanza poem that is separated into uneven stanzas. The first is nine lines long, the second is ten, the third is only one line long, and the fourth is seven lines. The poet chose to write this poem in free verse. This means that the poem does not conform to a specific metrical pattern or rhyme scheme...
Throughout this poem, McGough makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to: 1. Epistrophe: occurs when the poet uses the same word or words at the ends of multiple lines. For example, “railings” and the ends of lines one and two of the second stanza. 2. Caesura: occurs when the poet inserts a pause in the middle of li...
Stanza One
In the first stanza, the poet begins with a nonsense word, “millionbillionwillion.” With this word and the following lines, it becomes clear that the speaker of this piece is a young child. They’re new to the world of attending school and have a hard time understanding distances, time, and what the other children are like. They are “all so big, other children,” the small youthful speaker states. They are “So much at home.” This reveals that the speaker feels uncomfortable in school, in their...
Stanza Two
In the second stanza, the young speaker asks several questions. This is a classic feature of confused, youthful characters. Children love to ask questions, and this child is no exception. Their questions are only heightened due to the fact that they are in an unusual position and are confused by what they’re seeing. For example, the child wonders about the “railings” that surround the schoolyard. Because the child doesn’t have any experience at schools, they start to fantasize about what they...
Stanzas Three and Four
The third stanza is a play on the child’s misunderstanding of “classroom.” They think the word is “glassroom” and get distracted imagining a room entirely made of glass. The fourth stanza picks up with more funny lines and references to what a child’s first day of school would be like. Their name is sewn into the boots, thankfully, as they admit to having forgotten it. Perhaps because they’re so overwhelmed. The final line is a play on the word “teacher.” They take it to mean someone who make...
Readers who enjoyed ‘First Day At School’ should also consider reading other poetry by Roger McGough. For example: 1. ‘The Trouble With Snowmen’ – describes life and death through the unchanging symbolof a cement snowman. Other related poems include: 1. ‘The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High’ by Carol Ann Duffy – traces the developing wave of laught...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
Read, review and discuss the First Day at School poem by Roger McGough on Poetry.com.
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Literary analysis for the phrase Miles to Go Before I Sleep by Robert Frost with meaning, origin, usage explained as well as the source text.
- This phrase appears in the two last lines of Robert Frost’s simple poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. The speaker in the poem repeatedly ut...
- The speaker is away from his home, where he feels that he needs to repeat this fact to himself that he has miles to reach home. However, symbolical...
- This phrase is used in almost every walk of life, including literature, business, politics, and everyday life. For instance, an old man can say thi...
- This is a very famous phrase used by Robert Frost in the last stanza of his poem, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. In the lines 15 and 16, thi...
- The theme of this phrase is about affirming a path of life, and fulfilling promises. Some critics of Frost have suggested that this poem expresses...
Jun 17, 2012 · Hi, Interpres. The most obvious literal meaning is “e (molte) miglia da percorrere”. As you say, the final lines of the poem do not just mean that the speaker has a long trip ahead of him before he can arrive at his home and go to sleep. These lines are meant to serve as an allegory of the journey of human life.
First day at school A millionbillionwillion miles from home Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?) Why are they all so big, other children? So noisy? So much at home they Must have been born...
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