First Day at School

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 in uniform
Lived all their lives in playgrounds
Spent the years inventing games
That don't let me in. Games
That are rough, that swallow you up.

And the railings.
All around, the railings.
Are they to keep out wolves and monsters?
Things that carry off and eat children?
Things you don't take sweets from?
Perhaps they're to stop us getting out
Running away from the lessins. Lessin.
What does a lessin look like?
Sounds small and slimy.
They keep them in the glassrooms.
Whole rooms made out of glass. Imagine.

I wish I could remember my name
Mummy said it would come in useful.
Like wellies. When there's puddles.
Yellowwellies. I wish she was here.
I think my name is sewn on somewhere
Perhaps the teacher will read it for me.
Tea-cher. The one who makes the tea. 

Roger McGough

The poet portrays about the feeling of young child on his very first day to school who has just been dropped off by his mother in the playground.  The child thinks about the appearance of other children, his hesitation in playing at the playground. The child thinks that the other’s games are rough. Here the poet describes about the nervousness of a child and how the railing around the school seems like a monsters. The misspelled words like “lessins”, “glassrooms” in the poem makes us feel that the poem was written by a child. The poet describes the child's difficulty in remembering his name and he hopes that teacher would read his name.“Tea-cher” makes tea adds a sense of comic relief to the poem.