Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker in the poem "The Cleaner" is the eponymous Cleaner and she speaks entirely from her own point of view.
In the majority of Fanthorpe's poetry the speaker is also narrating from their own perspective.
Form and Meter
There is no specific form or meter in any of the poems.
Metaphors and Similes
"The bottom rung" (of the ladder) is a metaphor for a person who is in the lowest possible position. This metaphor usually relates to a work situation where one takes an entry level job and starts on the bottom rung but in this poem it is used in a broader sense to say that the people whom Jesus befriends are on the bottom rung of society's ladder.
Alliteration and Assonance
"Public, prolonged, painful"
The alliterative value of the hard consonant sounds also serves to exaggerate the pain and the prolonged nature of it in that it is impossible to read these words aloud without pausing in between them and giving them each a sound of emphasis.
Irony
The character of the Wicked Fairy in the poem of the same name is plotting a horrible public torture and death for the baby unaware that this is all part of God's plan and will happen regardless of whether it is plotted and hastened by others who think that they are in control of what happens.
Genre
Contemporary Poetry
Setting
"The Cleaner" is set in a storied institution of a university in Britain where the upper class send their children after graduating high school.
Tone
Ironic, sarcastic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The Cleaner is the protagonist and the male students at the college where she cleans are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
There is conflict, if only in her own mind, within the Cleaner; she asks the girls who are falling for the charms of the older students if they know what they are doing and she is strongly against their getting involved with men who are only after one thing but the girls insist that they know what they are doing and ignore her advice. This is built up in her own head as a conflict.
Climax
The donkey describes the difficult accommodations but the poem reaches a climax at the end when he lets us know that he is well aware who the baby in the manger is, and why he is important.
Foreshadowing
The baby in "The Wicked Fairy at the Manger" foreshadows his own crucifixion and death by telling the Wicked Fairy that a public, prolonged and painful end is exactly what is planned for him.
Understatement
No specific examples
Allusions
The list of people mentioned by the Wicked Fairy as unsuitable companions alludes to the people whom Jesus befriended. For example, "poll tax collectors" alludes to the tax collectors in the temple; "tarts" alludes to Mary Magdalene.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Post-Grads is a term used to refer to all students about to graduate or just graduated.
Personification
The donkey in the poem is personified, almost anthropomorphic, in that he is narrating and has human abilities to express what he is seeing and what his feelings are about it.
Hyperbole
The Cleaner exaggerates the way in which she can tell the moral fiber of a girl by how many cigarette butts there are in an ashtray when she comes to clean it; twenty cigarette buts speaks negatively of a girl because she either smokes too much, or has entertained another smoker in her room.
Onomatopoeia
No specific examples
