1. The Hunchback in the Park
Dylan Thomas

2. AQA Learning Objectives
AO1 – respond to texts critically and imaginatively, select and evaluate textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.
AO2 – explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers' presentation of ideas, themes and settings.
If students are unclear exactly what is required of them in their exam, glossing these assessment objectives would be a useful thing to do.

3. The Hunchback in the Park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark
Eating bread from a newspaper
Drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
But nobody chained him up.
As with any poem taught in class, it can be useful to remember that for some students – perhaps many – the very sight of a poem can instil an antagonistic response, often unspoken… even a “mental fog” caused by expectations of various kinds: it’s bound to be hard… it’s a poem and I don’t like poetry… poetry is for ‘sissies’… and so on. A highly effective demystifying technique is to get the students to see the text not as a poem but as someone speaking in a particular circumstance and then getting the students to visualise themselves as a part of that circumstance. With this poem, the students might easily visualise the scene and it might help further to re-write the lines into a more natural form of speech, reflecting then on how Thomas’s more ‘poetic diction’ creates effects on the reader and thinking about why he did it this way. The students could be asked to visualise themselves as visiting a friend who takes them to the park and points to the ‘hunchback’: “[Look over there, that’s…] The hunchback in the park. [He’s a] solitary mister, propped between [the] trees and [the] water. [Right] From the opening of the garden lock…” This technique can open up even the most obscure pre-1914 poems – seeing them, not as a “poem”, but as “one half of” a genuine conversation that once occurred between people, visualising and becoming an actual part of that circumstance.

4. Like the park birds he came early
Like the water he sat down
And Mister they called Hey mister
The truant boys from the town
Running when he had heard them clearly
On out of sound
Past lake and rockery
Laughing when he shook his paper
Hunchbacked in mockery
Through the loud zoo of the willow groves
Dodging the park keeper
With his stick that picked up leaves.

5. And the old dog sleeper
Alone between nurses and swans
While the boys among willows
Made the tigers jump out of their eyes
To roar on the rockery stones
All night in the unmade park
And the groves were blue with sailors
After the railings and shrubberies
The birds the grass the trees the lake
Made all day until bell time
And the wild boys innocent as strawberries
A woman figure without fault
Straight as a young elm
Had followed the hunchback
Straight and tall from his crooked bones
To his kennel in the dark.
That she might stand in the night
After the locks and chains

6. These are pictures of the actual park that Dylan Thomas was writing about in this poem. How would you describe this place from these pictures?

7. The Hunchback in the Park
'A solitary mister'
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark
What does this short line suggest?
Why might
the man be
‘propped’?
It would be worth discussing with the class the concepts of 'denotation' and 'connotation' - the short 2nd line here has a clear denotation and this can be found in any dictionary; but its form within this poem - separated out as a line on its own – suggests the poet wants to 'shape' the meaning created by using form to affect, subtly, the content of the words. The connotations here suggest loneliness and sadness – the man is 'solitary' despite being in a public place. The fact that he is 'propped' may suggest that he is drunk – stereotypically some people who hang around in parks are drunks. It might also suggest that he is a fixture in the park, propped up there like a garden tool leaning against a tree. The use of 'sombre' in line 6b suggests unhappiness – at leaving the park, at life in general. There are several words and phrases that are repeated throughout the poem and two of them appear in the first stanza; bells – a possible link to Quasimodo; trees and water – links to nature.
Why is the bell ‘sombre’?

8. Eating bread from a newspaper Drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
But nobody chained him up.
What are the children
doing here?
Repetition of 'chained' suggested being trapped. The children are teasing the hunchback by filling the drinking cup with gravel. The poet tells us that this poem is inspired by their childhood by mentioning sailing their boat in the fountain. The dog kennel that he sleeps in suggests a low status, akin to that of dogs. He is eating out of newspaper and drinking from a public water fountain – does this suggest that the hunchback is homeless?
What does this suggest
about the hunchback?

9. Like the park birds he came early Like the water he sat down
And Mister they called Hey mister
The truant boys from the town
Running when he had heard them clearly
On out of sound
What do the similes
show?
What sort of boys
might they be?
The similes show a link between the hunchback and the park. He is as much a part of the park as the birds and the water. The boys who taunt him are 'truant boys' – this suggests that they are naughty, mischievous boys. They call him and then run away when he looks over at them.
What are they doing here?

10. Laughing when he shook his paper Hunchbacked in mockery
Past lake and rockery
Laughing when he shook his paper
Hunchbacked in mockery
Through the loud zoo of the willow groves
Dodging the park keeper
With his stick that picked up leaves.
What is the effect
of this phrase?
What does this
metaphor suggest?
The boys are linked to the hunchback by the phrase 'hunchbacked in mockery' – they are bent over laughing which makes them look similar to the hunchback. The metaphor in line 22 suggests a feeling of being both caged and stared at. There is a contrast between the 'zoo' and the 'willow groves' – one a loud, noisy place and one a peaceful place. The lack of punctuation gives this stanza a fast pace mimicking the running of the boys.
What is the effect of having no punctuation in the stanza?

11. Alone between nurses and swans While the boys among willows
Why has the poet
mentioned these
in particular?
And the old sleeper
Alone between nurses and swans
While the boys among willows
Made the tigers jump out of their eyes
To roar on the rockery stones
And the groves were blue with sailors
What is the effect
of this metaphor?
The 'nurses' and 'swans' are also frequent visitors to the park so they are linked to the hunchback. The metaphor in line 28 suggests something menacing – the boys are staring at him in an aggressive manner. The fact that the hunchback is 'lone' while between people serves to emphasis his loneliness.

12. Made all day until bell time A woman figure without fault
Straight as a young elm
Straight and tall from his crooked bones
That she might stand in the night
After the locks and chains
What is the effect of
these contrasting words?
By creating an imaginary woman the hunchback is showing his loneliness – as if he only has a human relationship with someone that he has created. The woman is a direct contrast to the hunchback – she is tall and straight while he has 'crooked bones'. The word 'straight' is repeated to emphasise it. The imaginary woman also acts as a guardian in the park when the hunchback is unable to be there. Locks and chains are mentioned again – the hunchback has been locked out of the park for the night so these chains aren't restraining him, they are excluding him.
What is the hunchback doing when he creates this imaginary woman?

13. All night in the unmade park After the railings and shrubberies
Why is there no
punctuation in
this line?
All night in the unmade park
After the railings and shrubberies
The birds the grass the trees the lake
And the wild boys innocent as strawberries
Had followed the hunchback
To his kennel in the dark.
Why is this ironic?
Line 39 has no punctuation as these things are all being linked together – it is not a list of separate things, it is a list of linked things. Line 40 is ironic – these are the same boys who have been mocking and teasing the hunchback: they are hardly ‘innocent’. The kennel and darkness are mentioned again at the end of the poem – more emphasis on the lowly status and marginalisation of the hunchback, an ‘outsider’.