Professional Documents
Culture Documents
POETRY
Discussion
Q1. How large is a child's imagination?
Q2. How shallow is the soul of the Minister for Exams?
Author
Brian Patten (born 7 February 1946, Liverpool) is an English poet who has written many books
of poetry for adults and children, as well as prose and drama. However, his poems
rarely fall clearly into either category; his adult poetry has a clarity that opens it to
a younger reader and his children's poems carry depths that will speak to adult
readers. Pattens poems deal mainly with themes such as a devotion to the full
experience of life and the imagination as well as a devotion to love in all its stages.
I left school when I was fifteen. It was a secondary modern school called Sefton Park, and now
theres a supermarket where it stood. Just before I left, the careers officer called around to
interview the entire school one by one. I think he gave us all about two minutes of his time. I said I
wanted to be a writer, and he said I couldnt be a writer because I hadnt passed any exams. What he
meant was the 11-plus and the 13-plus. Heres a poem called The Minister for Exams.