1. What is going on in this poem? A teacher is teaching his class a lesson by brutally showing them who is the boss.
2. What is the double meaning of stanza 2, last two lines?
The double meaning of “To teach a lesson” is that he is 1) teaching them 2) to punish them (“to teach someone a lesson they won’t forget”)
3. What is the teacher doing?
He has walked into an unruly class that isn’t listening to him, so he resorts to physical punishment (picking up children and strangling them, hacking his way through class with a sword, , throwing a sword at a latecomer et-cetera)
4. What is the double meaning of "to pop a head around" ?
This means that 1) he sticks his head around the corner to look 2) he throws a head into the classroom
5. What is the pun in "first come, first severed”?
The actual saying is “First come, first served”, meaning that who is first, is getting help first (a positive thing). To sever means that something is “cut off”. In the poem the line “First come, first severed” means that the people who are chattering (talking) first, are the ones who will have limbs etc. cut off first.
6. Which lesson does the teacher give?
The teacher has told class that the lesson’s theme was violence. Showing the class physical punishment to keep an unruly class obedient is showing them how dictators use cruel practice and violence to rule their people.