CHECKING OUT
ME HISTORY AND
LONDON
COMPARISON
In both COMH and London, both poems convey ideas which criticise corrupt political
systems of the time and their effects on the oppressed of society. Agard expresses
his personal anger at the ignorance of a Eurocentric culture, which had stripped
people of his cultural heritage of their own identity of Guyana, so he tells his readers
that political power can be resisted by the oppressed if they seek their own identity
and forgotten history. Whilst Blake in "London" criticises strict, regulated power of
corrupt governments in London as he comments on the deprivation suffered by the
citizens because of this, thus uses poetry as a form of protest in order to bring about
a French revolution, but in England.
In both poems, both Agard and Blake express the psychological impacts and
brainwashing inflicted upon the oppressed by corrupt political systems. This is
evident within COMH, when the poem says "bandage up me eye with me own
history/blind me to me own identity"- Agard's deliberate use of "me" reflects his
defiance of traditional structures and embracing his own Caribbean dialect:
subverting from usual grammatical structures in traditional poetry from Europe, while
ME HISTORY AND
LONDON
COMPARISON
In both COMH and London, both poems convey ideas which criticise corrupt political
systems of the time and their effects on the oppressed of society. Agard expresses
his personal anger at the ignorance of a Eurocentric culture, which had stripped
people of his cultural heritage of their own identity of Guyana, so he tells his readers
that political power can be resisted by the oppressed if they seek their own identity
and forgotten history. Whilst Blake in "London" criticises strict, regulated power of
corrupt governments in London as he comments on the deprivation suffered by the
citizens because of this, thus uses poetry as a form of protest in order to bring about
a French revolution, but in England.
In both poems, both Agard and Blake express the psychological impacts and
brainwashing inflicted upon the oppressed by corrupt political systems. This is
evident within COMH, when the poem says "bandage up me eye with me own
history/blind me to me own identity"- Agard's deliberate use of "me" reflects his
defiance of traditional structures and embracing his own Caribbean dialect:
subverting from usual grammatical structures in traditional poetry from Europe, while
