TITLE THE EMIGREE - Carol Rumens CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY - John Agard
THEMES Power of place, Immigration Identity
Memory, Cultural identity Internal conflict
Power (tyranny), Separation Propaganda
Racism
Abuse of human power/ the human power to bring about change
LINK Checking out me history (identity) Emigree
My Last Duchess (tyranny) War photographer
Kamikazee
FORM 3 stanzas, free verse Oral poetry (phonetic spelling, repetition) - reminds us of the importance of
First 2 stanzas are 8 lines but the last stanza is 9. This could oral history and that we remember it's not just white people who are important
suggest that the speaker can’t let go of the memories and doesn't in history, no matter what we are taught.
want the poem to end. Post-colonial poem
Nursery
LANGUAGE ● Tone is conversational, unemotional, and accusatory. ● Mixing English and the rhythmic musicality of Guyana create a language
● Ellipsis and synaesthesia. meaningful for the poet.
● Explores conflicting emotions between place and people in a ● Lots of imagery and metaphors related to nature, describing the positive,
warzone. natural influences on the speaker's life.
● Lots of contrast and juxtaposition of positive and negative in ● ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history’ - metaphor, he is deliberately
the poem, which reflects the power of the place and how the being held back from seeing his own history. But in the final lines, we
positive impact overpowers the negative. Eg, ‘branded of the see/hear ‘but now i am checking out me own history’ etc, and the verb
sunlight’. ‘carving’ which is normally an active, strenuous task and suggests we
● Positive imagery - ends with ‘sunlight’, a recurring image have to actively seek out and find our identity, and when we do do this, it
used in the poem to do with positivity ‘evidence of sunlight’ will be validating and worth it.
etc, continues throughout the poem, even when tyrants and ● He deliberately uses this language to stand against the very eurocentric
persecution and danger are brought up. Shows her passion for view of identity, which would seek to isolate black people, rather than use
the place. standard English and punctuation like in some of his other poems -
● Her reminiscences of the city are wrapped in the language of highlights that this poem is more special and important for him to stray
toys and childhood. Her momenorg of the place is coloured by from the regular ways of writing poetry.
the fact that she hasn't seen it since she was a child, naive and ● This language^ is seen when Agard uses words like ‘dem’, of Caribbean
full of optimism. diction, and a lack of punctuation in order to refuse to conform to the rules
● ‘Sick with tyrants’ implies her city has been plagued by of the English language. By writing in this unique way, he is standing
destructive parasites which are embodied by the tyrants that against the oppressive, domineering control of English colonisation, and
essentially ‘feed’ on a population. It highlights the dangerously effectively warning these higher powers that people will stand up against
destructive impacts of tyranny. COMPARATIVE WITH MLD.> rules they have enforced.
● Furthermore, in using words like ‘dem’, it forces the reader, who may be
white, to acknowledge Agard’s own identity, which is separate to the
standard english vocab and grammar, and by using the rhyme scheme to
link white historical figures together with black historical figures, he also
forces the reader to understand that there should be no type of
, segregation between figures of white or black history.
STRUCTURE ● Long, complex sentences. ● Verses about black historical figures are italicised to make them stand out
● Free verse - no rhyme or regular rhythm. as important.
● Lots of caesurae, esp in the last stanza - make the reader stop ● The free verse with no rhyme or rhythm demonstrates the lack of control,
and pause and force them to focus on the meaning of the and how he is finally free to write about what he wants to, instead of
phrase, as well as adding an emotional and theatrical touch to having structure and organisation enforced upon him.
the line, helping to convey the depth of the sentiments. ● Rhyme scheme fuses white and black historical figures together.
● Enjambment ● The rhyming builds up to emphasise the final example (Maroon), which
● These three ^ all come together to reflect the chaos of the reminds us of their importance, by making the reader pause.
place that she loves and perhaps the lack of power that the ● Lots of enjambment (sentence continues over each line) - forces the
poet has because she can't go to the place because it is a reader to also combine B&W figures
warzone and dangerous, as well as corrupt. The danger is
implied through the chaotic, disorganised structural features.
● Repetition of the pronoun ‘they’ shows the threatening
conflict between place and people. It can be argued that it's a
pretty regular stanza length in order for the poet to attempt to
impose order onto the chaos, refusing to be overcome by the
negativity of the conflict there.
● The structure, as a whole, can be seen as that contrast, the
battle between the chaos and disorder of the war zone, yet the
love and passion she feels for that place.
CONTEXT -This author often writes about foreign customs, cultures and - Born in British Guyana, a British colony until 1966, in 1949 and spent
languages. Often uses arresting imagery and symbolism. his childhood there.
Poet consciously not given a name of a country or city so that the - In many of his poems, he discusses issues of cultural identity, race
reader can freely choose what one to associate it with and relate and power.
to the poem in a deeper way. - Mixing social observation with humour and immigrayion.
-An ‘emigree’ is a woman who has been forced to leave her home - Believes education is eurocentric and enforced.
or country to live somewhere else. The fact that it is called this
gives the poem a feminine viewpoint, and therefore classes the
poem in a more specific way.
KEY QUOTES ● ‘branded of the sunlight’. ● ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history’
● ‘Sunlight’ (ends) ● ‘but now i am checking out me own history’
● ‘evidence of sunlight’ ● ‘carving’
● ‘Sick with tyrants’ ● ‘dem’
● ‘they’
TITLE THE PRELUDE - William Wordsworth MY LAST DUCHESS - Robert Browning (1842)
THEMES Power of place, Immigration Identity
Memory, Cultural identity Internal conflict
Power (tyranny), Separation Propaganda
Racism
Abuse of human power/ the human power to bring about change
LINK Checking out me history (identity) Emigree
My Last Duchess (tyranny) War photographer
Kamikazee
FORM 3 stanzas, free verse Oral poetry (phonetic spelling, repetition) - reminds us of the importance of
First 2 stanzas are 8 lines but the last stanza is 9. This could oral history and that we remember it's not just white people who are important
suggest that the speaker can’t let go of the memories and doesn't in history, no matter what we are taught.
want the poem to end. Post-colonial poem
Nursery
LANGUAGE ● Tone is conversational, unemotional, and accusatory. ● Mixing English and the rhythmic musicality of Guyana create a language
● Ellipsis and synaesthesia. meaningful for the poet.
● Explores conflicting emotions between place and people in a ● Lots of imagery and metaphors related to nature, describing the positive,
warzone. natural influences on the speaker's life.
● Lots of contrast and juxtaposition of positive and negative in ● ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history’ - metaphor, he is deliberately
the poem, which reflects the power of the place and how the being held back from seeing his own history. But in the final lines, we
positive impact overpowers the negative. Eg, ‘branded of the see/hear ‘but now i am checking out me own history’ etc, and the verb
sunlight’. ‘carving’ which is normally an active, strenuous task and suggests we
● Positive imagery - ends with ‘sunlight’, a recurring image have to actively seek out and find our identity, and when we do do this, it
used in the poem to do with positivity ‘evidence of sunlight’ will be validating and worth it.
etc, continues throughout the poem, even when tyrants and ● He deliberately uses this language to stand against the very eurocentric
persecution and danger are brought up. Shows her passion for view of identity, which would seek to isolate black people, rather than use
the place. standard English and punctuation like in some of his other poems -
● Her reminiscences of the city are wrapped in the language of highlights that this poem is more special and important for him to stray
toys and childhood. Her momenorg of the place is coloured by from the regular ways of writing poetry.
the fact that she hasn't seen it since she was a child, naive and ● This language^ is seen when Agard uses words like ‘dem’, of Caribbean
full of optimism. diction, and a lack of punctuation in order to refuse to conform to the rules
● ‘Sick with tyrants’ implies her city has been plagued by of the English language. By writing in this unique way, he is standing
destructive parasites which are embodied by the tyrants that against the oppressive, domineering control of English colonisation, and
essentially ‘feed’ on a population. It highlights the dangerously effectively warning these higher powers that people will stand up against
destructive impacts of tyranny. COMPARATIVE WITH MLD.> rules they have enforced.
● Furthermore, in using words like ‘dem’, it forces the reader, who may be
white, to acknowledge Agard’s own identity, which is separate to the
standard english vocab and grammar, and by using the rhyme scheme to
link white historical figures together with black historical figures, he also
forces the reader to understand that there should be no type of
, segregation between figures of white or black history.
STRUCTURE ● Long, complex sentences. ● Verses about black historical figures are italicised to make them stand out
● Free verse - no rhyme or regular rhythm. as important.
● Lots of caesurae, esp in the last stanza - make the reader stop ● The free verse with no rhyme or rhythm demonstrates the lack of control,
and pause and force them to focus on the meaning of the and how he is finally free to write about what he wants to, instead of
phrase, as well as adding an emotional and theatrical touch to having structure and organisation enforced upon him.
the line, helping to convey the depth of the sentiments. ● Rhyme scheme fuses white and black historical figures together.
● Enjambment ● The rhyming builds up to emphasise the final example (Maroon), which
● These three ^ all come together to reflect the chaos of the reminds us of their importance, by making the reader pause.
place that she loves and perhaps the lack of power that the ● Lots of enjambment (sentence continues over each line) - forces the
poet has because she can't go to the place because it is a reader to also combine B&W figures
warzone and dangerous, as well as corrupt. The danger is
implied through the chaotic, disorganised structural features.
● Repetition of the pronoun ‘they’ shows the threatening
conflict between place and people. It can be argued that it's a
pretty regular stanza length in order for the poet to attempt to
impose order onto the chaos, refusing to be overcome by the
negativity of the conflict there.
● The structure, as a whole, can be seen as that contrast, the
battle between the chaos and disorder of the war zone, yet the
love and passion she feels for that place.
CONTEXT -This author often writes about foreign customs, cultures and - Born in British Guyana, a British colony until 1966, in 1949 and spent
languages. Often uses arresting imagery and symbolism. his childhood there.
Poet consciously not given a name of a country or city so that the - In many of his poems, he discusses issues of cultural identity, race
reader can freely choose what one to associate it with and relate and power.
to the poem in a deeper way. - Mixing social observation with humour and immigrayion.
-An ‘emigree’ is a woman who has been forced to leave her home - Believes education is eurocentric and enforced.
or country to live somewhere else. The fact that it is called this
gives the poem a feminine viewpoint, and therefore classes the
poem in a more specific way.
KEY QUOTES ● ‘branded of the sunlight’. ● ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history’
● ‘Sunlight’ (ends) ● ‘but now i am checking out me own history’
● ‘evidence of sunlight’ ● ‘carving’
● ‘Sick with tyrants’ ● ‘dem’
● ‘they’
TITLE THE PRELUDE - William Wordsworth MY LAST DUCHESS - Robert Browning (1842)
