‘Look we have coming to dover’
The poem considers immigration to the United Kingdom and the development of cultures as they
mix and merge in different countries. The speaker describes the terrifying journey into Dover, and
how the immigrants drive off in an inconspicuous van and try to make lives for themselves, hopeful
for a better life. The poem explores the sense of ‘Englishness’ and nationalism, also with the way the
media can negatively portray immigration.
The key elements of form and structure:
1. When looking at the poem, the changes in line length become clearer, with each stanza
progressing from short lines to long lines, before restarting the cycle for the next stanza. This
could reflect the movement of waves and tides with this gradual but clear flow and change.
2. Each stanza is packed with a dizzying array of sound effects– rhyme, half-rhyme, alliteration
and assonance for example, perhaps reflecting that the speaker does not have good
knowledge of the English language There is alternate rhyme- “Invade/Waves”
Key methods used by the writer to convey their ideas:
1. The epigraph at the beginning of the poem reads ‘‘So various, so beautiful, so new…’‘,
which demonstrates the outlook upon the new setting, and expresses the hope of the
immigrants of a better life.
2. Colloquialisms and neologisms – “gobful of surf phlegmed by cushy come-and-go”,
“scramming”, “hoick” and “babbling our lingoes”. The language used is almost hybrid
between the two cultures, and this lack of formality and accuracy highlights how the
immigrants are trying to grasp the English language.The title of the poem also demonstrates
this- ‘look we have coming to dover’ through the poorly phrased language and mix of
tenses.
3. Lexical field of immigration as a threat to national identity – the immigrants are likened to
insects through their comparison to a ‘swarm’. This reflects how immigrants are often
dehumanised as here they are more like a group of animals than humans risking their safety
for a better future. This idea is also presented through the verbs “invade” and “teemed”- it
is as if the immigrants are a threat and a danger, and by using the verb ‘invade’ it establishes
the idea that the process of immigration is like a war. The media often presents these idea,
as the speaker explains the ‘national eye’ that presents ‘stabs in the back’- the British are
reluctant to accept the immigrants and as a result of these societal, cultural and identity
differences, it is easy to see how there is potential for conflict.
4. Personification of the weather to convey the hardships of their journey- ‘thunder
unbladders yobbish rain and wind’. It’s as if even nature is against them- the determination
conveyed through the poem highlights how immigrant will go to extreme measures in search
for a hopeful future. Also, the first stanza conveys the idea that the journey is like a sensory
overload, with the focus on the ‘diesel’ smelling breeze that comes at them like a ‘lash’, and
also the reader can imagine the difficulty of the journey through the depiction of the
‘ratcheting speed into the tide.’
5. The tone of the poem discloses the hardships and poverty of the immigrants. In comparison
to the ‘cushy’ tourists, the narrator and his kind have very little power – economic or
otherwise. They are ‘huddled’, ‘hutched’, ‘burdened’, ‘grafting’, out of sight and mind. The
immigrants desire to fit in and the line that says ‘our huddled camouflage’ shows that as a
group, they are trying to blend in so that they are not singled out for being foreign, and
The poem considers immigration to the United Kingdom and the development of cultures as they
mix and merge in different countries. The speaker describes the terrifying journey into Dover, and
how the immigrants drive off in an inconspicuous van and try to make lives for themselves, hopeful
for a better life. The poem explores the sense of ‘Englishness’ and nationalism, also with the way the
media can negatively portray immigration.
The key elements of form and structure:
1. When looking at the poem, the changes in line length become clearer, with each stanza
progressing from short lines to long lines, before restarting the cycle for the next stanza. This
could reflect the movement of waves and tides with this gradual but clear flow and change.
2. Each stanza is packed with a dizzying array of sound effects– rhyme, half-rhyme, alliteration
and assonance for example, perhaps reflecting that the speaker does not have good
knowledge of the English language There is alternate rhyme- “Invade/Waves”
Key methods used by the writer to convey their ideas:
1. The epigraph at the beginning of the poem reads ‘‘So various, so beautiful, so new…’‘,
which demonstrates the outlook upon the new setting, and expresses the hope of the
immigrants of a better life.
2. Colloquialisms and neologisms – “gobful of surf phlegmed by cushy come-and-go”,
“scramming”, “hoick” and “babbling our lingoes”. The language used is almost hybrid
between the two cultures, and this lack of formality and accuracy highlights how the
immigrants are trying to grasp the English language.The title of the poem also demonstrates
this- ‘look we have coming to dover’ through the poorly phrased language and mix of
tenses.
3. Lexical field of immigration as a threat to national identity – the immigrants are likened to
insects through their comparison to a ‘swarm’. This reflects how immigrants are often
dehumanised as here they are more like a group of animals than humans risking their safety
for a better future. This idea is also presented through the verbs “invade” and “teemed”- it
is as if the immigrants are a threat and a danger, and by using the verb ‘invade’ it establishes
the idea that the process of immigration is like a war. The media often presents these idea,
as the speaker explains the ‘national eye’ that presents ‘stabs in the back’- the British are
reluctant to accept the immigrants and as a result of these societal, cultural and identity
differences, it is easy to see how there is potential for conflict.
4. Personification of the weather to convey the hardships of their journey- ‘thunder
unbladders yobbish rain and wind’. It’s as if even nature is against them- the determination
conveyed through the poem highlights how immigrant will go to extreme measures in search
for a hopeful future. Also, the first stanza conveys the idea that the journey is like a sensory
overload, with the focus on the ‘diesel’ smelling breeze that comes at them like a ‘lash’, and
also the reader can imagine the difficulty of the journey through the depiction of the
‘ratcheting speed into the tide.’
5. The tone of the poem discloses the hardships and poverty of the immigrants. In comparison
to the ‘cushy’ tourists, the narrator and his kind have very little power – economic or
otherwise. They are ‘huddled’, ‘hutched’, ‘burdened’, ‘grafting’, out of sight and mind. The
immigrants desire to fit in and the line that says ‘our huddled camouflage’ shows that as a
group, they are trying to blend in so that they are not singled out for being foreign, and
