The poem is written in the present tense. This gives a sense of immediacy - we feel that the poem is happening now. From a wider perspective, it also suggests that the huge gap between rich and poor is a problem that the differences are visible everywhere at every minute of the day.
The language used in this poem is seen as colloquial, meaning it is modern and simple, ‘Cool couple’.
The main point of this poem is questioning the supposed democracy in America. Reading the poem shows the viewer that there is clearly a difference between poor and rich. Ferlinghetti goes on to questions democracy. Has it failed, because there is still an obvious gap between rich and poor? Or would it be unrealistic to expect a perfect democracy, free of class distinctions?
Ferlinghetti uses repetition in his poem. Individual words are repeated, for instance, elegant (lines 8 and 9) and scavengers (lines 16 and 26), as well as phrases such as ‘as if’ (29 and 33). Ferlinghetti use repetition of words throughout the poem, words such as ‘Scavengers’ and ‘Elegant’ this adds to the impact of the difference between the two ‘couples’, making us realise just how different these people are.
The garbage men stare at the young couple 'as from a great distance' (line 27). They are actually close together, stuck at the red light. This image suggests the 'distance' between the lives each pair lead is great even though they are all so close at one point in their life.
To the garbage men, the couple are almost unreal and their lifestyle is out of reach. Ferlinghetti refers to the garbage men looking at the couple is the same as 'watching some odourless TV ad' (line 29). The ways of life portrayed here seem impossibly perfect to that of the garbage men’s lifestyle.
The closing lines of the poem involve a metaphor about the sea. If America is the high seas, the distance between the two vehicles is a 'small gulf' (line 35) or narrow mouth that should be easy to cross. Yet we also think of the other meaning of gulf - a deep chasm or abyss. It may look possible to cross, but really it is impossible. The lives of the two pairs may cross 'for an instant' (line 31), but they will never be genuinely close together.
Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader.
‘the two scavengers up since four a.m.
grungy from their route’
With this quote we are encouraged to sympathise with these garbage men who work anti social hours and who become dirty and smelly as a result. The specific detail (four a.m.) and the expressive word grungy make us pity them.
‘as if anything at all were possible
between them’
This quote gives the message that the poet would like to believe that the two pairs he describes really could be friends - but the as if tells us he knows that is only imaginary. He feels that democracy hasn't succeeded because communication between the rich and poor is still impossible.
The elegant couple are not described in as much detail as the garbage men, as if the poet is less interested in them. He uses a cliché here, the cool couple - which is how they probably think of themselves.
The second of the two poems is “Half-Caste’ by John Agard.
The speaker in the poem ridicules the use of the term 'half-caste' by following the idea through to its logical conclusion:
- Should Picasso be seen as second-rate because he mixed a variety of colours in his paintings?
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Should the English weather be scorned because it is full of light and shadow?
- Should Tchaikovsky's music be seen as inferior because he used both the black notes and the white notes on the piano?
- Is someone who is called a 'half caste' only half a person?
The poet asks the listener to begin to think in a more open-minded way.
The structure of the poem is five stanzas of varying lengths. The lines throughout the poem are quite short, perhaps to hammer home the message.
When you read the poem you will notice that certain phrases (e.g. Explain yuself, half) are repeated or echoed, which builds up a pattern in the language. The poem relies on comparisons to make us see how stupid it is to judge things that are in contrasting colours as only half worthy. He uses examples of great and famous artists (Picasso and Tchaikovsky).
He also uses the weather as an example of something that is full of contrasting colour. What the poet is doing when he uses the phrase overcast (line 20) is mocking the British. It sounds like the same word as caste with an 'e', but is actually an entirely different word. I think this adds to the humour of the poem as its saying when you find something wrong with half-caste people, you don’t realise that you’re surrounded by things and objects that would seem to be ‘half-caste’. Agard himself says: 'I think humour can be very powerful. Humour breaks down boundaries, it topples our self-importance, it connects people, and because it engages and entertains, it ultimately enlightens.'
Agard has chosen not to use Standard English in this poem.
- He doesn't use the standard form of punctuation. This is partly because it's a poem that is written to be performed aloud. Agard has said: 'Sometimes I think no punctuation can be effective because if the words are floating in space it gives the reader a chance to punctuate with their own breath...'
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He uses the lower case where Standard English would use capital letters. Even proper names - like picasso or tchaikovsky - are written in this way. This creates and gives a laid back, sort of, chilled mood to the poem.
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He writes in a form of Caribbean dialect -yu instead of 'you', for example, or dem for 'them'. I think Agard chose to write Half-Caste in 'non-standard' form so people would see that something ‘half-caste’ isn’t much different from anything else.
He wants the reader or listener (the poem was written to be read aloud) to feel as if everything is the same. Everyday we use what Agard may call ‘half-caste’ language when we use slang, such as ‘gotcha’ and ‘gonna’ and we don’t see a problem with it, we just accept it for what it is and carry on with our lives. This is exactly what Agard might want others to think about ‘half-caste’ people; because after all, they’re people too.
The argument of the poem comes out in the way it is written. You could almost say that the poem is written in a mixed language - it's a kind of English, but it's also in Caribbean. The poet writes 'wid' and instead of 'with' to show that the speaker has a Caribbean accent. Some people might call this half-caste language, saying that it's not proper English, but Agard would say it's just a different variety of English. Also, he writes in a jokey style, like I explained above, it's like he's teasing people who think he's "only" half-caste, and taking the is a good way of putting your ideas across, and making people think again, which is why Agard wrote the poem. So the way the poem is written suits what it's trying to say.
There are a few similarities between the two poems. The language isn’t Standard English in either. Half-Caste uses a mixture of Caribbean and English to make the poem sound as though it’s also half caste. Ferlinghetti uses colloquial language, such as ‘cool couple’. Colloquial is an informal version of English which is mainly used in conversation.
Another similarity is that both poems lack punctuation. Agard’s poem uses some punctuation, but not a lot. This is because he wanted this poem to be read aloud. However, Ferlinghetti’s poem has no punctuation what so ever. He wanted the reader to pause whenever a new line is started. This may have been done to symbolize the fractured and faulted nature of society.
In a way, both poems convey the same message about society; they just pursue different sections of society. Agard talks about the racial flaws of society, by saying that people don’t think of a ‘half-caste’ person as a human. And Ferlinghetti talks about the fluctuation of society in America and how democracy has seemed to have failed. Even though these poems are about controversial issues, they can be quite easily linked when you delve into the hidden meanings.
Also having another poems to compare it with, made it a bit easier to find some of the hidden meanings, as they were both quite closely linked in certain ways.
The attitudes of the two poems are also quite similar. They are both mentioning the differences between groups of people in society, be it Whites, Blacks, Hindus, Rich, Poor etc.
The structures of the two poems are quite different to each other. Agard’s poem is set into 5 stanzas – albeit of different length, but they are still distinguishable. Ferlinghetti’s poem has no clear structure at first glance, but each stanza does look quite similar. As I have previously spoken about, the reason for this is to show how fractured the American society really is.
After analysing these two poems and writing about them I have realised just how closely related they actually are. At first glance they would seem to be completely different, but after studying them I found that the issues discussed within the hidden meanings are actually not that different.