born in Guyana in 1949, the country was still a British colony until
1966. In 1977 Agard moved to England. This is where he became the
light of the new West Indian British dawn of various bardic
compositions. Agard is a poet whom blends calypso styled language
with unique sounding spoken word. The work I will be studying is
“Half-caste”
I have paired the poems up. The pairs either share the same topic,
tone or language. One of the pairs is “Half-caste” by John Agard and
“Mulatto” by Langston Hughes, because they have the same type of
topic and also tone.
“Half caste” is about weather: the term half-caste can be applied to
any thing else apart from people. John Agard has written a very good
poem witch makes you think about the words we use every day with
out knowing the proper meanings and whether it makes any sense
when you break the word down. I think that many words we use now
are “out of date” and should be changed for politically correct terms
and alternatives. Agard also uses some stunning references to get you
thinking.
The other half of this pair “Mulatto” tells us about the harsh
treatment black women faced at the hands of their white bosses in
the slave era and how the women were only used as play things, this
is shown in the part “What’s a body but a toy?”. The word “mulatto”
means the same as “half caste” but not as many people use it
nowadays. The boy in the story has a trouble fitting in with black
people and white people and does not have that sense of belonging if
he had been born to parents of the same race.
The next pair is “Praise song for my mother” by Grace Nichols and “I
love me mudder” by Benjamin Zephaniah. I’ve paired these poems
because they share the same topics which is their mothers.
“Praise song for my mother” is about how Grace Nichols loved her
mother and how she inspired to do the best she could. It’s also how
she looked up to her, and how her mother was all the things she likes
such as the sunrise and the fried plantain smell. The poem is set in a
past tense which seems to tell us the readers that her mother has
died.
The second half of my pair is “I love me mudder”. This poem is about
how Benjamin Zephaniah’s mother came from Jamaica on a boat
called Windrush. Many people came from Jamaica because they
thought they would have a better life than the one they all ready had.
In black family family (need to delete this) life the figure of the
mother is very strong and is the main rule maker in the house, and
this poem shows how she works so hard just to make sure her family
don’t go without.
The last pair of poems is “taint” by Grace Nichols and “I, Too” by
Langston Hughes these two poems have been joined together because
they both have kind of the same topic which shows the pain black
people have overcome but still yet we are strong.
“taint” is about the treachery that this person has had cast upon
them while they where a slave, the fact that they where stolen by men
the colour of their own skin. This reminds me of the black on black
gang warfare and killings. This person who trusted the people of their
same skin colour was betrayed. This work also shows how these
people where traded like they where animals. The poem has a
message to everyone: to stop fighting and live peacefully together.
The second half of the pair is “I, Too” which shows how black people
had to eat in a kitchen when company came but they ate well and
became strong. So when company comes no one will dare tell me to
eat in the kitchen and now you are ashamed about what you did to
me when I was mentally weak. This poem has a promise of hope for
change. Hughes suggests that “Tomorrow” things will be different and
people will see that beauty and equality of all peoples.