Compare the way John Agard, Tom Leonard and one other poet express feelings of anger and injustice. Think about the use of rhythm/rhyme, imagery (metaphor/simile), sounds, presentation, use of dialect and humour.

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Mitul Patel 5P

Some of the poets in the two clusters show feelings of anger and injustice. Compare the way John Agard, Tom Leonard and one other poet express such feelings. Think about the use of rhythm/rhyme, imagery (metaphor/simile), sounds, presentation, use of dialect and humour.

Each of the authors uses different methods to display their anger or annoyance at something. In “What were they like?” which is about the Vietnam War involving the communist north and capitalist south. The poem is written unlike most other poems as if she author was giving an interview with one of the people affected by the war. Each of the questions is about the Vietnamese people’s traditions, culture and their livelihood and each one is answered with a bitter answer.

                    The answer to the first question is about how the war turned the Vietnamese people bitter or left them dead and that it left them with no memory of their past. This is shown where it is written “Their light hearts turned to stone” and “It is not remembered whether in gardens stone lanterns illuminated pleasant ways” The second answer is about the birth of children as it says “to delight in blossom” linking the birth of a child to a sprout of a new plant. It then says “but after the children were killed there were no more buds” where it is referring the children as buds because they were still so young and hadn’t grown up yet just like the plants buds.

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                  The third answer where it says “laughter is bitter to the burned mouth” is referring to the napalm which was dropped that burned through flesh causing extreme pain and is asking how someone could laugh at that. In the fourth answer the person answering the questions says “A dream ago, perhaps Ornament is for joy” where the person is saying that the Vietnamese people have nothing to be joyous about anymore because of what’s happened in Vietnam.

                  Then it says “All ...

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