GCSE language poetry

reader can visualise the social inequality amongst the two sets of people. “Grungy for their route”. The poet’s use of language shows the bin men’s boring and hard lifestyle. It shows the position in the hierarchy of these two individuals in the society is very low. The word “grungy” is an adjective describing the bin men’s attitudes towards work. They are very tired and go through this process every day. Similarly Afrika “Nothing’s Changed” uses the structural pattern of enjambment for effect. The reader establishes the enjambment is used to portray the cyclical process of apartheid and the racial segregation in the poet’s country. The poet conveys through the use of this layout the dominance of the white people in his community. They are the dominant race and there is a high level of discrimination and social inequality among the black and white people. Similarly in Ferlinghetti’s poem one set of people are better than the other set of people. The reader can acknowledge that the poet feels very strongly about this contextual issue and is very distressed by the “white’s only inn”. The words “whites only” provides the reader with another insight into the white people’s dominance. They are very shocking discriminating words which are not present in today society. The word “inn” allows the poet to keep the reader in touch with the time period were racism are discrimination were common feats. Both poets exemplify how there is a massive social inequality between two sets of people. However one poet’s issue is much bigger than the others.Secondly Ferlinghetti uses the linguistic technique of an oxymoron to portray the effect of social inequality. The poet presents the rich women’s dress style as “casually coifed”. This provides the reader with a vivid description of how the rich people dress. The linguistic imagery provided by the poet provides the reader with an insight into how high the position of these people is in the hierarchy. The words coifed shows the beautiful way the woman has styled her hair and how her wealth provides to have these fantastic facilities. The poet creates this juxtaposition nature between these two sets of people. The scavengers are described as “grungy” while the rich people are “hip”. There are stark contrasts between these two sets of people and through the use of the poet’s language and layout the poet can convey this effect. In contrast Afrika uses the linguistic technique of a simile to demonstrate the racial segregation in his country. “Flaring like a flag”. This provides a vivid description into how dominant the white people were over the black people. The poet is fearful every time he enters “District six”. Every source is trying to taunt him and intimidate him. The word “flaring like” shows the white are proud of their dominance over the black people. They want their dominance to be a spectacle to show the world their dominance. The word “flag” shows the poets fear and anger. Even such a simple source such a “flag” makes the poet angry. The language used by the poet shows the effect it had upon him and apartheid was a major contextual issue in African history. Both poets present the idea of social inequality through their different linguistic techniques. Both poets show their passion an interest in trying to abolish their respective issue and bring equality in their respective countries.