Half caste, Unrelated incidents, Search for my tongue

In the poem “Unrelated incidents” is a reporter from the BBC talking. From the way the words are spelt we can gather that the reporter is Scottish, “this is thi six a clock thi man said n thi reason a talk wia BBC accent iz coz yi widny wahnt mi ti talk about thi trooth”. Also in this poem is hardly any standard English at all. It is effective in ways that we get ideas of what the character is like. We know how the reporter is feeling. He doesn’t sound to happy “this is thi six a clock nyooz. belt up”. Where as if it was said, “This is the six a clock news. Belt up”, it would have no expression to the way the reporter is actually feeling and this is why it  would be better not to have used standard English.

In the poem “Halfe Caste” the poet John Agard is talking about how he only half person. He says he is Half white, and Half black. We would have no idea of how the character would behave or speak, half white or half black. Judging from the way he talks, “well in dat case england weather nearly always half caste in fact some o dem cloud half caste till dem overcast”, we can gather that he behaves and speaks more like a black person. At the end of the day John Agard sees himself as a human being, “I half - caste human being cast half – a – shadow but you must come back tomorrow”.  

      From looking at all of these poems we can say that it has a bigger effect and impact not using standard English all the time to experience the characters feeling, and to find out more about the character.