The first two lines of the poem are the chorus or refrain. This means it is repeated, like in music, in between the verses. It also appears at the end of the poem before the coda. There is an animism used in the third line, as the forest cannot ‘tune in’ like a human to a radio. Animism is the belief that earth has a soul and therefore listens to everything in this instance. This is a relatively modern belief, making the poet sound young and intelligent. All the lines between three and six are personification as the forest does not have ears to tune is with, or hair to let down or the ability to touch. This is therefore making the forest, into a person.
In the forth line there is an internal rhyme used; watersound and birdsound. This is incorporating the sense of sound. In the fifth line the is an use of anthropomorphism, meaning a change of an object into a human shape:
‘Forest letting her hair down’
This is making the forest in to a human shape as the forest does not have hair to let down. After the sound sense is used there is a use of touch, as ‘teeming and creeping’ is similar to touching it. With the ‘teeming and creeping’ there is a use of assonance as there is a vowel sound repetition, which coincides with an internal rhyme. The ends of lines four and six have an end rhyme thus proving there is an unequal rhyming scheme.
In the third stanza, in the first line there is another instance where a modern word is included. ‘Broadcast’ is a relatively new word and this therefore adds to Grace Nichols poetic voice, making her sound young, certainly in relation to Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney. In the eighth line if the poem there is a clear indication of Rastafarian I-speak. This means the opposite of the actual meaning or truth is never spoken. The phrase ‘cover her business down’ is used instead of ‘cover up’, as if you wish to obscure you are trying to put the matter down or in hiding.
Line nine consists of another internal rhyme, which has come before and gives a clear view of Grace Nichols style. The rhyme is with the words ‘sky’ and ‘eye’. Here there is a clear use of a metaphor, as the sun cannot spy without eyes. This could therefore mean that the sun is always spying but the forest is covering up her business. In many ancient beliefs the sun is a god, and the earth is a goddess. Therefore this could mean that the rain and the lightening could be the fertiliser and when the earth gives birth to everything, like a mother and father relationship. Therefore the ‘father’ is trying to make sure everything is in order. This is all unique imagery from Grace Nichols.
A simile is used in line eleven ‘like a gown’ as it is saying something is similar to it, unlike a metaphor where ones says it is something else. This is a good descriptive line. The use of the word #bad’, only could have two different meanings in a poem of this kind, in this poem it could mean that the forest is good at having dreams or having bad dreams. This therefore asks the question, what does this phrase mean?
The word ‘caress’ in line fifteen is again using the touch sense when speaking as caress is like stroking or rubbing gently. Line sixteen; ‘Forest rootsing’ is a peculiar word to use. Rootsing means going back to one’s roots, and is generally used by the African Americans discovering where their ancestors originated. This again is a relatively modern term to use. The seventeenth line contains the phrase ‘howler monkey’ which confirms that this poem is about a rainforest as they are always there. At the end of this line there is an n enjambment. This means that when a line stops but where the meaning carries on and therefore creates the tension before ‘wake her up’. This also creates attention for that line. The sound sense is present again with the word ‘howl’ which is also an onomatopoetic word meaning a word that actually sounds like it such as ‘boo’. There is a coda at the end of the poem, as it is the final part that releases an important message. It is releasing the idea of biodiversity. There is a huge variety of life in the rainforest, which can be used for the good of mankind, and we would damage ourselves if we were to get rid of it. Also the theme of the poem is about the poem having or keeping secrets, and this could mean cures for much sickness around the world.
Therefore by analysing this play closely I can say that there are many ways that we have discovered about Grace Nichols’ individual poetic voice. This is mainly done by the conversational style, and the poem containing no equal structure, rhythm and verse form. This is a relaxed poem, and gives a relationship between the poet and reader. The repetition in this poem:
‘Forest could keep secrets’
This could be to make this point clear and to reilliterate it. The surface meaning of this poem is that it is a simple poem about ecology, however this has other meanings such as the forest having a large variety of life and the many benefits of keeping the rainforest.
A lot of imagery is used by Grace Nichols in this poem, and this creates an imagery museum like Hughes and Heaney did with their poems, using the same image but diverging it. This group of images create an image cluster within this poem. There is an active tone in this poem, which is hard to grasp. It is intimate.
I can therefore conclude that the many ways that Grace Nichols uses an individual poetic voice, are not only done by her Caribbean dialect, but from the intelligent poetic terms and uses that she also uses to give a clear picture of the subject matter.
