"Here is a poet who won't stay silent". Discuss and compare three key poems written by Benjamin Zephaniah. Explore the cultural influences on his poetry, the message and the techniques he uses to impact upon his audience.

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“Here is a poet who won’t stay silent”. Discuss and compare three key poems written by Benjamin Zephaniah. Explore the cultural influences on his poetry, the message and the techniques he uses to impact upon his audience.

Benjamin Zephaniah is a Rastafarian dub poet who was born in Birmingham in the Handsworth area in 1958. His full name, Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah, is Christian, Jewish and Muslim.  Benjamin considers himself to be a citizen of “England and the world”. Benjamin left school at the age of 13. His first book was published when he was 22, it was called pen rhythm.

First of all I will look at his poem, I Have a Scheme. This is a parody of Martin Luther Kings speech sometimes referred to as I have a dream. The first obvious similarity to MLKs speech is the title I have a Scheme which is similar to I Have a Dream. The tone in Benjamin’s poem is more rhetorical and has a musical flow to it, whereas Martin Luther kings is more serious.

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    I think Benjamin did this as he believes that nothing has changed since this speech, and he wants to show this. I think his message is that even though we have moved on since this speech we our still socially segregated between races in the UK, and things need to change which is a good point. I think he used good poetic techniques very effectively. His performance made this poem even better.   

The next poem I will be looking at is the “Stephen Lawrence Poem”; he was inspired to right this by the family, as they ...

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