In island man Grace Nicholls uses many other literary techniques to create images for the reader for example when she writes ‘small emerald island’. She describes her homeland as a precious stone as well, because she idolises her homeland and thinks that it is very important. She also uses a lot of repetition in this poem ‘groggily groggily’ and ‘muffling muffling’ show that she’s trying to get the point that it’s hard to wake up in a different community, rushed and hurried, where as in Jamaica there’s no rush or need to get up early, making life a lot easier and relaxed. There’s also a lot of onomatopoeia in the poem ‘groggily’ ‘soar’ ‘muffling’ and ‘roar’ this is simple language and Nicholls speaks very literally, this could be her showing that her community is relaxed by using relaxed language. The poem starts with a dream but ends with the island man awake in London, this is shown by the two quotes ‘in his head’ and ‘Another London day’. Nicholls starts by describing the island man’s dream of Jamaica, but the he wakes up and the image changes to London. She does this because she wants to show how different Jamaica is to London, how much better it is to live in Jamaica. Finally the quote ‘Another London day’ shows that London is a place with no hope, a monotonous city and is too repetitive. Nicholls doesn’t like the hustle and bustle of a city like London, and is showing that people don’t need to behave in a mandatory way, doing the same things day after day.
In these poems many different sound techniques are used to change the speed of the poem and also to create different effects.
In the Fringe of the Sea, A.L Hendricks uses alliteration at the start of the poem. He says ‘Far from the Fringe of the Sea’. This alliteration speeds up the pace of the poem and makes the poem flow better.
Then the author repeats the effect of sibilance many times in a short space, he writes ‘and to stoop down by the shallows sifting the random water between assaying fingers like farmers do with soil.’ The sibilance in the quote shows the pace of the reader down and helps the reader to understand and read deeper into the author’s words.
Tripling and alliteration are used together to create the effect with ‘Barearmed, Barefoot, Bareheaded’. The repeat of the ‘b’ sound shows that the author is speeding up the pace of the poem because he wants it to flow better, creating a picture of the flowing life in his homeland of Jamaica.
Island man is different as it’s easier to read because it’s shorter but the author uses different techniques in the poem. Grace Nicholls uses alliteration when describing getting up in London ‘Groggily Groggily’. This technique helps the reader to understand how the author is feeling, like it’s hard to wake up. It also signifies that the dream is now over and the scene has changed. Nicholls uses another example of alliteration later in the poem with ‘Muffling Muffling’, the words here re-enforce the point that it’s hard to wake up in London, but in Jamaica it was easy and ‘quick’. Whilst still in the dream section Nicholls uses sibilance when describing ‘Sun Surfacing’. The sibilance here slows the pace of the poem down, therefore the reader will read between the lines, reading deeper into the poem.
‘The fringe of the sea’ and ‘Island Man’ both have a similar structure in the way that they both use enjambment.
The first half of Island man is very slow, but it speeds up later in the poem. ‘Groggily Groggily’ this shows that he’s waking up and the alliteration will quicken the tempo of the poem. In the first half he’s asleep shown by ‘in his head’, slow and relaxed but after the quote he wakes up and it’s faster, urgent and all ties in with the hustle and bustle of real life.
Both poems have a lack of punctuation as both ‘island man’ and ‘the Fringe of the Sea’ using enjambment to represent their homeland’s lack of structure. ‘of his small emerald island he always comes back’ and ‘and to stoop down by the shallows sifting the random water’ there is a lack of punctuation that forces the reader to keep reading where they would naturally take a break so it shows that the authors are trying to make the poems be relaxed like their life is in their homeland, with no structure or pattern.
The first half of The Fringe of The Sea is fast but it slows down later in the poem with the use of sibilance, ‘and to stoop down by the shallows sifting the random water’ this sibilance slows the pace of the poem down so the reader can read deeper into the poem and understand what the author is trying to portray, which is that Hendricks homeland has no structure.
The overall themes and messages of ‘The fringe of the sea’ and ‘Island Man’ are similar because they are both idolising their homeland, they both similarly use a semi-precious stone to describe objects in their poems, ‘Turquoise mackerel’ and ‘Emerald Island’.
Both poems portray the point that the island is very relaxed by using enjambment, ‘of his small emerald island he always comes back’ and ‘And to stoop down by the shallows sifting the random water’. The lack of punctuation shows that both of the authors are trying to represent the lack of structure in their home communities.
‘The fringe of the sea’ shows the sense of community by using ‘we’ a lot, ‘we do not like to awaken far from the fringe of the sea’. This illustrates a picture of closeness within the authors community. In the ‘Island Man’ Nicholls glorifies her homeland because the author wants to show to the reader how great the authors homeland is. ‘Emerald Island’ this is using a semi-precious stone to describe Nicholls island, showing it’s not the most important thing in her life, but it is very important. It could also symbolise the flora of the island, being the green canopies of the trees. It could also represent the Jamaican flag.
Another theme is the scene of loss in ‘The Fringe of the Sea’ as the author is telling the reader that Hendricks is missing his homeland ‘we do not like to awaken far from the fringe of the sea’ This shows that Hendricks doesn’t want to be away from his homeland and he misses it. Nicholls says ‘Another long day’, this shows that she doesn’t like the London 9-5 routine, and she also misses her homeland. But ‘another London day’ also shows another there that London is a dull and boring place which has no soul, just a monotonous city, and Nicholls writes this to shows the difference between London and Jamaica.
