Comparison of poems about another culture

Authors Avatar
English Coursework

We live in a society where culture and identity are very important. Culture is the distinctive practices and beliefs of a society. Culture is all about where we live, our language, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the celebrations we celebrate and the things we value.

Many people who live in poorer countries move over to the bigger cities were there are more jobs and money. Many people end up living in a place they don't know.

In English we have studied five poems from another culture, which was Jamaica. All the culture poems we studied were mostly about a man or woman wanting to go back to Jamaica. We have to do our coursework on this topic and the five poems I have chosen to look at are, 'Island Man' by Grace Nichols, which is about a Caribbean man who has moved to London, 'I Shall Return' by Claude McKay, which is about a man who promises to return to Jamaica one day. 'An Old Jamaican woman thinks about the Hereafter' by A.L Hendricks, which is about an old woman who wonders what will happen when she dies. 'Song of a banana man' by Evan Jones which is describing a man's day at work. The final poem I am going to look at is 'The Lament of the banana man' by Evan Jones, which was written by the same man who wrote 'Song of the banana man' and it is about what would happen if someone left their native country and moved to England.

I chose to do culture because I liked finding out what it was like for people having to move from their country to somewhere completely different.

The first poem I am going to look at is 'Island Man' by Grace Nichols. The poem is about a Caribbean man who has moved to London and in the morning he wakes up to the sound of the sea in his head.

For a few seconds every morning he still thinks he is in the Caribbean.

The first word of the poem, 'morning' sets the scene for the rest of the poem. The line, 'The island man wakes up to the sound of blue surf in his head,' tells us the man imagines blue waves in his head. Right from the start of the poem we learn that the poet's homeland is very important to him.
Join now!


The line, 'the steady breaking and wombing' is comforting, the word 'breaking' is a sea sound and the word 'wombing' is a surf sound.

The second stanza is like the Caribbean man is coming out of his dream. The words 'Emerald Island' are a colour metaphor and he makes it sound like the island is precious to him. Emeralds are precious stones. The words 'groggily, groggily' are like an echo, reflecting the sleepy mood of the island man.

In the third stanza we learn what London is like. The words 'grey metallic soar' gave a strong ...

This is a preview of the whole essay