Analysis of Grace Nicholls' poem "Childhood".
English Essay Analysis of Grace Nicholls' poem "Childhood" Grace Nicholls was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1950 and educated at St. Stephen's Scots School, PPI High School, and the University of Guyana. She worked as a teacher, freelance journalist and Guyanese Government employee before moving to Britain in 1977. She is regarded as the most authoritative voice among contemporary black women poets in Britain. "The Fat Black Woman's Poems'" which she wrote in 1984 uses humour to deconstruct a racial and sexual stereotypes, this poetry collection is where the poem which I am going to analyse "Childhood" came from. Childhood is about the poet reminiscing about her childhood in her home country, she is telling us about the community she lived in and the fishing industry that she was involved in. How they killed the fish and how her religious background has affected her life in her new country. She is telling us one of her childhood stories. The theme of this poem is of a culture clash between the 'easy' life of the British and the 'hard-working' life of the Caribbean , the poet is trying to set a theme of how people in Britain do not have to catch there own food and the way they catch fish is a lot harder. She may not like this country because it is so different to hers, like 'at Sunday school' in this country most people work on a Sunday and it is supposed to be a day
Compare & contrast the poets presentation of foreign cultures and related issues.
COMPARE & CONTRAST THE POETS PRESENTATION OF FOREIGN CULTURES AND RELATED ISSUES The three poems I will be comparing and contrasting are 'Search For My Tongue' by Sujata Bhatt, 'Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi and 'Night Of The Scorpion' by Nissim Ezekiel. Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore in Pakistan, the daughter of a Pakistani father and an English mother. She came to live in England when she was only a few months old and didn't revisit Pakistan until she was much older. She found it important to write the Pakistani poems to get in touch with her background, perhaps as a way of exploring her own feelings about her cultural identity. She had tried to imagine a life in Pakistan by looking at old family photographs and news reports on television. Sujata Bhatt was born in India, moved to America and now lives in Germany. She explores the problems of having two languages and that her cultural identity is defined by her language. Nissim Ezekiel, is a Jew living in Bombay, he seems to suggest that cultural beliefs can be overpowering, influencing and controlling judgement and rational thought in the light of modern thinking, knowledge and education. As all of the poems are written by poets from different cultures, they all raise issues related to culture. In 'Search for My Tongue' the issues centre around a girl who has left her native country of India.
Poems From Other Cultures- John Agard and Sujata Bhatt
Mieke Gadd English Literature and Language C/W Compare the way any two poets deal with the experience of living between two cultures. Search for My Tongue by Sujata Bhatt and Half-Caste by John Agard, are poems that both explain the struggles of living with mixed heritages and being split between the two. They both express there opinion in different ways, Bhatt using symbolism and Agard using confrontational speech and metaphors. Agard's poem portrays the racist connotations associated with the word Half-caste and he effectively puts across his true feelings on the subject. Agard was born in Guyana and like most Caribbean people Agard is bi-racial, being born of a white Portuguese mother and a black Caribbean father. Consequently, Agard is going to be dealing with several issues as he has to live between two languages, three cultures, and living in a country that comfortably uses words such as 'half-caste' without thinking about the negative undertones that can dampen his spirit and pride in being of duel-heritage. Similarly, Bhatt writes about her struggle of living between two cultures, but unlike Agard she is of one race, Indian. Bhatt and her family moved to the West when Bhatt was still young and there she learned English in addition to her first language, Guajarati. Bhatt's poem explains the difficulty of having two languages, the fear of looses a native language
How do the authors of Dulce Et Decorum Est and Electricity Comes To Cocoa Bottom use descriptive detail, and to what effect?
How do the authors of 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'Electricity Comes To Cocoa Bottom' use descriptive detail, and to what effect? In the poems 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'Electricity Comes To Cocoa Bottom', both authors employ various linguistic devices such as vivid imagery and descriptive detail to put across a specific message to the reader. By doing so, they successfully evoke a series of emotions from the reader throughout the course of both poems. Although in terms of content 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'Electricity Comes To Cocoa Bottom' are worlds apart, as one is a war poem and the other is about technology coming to paradise, they both come back to the same central idea of a corrupting influence. In 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' it is that of war's corrupting influence on innocent young men and in 'Electricity Comes To Cocoa Bottom', it is the corruptive nature of technology when it tries to harmonise with something natural like an exotic, untouched island. Wilfred Owen uses graphic descriptions of the soldiers in order to paint a clear message for the readers. Described as defeated and worn-down like old "beggars", the soldiers are tired, hungry, and cold - hence they are perpetually standing "hunched over". The contrast between the actual young man and the way he is described to the reader is striking and implies that war corrupts the youth and innocence of these men. He
comparing poetry
Compare the way in which different poets present the theme of growing up. There is many poem written on the theme of growing up which show poets own experiences and there observations of others. Through study of 'Growing Pains' by Vernon Scannell, 'In Mrs Tilscher's Class' by Carol Ann Duffy, 'The Early Purges' and 'Mid Term Break' by Seamus Heaney it can be clearly seen how poets use many different poetic techniques to create a tone and atmosphere in the poem that causes a certain reaction in the reader, such as emotive language, sensory imagery and form and structure of the poem. 'Growing pains' describes a five year old boy and his first experience of love and heartbreak for Jessica. The father does not know what to do about the situation because of this he follows his instincts. The boy does not understand what this new feeling is. The poem is written in the first person from the father's point of perspective. In contrast 'In Mrs Tilscher's class' describes the girls own memories of the primary school and her teacher 'Mrs Tilscher'. The poem is in first person from the girls perspective. As in 'Growing Pains' It shows how her feelings change as she experiences some thing new, she is told a thing from a rough boy 'how you were born,' At the beginning of the she felt safe and at the end of the poem she feels insecure and worried like the little in 'Growing pains'
Comparing Poems From Other Cultures; Night of the Scorpion and Nothing's Changed
Poems From Other Cultures In this essay I am going to be comparing to poems from two different cultures. "Night of the Scorpion" by Nissim Ezekiel and Tatamkhulu Africa's "Nothing's Changed." I feel the poems have two different cultures as although both poets leave an impression of being impoverished , in night of the scorpion the neighbours all work together as a community to help each other. While in Nothings Changed it is the complete contrast to that as the community is divided, by racism. Nissim Ezekiel is often credited with beginning the modernist movement in India and was one of India's best known poets. "Nothings Changed" is an autobiographical poem. Tatamkhulu Afrika lived in Cape Town's District 6, which was then a thriving mixed-race inner-city community. People of all colours and beliefs lived together peacefully, and Afrika said he felt 'at home' there. "Night of the Scorpion" is set in a poverty stricken area. You can see this from Nissim Ezekiel's vocabulary such as "sacks of rice" this shows us that the villagers have to have to eat cheap bland food. He also illustrates an image of poverty from "the peasants came like swarms of flies" he uses this simile for specific effect to emphasise the poor living standards the villagers live in aswell as that it's a hot, unhygienic and dirty environment. Flies give the impression of bad hygiene etcetera. Again the
The Outlook of Death in three poems (Poetry Anthology comparison)
Death is life's only certainty. At the moment when each year - each day - begins to weigh heavy importance, we are forced to circumspect not only on the aspects of death, but also life, grief, and the after-life. This essay explores the outlook of death from three poems - Crabbit Old Woman by Phyllis McCormack, Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe, and Remember, by Christina Rossetti. These verses have moved people with their semblances of reality, and this essay studies the various outlooks of death presented. Crabbit Old Woman is written in the persona of an elderly woman reflecting on her life in a nursing home. This first-person account positions us to view the situation from her angle. She is frustrated at the young nurse's inability to see beyond her physicality. The poem is structured through short, six/seven syllable lines, rhetorical questions and rhyme, which establishes a sense of it being a rapid rapport with the nurse, whilst also an inner dialogue. The poem critiques the presumptuousness of our highly visual society. Nature is pejoratively personified in "Nature is cruel, 'tis her jest, to make old age look a fool". The physical effect of age is evident, "The body it crumbles". The word 'crumbles' metaphorically refers to biscuit-like weakness, which reinstates her physical state. Her physical and emotional beings, however, are presented as separate
How are people presented in Vultures and one other poem of your choice
How are people presented in Vultures and one other poem of your choice? Both "Vultures" and "Two Scavengers in a truck, two beautiful people in a Mercedes" are presented using people. They both represent people in some way and both include the people in different forms. The poem "Vultures" presents the people using the vultures. These vultures represent people of a certain kind. In real life vultures are real birds of prey, but in the poem they are trying to represent the types of people. The poem, "Two Scavengers in a truck, two beautiful people in a Mercedes", people are presented through the division in society. Vultures are shown that humans aren't so different to animals; it is shown that both animals and humans are shown through their actions. It is shown that vultures are bad in real life because of what they do, but behind all the disgusting habits there is care shown. They appear to have care for each other and therefore this shows us that even though people do bad things, they still have some good factors about them. Both animals and humans are shown through their actions and imagery to show that they are caring even though they have evil within them. For example, it starts off with how the two vultures are picking the eyes of a swollen corpse and how they eat the contents of the bowel. This shows that they are grotesque and very evil. But straight after this,
Compare and contrast two poems, My last duchess and Porpyria's Lover
Coursework Essay Discuss the Similarities and Differences Between 'Porphyria's Lover' and 'My Last Duchess' 'Porphyria's Lover' and 'My Last Duchess' are very similar poems, they are both written by Robert Browning, and also they are both Dramatic Monologues, which is a dramatic poem in one person's view. Yet these two poems are different in many ways. 'Porphyria's Lover' is about a man and women who are in love but can not be together because of their different classes in society, this angers the lover and then suddenly he realises that Porphyria worships him, he feels proud and wants to capture the moment and the only way of doing that is by killing Porphyria. 'My Last Duchess' is about a Duke, who is showing a representative around his mansion whose daughter he wishes to marry, whilst showing the representative his collection of paintings he comes by a painting of his Last Duchess. He describes how she treated him like she treated everyone else and he explained this is how a Duchess should not behave and that he killed her because of this. In this essay I will discuss the similarities and differences between 'Porphyria's Lover' and 'My Last Duchess', I will compare four aspects between these poems, Society, Power, Possession and Women. The Woman plays a major role in 'Porphyria's Lover', before she enters the room her Lover is miserable, "It torn the elm tops down from
To what extent has there been the development of new ethnic identities such as Black British or British/Asian?
To what extent has there been the development of new ethnic identities such as Black British or British/Asian? When referring to British Asians, the majority of us often fall into the trap of understanding the Asians referred to are linked to the Indian Subcontinent, i.e. India, Pakistan etc. What we tend to forget is that Asians are associated with a number of different countries and with Asia being the largest continent in the world, what exactly is meant by the term 'British Asians?' Generally, here in Britain, they are perceived to be the 'brown' kind and are often associated with the Indian subcontinent. This may seem like a genuine error, but colloquially speaking we have come to accept this fact and refer to it commonly without thought. Such examples can be seen in various places where we tend to overlook the deeper article. A radical example can be seen in perhaps the way we describe 'Hoovers', we all know that the correct term is 'Vacuum Cleaner' however we use Hoover and the rest of us know what is being referred to is actually a 'Vacuum Cleaner'. In not so many words the British Asian community has been innocently branded to mean those people that are British and associated with the Indian Subcontinent i.e. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and perhaps in extreme cases neighbouring countries such as Burma and Iran. The Asian community living in Britain not so
