What Do You Find Interesting About The Work Of Grace Nichols?
What Do You Find Interesting About The Work Of Grace Nichols? Grace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950. She lived there until 1977 when she came to live with her partner, another poet. She writes many poems and anthologies. Her poems are mainly about black people and their sense of culture. She writes about the pride they have to be themselves and not to feel embarrassed about who they are. She has also written poetry about missing her home and about what it feels like to be away. I have chosen to study four poems by Grace Nichols: these are, 'Beauty,' 'The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping,' 'Like A Beacon' and 'Island Man.' These four poems all explore different aspects of cultural diversity. 'Beauty' is about Nichols' own views of beauty and not listening to the stereotypical ideas that are impounded into everybody's minds. Nichols doesn't mean beauty in the sense of having a perfect figure and features but beauty in the form of being proud of herself and content with whom she is. This poem is primarily about a fat black woman. Another of these poems is about a fat black woman. The title of this is 'The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping.' Though this poem shows that she is proud of who she is, it also shows a little touch of insecurity within herself. I can tell this through the lines 'and de pretty face sales gals exchanging slimming glances' These lines show
Poetry Comparison - Blessing & Hurricane
Poetry Comparison Essay Hurricane Hits England This is a poem written by a Caribbean poet named Grace Nichols. It shows what it means to her as a black women living in England, and she tells us how the Caribbean merges with the English hurricane. The structure of this poem is made up of 8 stanzas consisting of varying lengths. The poem is written mostly in free verse - there is no rhyme scheme; stanzas vary in length, as do the lines, though the first line in the poem is a perfect parameter. In the first stanza of the poem it is written in 3rd person, but most of the other parts of the poem are written in 1st person. In the 4th line of the first stanza, Grace Nichols uses a metaphor in the sentence "The howling ship of the wind". She then talks about it being "like some dark ancestral spectre". She is trying to say it is like a family ghost which she is familiar with and most of her family have experienced in the Caribbean. She then uses the words "Fearful and reassuring" at first looking at these two words they don't go together, but what the poet is doing is, she is using an oxymoron and a paradox and what she is trying to say is that she is petrified of the hurricane, but at the same time it still reminds her of home and she is reassured and also the storm reminded her of where she came from and it helps her to realise that the same force is at work in England. In the
Hurricane Hits England
Hurricane Hits England The poem is about a young Caribbean woman whose culture is contigently consumed by that of her surroundings. At the time of the hurricane she felt destitute, vulnerable and could not understand why she had sanctioned her culture to such an unreachable part of her soul. Throughout the poem Grace Nichols shows her thoughts and feelings using a wide variety of imagery, similes and metaphors. This enables the reader to attain a clearer and deeper understanding of the poem. The poem is set in England and is being read by Grace Nichols herself. The poet shows the importance of the hurricane multifariously, the development of her thoughts during the poem show this very well. In the beginning of the poem she feels trepidation and very insecure about the fact that the hurricane has come to England. The first line states"It took a hurricane to bring her closer to the landscape." This line leads me to believe that before the hurricane's occurrence in Britain, she had become so comfortable living in England that she had acquired a "false identity"so to speak, whereby she had relinquished the chore of having to recollect the minor aspects of her culture that made it both important and precious. The first line is the foundation of the poem as it is the very reason that she regained avidity for her culture again. She has personified the hurricane by referring to it
One of the aim of this text from a narrative essay is to describe the hurricane. He firstly does this when he describes the hurricane as,
Manna Khan Mr Lewis English Language 28/11/2004 Clash with the hurricane The sky darkened from the blue light sky, it turned suddenly to a dark black gloomy sky hovering with a mist cloud. I walked back into the car, seemingly it was going to pour down. Heavily, the wind blew. I turned to shut the windows, but, as I looked closer out of the window, huge clouds started fusing together which then created a huge immense hurricane. I could not believe my eyes, a hurricane was coming our way. I could not believe it, even though this was so dangerous and could have many damaging effects to the environment and to the people, but from a distance it was such a magnificent phenomenon. Heavily rain poured, hitting the ground like bullets from a gun. Luckily for me, I was in my car. I tried to start the car but it wouldn't work. I turned my head again towards the window, the death trap was seemingly getting even more closer. After many efforts of trying to start the car, the car would still now move. 'What a time for the car not to work I thought to myself'. I got out of the car and looked ahead. The treacherous whirlwind was closer than ever, people now started to notice and started fearing. At this point I was thinking only one thing, 'Those damn weather reporters never told us that a hurricane was coming
Comparing two poems identitiy
Comparing two poems ""Two scavengers in a truck, two beautiful people in a Mercedes and "Vultures" In this section I will be comparing two poems on the theme politics and inequality "Nothing's changed" by Tatamkhulu Afrika and "Vultures" by Chinua Achebe. "Nothings changed" is about the poet talking about where he lived "District Six" and how it was a mixed-race area, but when apartheid was introduced in South Africa it become a white only area this shows the equality there was between the black and white people. Now under Nelson Mandela's government, it's supposedly mixed again but Afrika sees little difference. The poem "Vultures" is about the poet comparing the two vultures that have disgusting eating habits, but they are still capable of affection for each other and the Nazi officer who is cruel and murderous during the day but a loving father and husband when he comes home. In the poem nothing's changed the structure is written in a 48 lined stanza. This poem starts immediately with the poet telling you about where he lives and how it has been neglected "seeding grasses". In vultures the structure is written in a 51 lines stanza. This poem starts immediately with words related to misery and darkness that sets the tone of the poem "greyness, drizzle". The language in nothing's changed is modern "small round hard stones click" and is written in the present tense "I
Different Cultures: Cluster 2 Essay.
Different Cultures: Cluster 2 Essay. The two poems I am to compare are Grace Nichols "Hurricane Hits England" a poem that shows that the whole world is one world and how a storm reminds a Caribbean woman of home. The author obviously misses her home country and feels it in the storm which she wrote about, the violence of the storm is harsh and causes some damage. The second poem, with which I will be comparing "Hurricane..." is Niyi Osundare's "Not my Business". This poem describes the violent and horrific nature in which the Nigerian Government treated those people who disagreed with the state. It describes the pain and suffering they forced upon these people and how the pain and suffering is then brought to the narrator. This poem is about shared responsibilities and the way that tyranny grows if no one opposes it. It is composed, simply, of three stories about victims of the oppressors, followed by the experience of the speaker in the poem, in which he has not done anything, but the fact that he knows makes him a target. The poet is Nigerian but the situation in the poem could be from many countries, there are words used like "yam", and the names of the people which tell you this. The poem echoes, in its four parts, a statement by Pastor Martin Niemöller, who opposed the Nazis. Speaking later to many audiences he would conclude with these words, more or less: "First,
The Effects of Hurricane Ivan
The Effects of Hurricane Ivan The 2004 hurricane season began quietly with only one tropical storm between June and July. By the same time last year two hurricanes and six tropical storms had occurred. August however has brought an influx of four hurricanes and four tropical storms, four of which have hit the US and Caribbean. Hurricane Francis and Charley being among the worst already strained defenses put in place but due to warm weather tracks a cycle of hurricanes emerged. Causes of Hurricane Ivan: In order to look at the effects of Hurricane Ivan you must first acknowledge the cause of previous hurricane. No one was shocked by the storms beginning on August 9th because many had been watching storm Bonnie when a tropical depression occurred outside the outer regions of the Caribbean. It quickly became Tropical Storm Charley and then, south of Jamaica, a full hurricane. After leaving a trail of heavy rains and winds in the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, Charley struck Cuba during a two-hour crossing that left five people dead and $1 billion in damage. After that it was clear Charley was heading for Florida, the media played it was a category 2 storm heading for Tampa bay. But Charley turned into a Category 4 hurricane at the last minute with wins of 145mph hitting charlotte bay not Tampa Bay. By the time Charley exited the state's central east coast a new danger -
A Comparison Of Two Poetical Works by Grace Nichols
Harry Noble GCSE Crsewrk 8th January 2001 A Comparison Of Two Poetical Works by Grace Nichols Grace Nichols is a poet of Carribean origin, after living in Guyana for the first 27 years of her life working as a freelance journalist, Grace decided to move to England. In England she has written many poems, mainly dealing with the troubles which face imigrants when they enter a country (for instance in some of her poems she deals with people who don't really know where home is anymore). The poems which I will be discussing are 'My Gran Visits England' and 'Wherever I Hang. The first theme that I shall investigate in the two poems is the basic issue of immigration and the troubles involved in it which make it so stressful. This quote is from 'Wherever I Hang' and it shows one feeling towards immigration: "I leave me people, me land, me home For reasons I not too sure I forsake de sun And de humming-bird splendour" This quote not only shows that the subject of the poem is unsure of the reasons for which she is going, but also she actually misses the splendour of the humming-bird. This verse also uses a metaphor as the sun is generally thought of as an almost heavenly entity as it appears to be very high in the sky and always gives warming, white light. This infers that she left a heavenly place to go to a darker place which does not have the delights of the
Compare how a persons culture is shown to be important in Hurricane Hits England and in one other poem.
Compare how a person's culture is shown to be important in 'Hurricane Hits England' (page 18) and in one other poem. 'Hurricane Hits England' by Grace Nichols and 'Search for My Tongue' by Sujata Bhatt both shows the importance of culture in different ways. Firstly, the language used in 'Hurricane Hits England' is made up of statements and questions. She talks about the "howling ship of the wind" which is a metaphor for the hurricane to show the power of the storm. There paradox of the "fearful and reassuring" storm shows that even though she is scared, it makes her feel that the storm is not such a bad thing for her. She also includes questions such as "tell me why you visit an English coast?" this shows that she does not understand why a nature has come to where she now lives. This is because hurricanes were a usual disaster in French Guyana, where she originally lived, and then when she moved to England, the storm followed her there. She also wonders why her "heart unchained?" This could show the freedom because the hurricane showed her that French Guyana is not that far away from England for an event like a hurricane to happen. It could also mean that she was a slave but has now been set free to live a normal life. In addition, Nichols personifies the storm by calling it her "sweeping, back-home cousin"; this shows that understands the storm and sees it as a usual
A Storm Story
A STORM STORY Usually I could have cared less about a the arrival of a hurricane. Many had come and gone causing little damage in their wake. This one though, with winds traveling upwards to one hundred and forty miles per hour, proved to be a force to be reckoned with. Hurricane Jeff had left a devastating path of destruction every where it went and made everyone fearful. It was large and it moved extremely slow, as if to relish its work. Many were killed so far and hundreds were still missing . It was like the storm wanted to set an example for those who wished to test its strength. What sent fear ricocheting through my stomach was the fact that we were in the projected path of this brutal deadly beast. The first gust of wind came with biting intensity. It shook the trees vigorously, making the branches dance. The sky was frighteningly dark, and it looked as though God was going to pour down his wrath at any moment. The sky burst setting down gigantic raindrops that pounded the roof and a roar of thunder that was angry and metallic shook me to my bones. Lightening flashed at every angle, like a fire works display gone wrong. The wind picked up speed and took with it what was carelessly left outside. Normally, hurricanes were another reason to stay home, but the fury of this one was something for the ages. The swaying trees were being damaged and uprooted, like casualties