What does the language of Grace Nichols’ have to tell us about her culture?
Grace Nichols Coursework Summer 2001 What does the language of Grace Nichols' have to tell us about her culture? Grace Nichols' poetry revolves around her culture and the foundations from before she moved to England. She was born in Guyana, then moved to a place where her lifestyle was dramatically changed. Here she could not share her culture. This may have caused a stronger standpoint on her feelings as she has had a chance to reflect on what her background is and what her roots are about. Culture is something that you share with your community, young and old, whether it is something that has only lasted within your generation or throughout hundreds of years. It is something that is cherished and protected, but is also shared throughout other cultures. Nichols has used her idea of culture as a way to express her feelings about her history, which has caused her to create her own personal, strong opinions. Nichols uses poetry to express her own culture because it is something that everybody would be able to understand in his or her own way. It lets the reader become involved with the poem and allows them to have their own opinion and thoughts on each and every part. The language of a poem can tell us a great deal of what the readers own opinions are and what he/she feels. In this case it is Nichols' culture. Throughout her poems she chooses to use her poems
How Does Grace Nichols Create a sense of Cultural Identity through her poetry?
English Essay- How Does Grace Nichols Create a sense of Cultural Identity through her poetry? By James Patney 11U Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana where she was brought up. She later moved to London. When she moved to London she felt as though she was living in an alien world and did not approve of London. Grace Nichols was longing for a cultural identity in Britain and she tends to describe Britain negatively and the Caribbean positively. Throughout Grace Nichols' poems she applies her own dialect of Creole, which is the official dialect of the Caribbean, where she originated. She also uses Creole because she feels as though she should preserve it. She maintains that the language is 'genuinely exciting' and that Creole's aspects are very vivid which concludes her to believe that there is no equivalent in the English language. The poem 'Praise Song For My Mother' is based upon memories Nichols has of her late mother from childhood and the style of the poem is simple to reflect this. The style is also based upon snapshots and a reminiscence of the Caribbean e.g. 'sunrise to me, rise warm and streaming', which is associated with the hot climate countries. The mood throughout the poem of 'Praise Song For My Mother' is very emotional and repetitive. This mood is established because the poet intends to mourn the fact that her mother has passed away. The poem is
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
How does the poet use language, imagery and form to make their person expressive in the three chosen poems 'from other cultures and traditions'?
How does the poet use language, imagery and form to make their person expressive in the three chosen poems 'from other cultures and traditions'? In poetry, poets should use the three techniques stated in the title to make their person and poem expressive. They can also use extended metaphors to give that little add of feeling to it. The three chosen poems for this essay are, 'Search For My Tongue', 'Hurricane Hits England' and 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan'. 'Search For My Tongue' is a poem about a Gujarati woman called Sujata Bhatt that had moved to another country resulting in her having to speak 'a foreign tongue'. She felt alienated because she felt out of place as the 'mother tongue' died in her mouth but returned to her overnight in a dream where it grew back, stronger than the 'foreign tongue'. Sujata Bhatt uses language to create a feeling of homesickness. She uses 'lost' when mentioning the loss of her 'mother tongue'. This expresses sadness, and then the Gujarati text helps the reader to understand what she has lost and what her 'mother tongue' is like. Words like 'rot' and 'die' makes the reader feel that Sujata's homesick, as her home language is dead and so doesn't feel at home because of the loss in her culture. Another word that is used that is also very important is the word 'the'. She uses this with the 'mother tongue'. This shows that the language
An Analysis of a favourite Grace Nichols Poem - Fear.
An Analysis of a favourite Grace Nichols Poem - Fear. As the essay title states I am going to analyse a Poem written by Grace Nichols. Grace was born in Georgetown, Guyana, when finished school she went to university and then had several jobs before moving to England in 1977. Nichols then wrote poems mainly about racially sensitive topics, motherhood and sexuality. The poem, which I shall analyse, is called 'Fear'. The main storyline in this poem is that a woman is worried and fears for her child living in England. I think this poem has a deeper meaning, basically about black people trying to adapt or not accepting the fact that they have to adapt to the way in which white people live. The writer of this poem sees it as blacks against whites, she feels very uncomfortable living in England, and maybe she feels out of place? Out numbered? In this poem there is much racial tension as she does not see the population to be as 'one', as equals. She uses words like 'our culture', and 'your own'. This clearly shows that she sees white coloured people as being different to blacks. I think that she sees the world population split into two - black people against the rest of the world. In 'fear' there is a big culture clash and this is what Grace Nichols wants us to think about. The culture clash is the main theme running through this poem. In the first two lines of this poem - ' our
Discuss the issue of Cultural Identity in Grace Nichols Poetry.
Discuss the issue of Cultural Identity in Grace Nichols Poetry Focussing on: Praise song for my mother Fat Black Woman Tropical Death Grace Nichols puts the image across that the issue of culture is extremely important to her. Through her poems we understand that she is confused of her identity. Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950 and grew up in a small country village on the Guyanese coast in the West Indies. She worked as a teacher and journalist and as part of a diploma in communications at the University of Guyana, she spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of Aztec and Inca. She came to Britain in 1977 with her partner, the poet John Agard. They now live on the coast of Sussex. She wrote a collection of originals Caribbean nursery rhymes, 'No Hicory, No Dicory, No Dock,' with him and has edited several anthologies as well as writing her own collections and performing regularly. Through her personal background we come to a conclusion that the issue of culture is so important to Grace Nichols because of the sudden change in her culture when she moved to the UK and because all her childhood memories, family and friends are all in the Caribbean. 'Praise Song For My Mother', 'Fat Black
Many poets write about the power of nature using "Hurricane Hits England" by Grace Nichols and "Storm on The Island" by Seamus Heaney-Discuss which poet in your opinion portrays the storm more vividly
Many poets write about the power of nature using "Hurricane Hits England" by Grace Nichols and "Storm on The Island" by Seamus Heaney- Discuss which poet in your opinion portrays the storm more vividly Conal McGarrity "Hurricane Hits England" and "Storm on the Island" are poems addressing a similar event, that of a violent storm. However due to the contrast in the poets' backgrounds, style and perception they present the event in different ways. The poets have been influenced greatly by their respective backgrounds. Seamus Heaney grew up in agricultural surroundings in rural Derry, inheriting a strong allegiance to farm life from his father. Inevitably much of his poetry stems and is primarily based on his experiences and feel for farm life. Many of Heaney's poems address nature, its beauty and its power. The strength of his poetry lies in his ability to create effective imagery to convey what is a common experience whether it's picking blackberries or experiencing a violent storm. In contrast, Grace Nichols experienced very different surroundings growing up. She originally lived in the Caribbean but her career as a writer uprooted her to an unsettled and alienated life in England. She finds it very difficult to surrender her own history and culture and the storm acts as a reminder. This is reflected in the poem. "Storm on the Island" describes the destructive
Many of the poems in the Anthology are concerned with origins. The poets explore and consider these cultural identities in their poems. Write about their point of view - Blessing - Presents from my aunt in Pakistan - Ogun - Hurricane hits England.
Poems from other cultures and traditions (identity) Many of the poems in the Anthology are concerned with origins. The poets explore and consider these cultural identities in their poems. Write about their point of view. . Blessing 2. Presents from my aunt in Pakistan 3. Ogun 4. Hurricane hits England These four poems are all concerned about the identity process and how people look to their past heritage for identity and for their sense of being. Blessing Imtiaz Dharker lives in India, in the city of Bombay. During the dry season, the temperature can reach 40 degrees. The poem is set in a vast area of temporary accommodation called Dharavi, on the outskirts of Bombay, where millions of migrants have gathered from other parts of India. Because it is not an official living area, there is always a shortage of water. The poem starts with a simple statement, there is never enough water, and shows what it is like to be without water. When the poet imagines water, it is so special it is compared to a god. When a water pipe bursts, we are shown how the community responds: they collect as much water as possible. The children enjoy the water and play in it. The poem is structured in four stanzas of different lengths. The poet starts new paragraphs at lines 3, 7 and 18. It is significant that short stanzas (with short, abrupt sentences) express what it is like to be without
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
Explore the feelings that the two poems express about living in England with their roots in another culture - 'Presents from my aunts in Pakistan' and 'Hurricane Hits England'
Natalie smith 10a Explore the feelings that the two poems express about living in England with their roots in another culture Both poems 'Presents from my aunts in Pakistan' and 'Hurricane Hits England', deal with an alien culture and hoe the two poets find it hard to adapt to, to Pakistan in Presents from my aunts, and England in Hurricane hits England. 'Presents from my aunts' is about a young Pakistani girl who moved from Pakistan when she was younger. She has grown up in England but still has connections with her aunts in Pakistan. She has memories of her other culture but she doesn't quite feel part of it. Her aunts send her beautiful, bright clothing that she loves but she doesn't quite feel combatable in and she can't familiarize with, 'Salwar kameez, peacock blue and another glistening like an orange split open'. This simile shows just how vibrant and sparkling the clothes are that her aunts give her. She admires them a lot but they are not clothes she can feel quite right wearing. 'Pink and white glass bangles snapped, drew blood' This shows that the poet is not familiar with the culture as she was not sure how to put these bangles on. 'I tried each satin-silken top-was alien in the sitting room' These elegant and vibrant clothes don't fit in with the surroundings of