John Agard’s mother was Portuguese, and his father was black. Agard had his education in Guiana. When Agard moved to England, he became a touring lecturer for the common wealth institute, travelling to schools throughout the UK to promote a better understanding of Caribbean culture. Such experience could have shown Agard that thought and sight can corrupt language, revealing that language and sight can also corrupt thought, which could have affected Agard’s choice of rhetorical questions, grammar and the stanza structure.
This poem may have also been used in other parts of the world due to the reflection of English culture, “england weather nearly always half-caste”, this implies that our weather is not at a high degrees on a daily basis, implying that England wears different clothes and our houses are made of different material due to the climate difference, which is completely different to the Caribbean culture, where they wear, what we call summer clothes, all year round.
Agard’s culture is also shown in his punctuation, he is not English therefore he does not use English punctuation. This is effective because the reader would recognise this as they are familiar with their own punctuation and ways of writing and expect others to follow in their example, but Agard doesn’t do this allowing for the reader to realise that they’ve been deceived and that there isn’t correct way of punctuation and writing.
The moods in the poem vary from each stanza. In the first stanza the mood is humorous, “standing on one leg” this could possibly be because Agard had overheard some people talking and wanted to enter the convosation politely, or it could be he wanted to gain their attention by using an intriguing simile.
In the second stanza, the mood is intolerable, “ah rass”, an unpleasant Jamaican word, is used to show that Agard is tired of the same close-mindedness of people.
Moreover, the third stanza is more or less the same as the second, however, the forth and final stanza is pleasant and welcoming, “an I will tell yu de other half of my story”, in my point of view, this tells me that if you talk to him again open-minded he will share his knowledge of other cultures. Nevertheless it could also mean that if you are willing to listen he will explain the other part of his life.
Half-Caste is written in both first person, “I’m half-caste”, and second person, “Explain yuself”. First person gives the reader a first hand experience, so the reader can see where the writer is coming from, with this, a better understanding whereas second person, permits Agard to direct his thoughts and criticisms to the reader which brings the reader into the poem enabling them to think they are having a convosation that will ultimately convince them to listen.
The organisation of the poem reflects the title by having, one short first stanza, two long stanzas and another short stanza. This represents that there are two halves of a poem, however, it could also represent personification, as it also gives the imagery of a leg, the first stanza being the knee, the two long stanzas connecting from it and the final short stanza being the ankle.
Furthermore, the punctuation is both Standard English, “I’m sure you’ll understand”, and non standard, “wid de whole of yu eye”. This technique is especially effective for this poem as it also reflects the overall meaning by further showing that writing and punctuation is also half-caste because different cultures write things differently compared to another- in this case, English. Moreover, the language is also effective because while it is written phonetically the reader feels like they are being spoken to like a friend, and aren’t gaining the impression of being scolded for their ignorance, yet the use where some standard English used is effective because it’s used so rarely its noticeable, allowing the reader to remember it.
Agard’s poem is formal, “Excuse me”, and informal, “half of mih ear” in its style. This could be because Agard wants to have a convosation with his readers instead of his poem reading like instructions. This is effective because the use of informal language is casual, allowing for Agard to show his message indirectly, which is better than the poems style being read as instructions as its not very appealing because the reader would be told how to act and think, instead of figuring out that it is wrong to discriminate for themselves.
Throughout the poem Agard uses scary imagery, “an when moon begin to glow I half-caste human being caste half-a-shadow”, this creates a scary image because it talks about shadows and glowing moons, this is effective because it shows that everyone has a dark side, so everyone is half-caste one way or another.
John Agard uses phonetics, “an de whole of yu mind”. This is in the poem because it complements the whole meaning of the poem and is what makes the poem great by using this effect because it’s the first thing the reader notices.
Agard’s poem could have also been about Martin Luther King’s fight for equal rights, “consequently when I dream I dream half-a-dream”, this could come from Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have A Dream”. This is effective because it shows that racism has been around for centuries.
In my perception Agard uses Pathetic Fallacy. “england weather nearly always half-caste in fact some o dem cloud half-caste till dem overcast so spiteful dem don’t wanted sun pass”, this shows that the clouds view the sun as half-caste, this is effective because Agard displays our racism through inanimate objects.
In my perspective, Unrelated Incidents is about someone who has gone for a job interview on the six a clock news and been rejected because of their Glaswegian accent.
Tome Leonard is best known for poetry written in the Glasgow area and is motivated by a fiercely honest, socialist conviction. This might affect the message the poem tries to give us because Leonard is straight forward and opens his mouth before he thinks.
The message in this poem is different from Half-Caste because Unrelated Incidents is about there not being a right or wrong way to speak and Half-Caste is about accepting people for who they are.
Unrelated Incidents tells us what another culture is like by the punctuation, its different to our culture because we use standard England when we write.
The poem is in first, second and third person, this affects the impact of the poem by using a variety of techniques; it isn’t the same as Half-Caste because Leonard includes other people’s opinions.
The poem is in one stanza and shaped like a teleprompter, however the poem also gives the image of a nail being hammered because the lines in the stanza are short. Leonard perhaps structured it this way to make his point quick which is shown his words as they are displayed as angry. It’s different from Half-Caste because Half-Caste has four stanzas and it uses different and subtle imagery, possibly due to the poem saying more.
Unrelated Incidents doesn’t use any formal language and is insulting, where as “Half-Caste” uses Standard English and non standard as well as being polite.
“trooth wia” is phonetic language used in Unrelated Incidents. Phonetic language is used in both poems because it reflects the poet’s culture by displaying how they talk further representing their background, because Leonard comes across aggressive I can infer that his culture is defensive and vigilant.
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Half-Caste is the most effective poem because Agard uses a vast majority of techniques and is easy to understand, whereas Leonard’s poem is completely wrapped in phonetics and very abstruse, nevertheless, both poems are similar as they both share the same theme.