Checking out me history

Question 1

“Dem tell me”

Answer 1

• Colloquial language
• Repetition
• No following the rules of the English language but rather writing to reflect how he speaks (where he’s from) - using language to claim back his power
• Repetition adds a sense of aggression and dominance
• Verb “tell” shows how he has been forced to hear it (tell instead of taught) - shows how he is going to tell them now

Question 2

“Bandage up me eye with my own history blind me to me own identity”

Answer 2

• Bandages are used to cover wounds and scars: the government wants to hide their crimes and acts against his people by putting a bandage over it
• Consonance of plosives to create an underlying tone of aggression

Question 3

“I carving out me own identity”

Answer 3

• The verb “carving” is very powerful:: leaving a permenant mark
• To carv is to get rid of the unecessary parts to leave your own imprint: Agard is getting rid of the British history and replacing it with his own
• Gerund “carving” shows how it is not an action but rather a process: taking place over time
• Ends on a rhyimg couplet: suggesting that this is a happy ending
• “I”: first time the first person singular is used throughout the poem: he is finally asserting himself rather than accepting what is being taught

Question 4

structure, form, context - COMH

Answer 4

• No use of punctuation: punctuation can be interpreted as a set of rules. By not using punctuation Agard is allowing everyone to interpret the poem differnetly
• Poem alternates between two structures which is highlighted with the changing font: two different histories he is taught juxtaposing eachother