checking out me history

Question 1

What poems can you do a comparison with identity, anger and the power of human in

Answer 1

• London
• tissue
• Ozymandias

Question 2

key quotes

Answer 2

• dem tell me/ wha dem want to tell me
• bandage up me eye with me own history
• blind me to me own identity
• L’Ouverture/no dem never tell be dat
• dem never did tell me about nanny de maroon
• dem tell me about lord nelson and Waterloo
• dem never tel me about Mary seacole
• but now i checking out me own history

Question 3

language and themes

Answer 3

• anger = it is implied that england is a colonial superpower, unceremoniously imposing its own history on the narrator and blatantly disregarding his own cultural heritage
• identity= Agard presents history as the key to understanding our identity. the blinded and bandaged metaphors suggest the speakers history has been deliberately withheld.

Question 4

what happens in the poem

Answer 4

• the narrator tell us how he was taught about lots of English and British history but very little about his on, Caribbean
• he lists iconic Caribbean historical figures who he feels should be celebrated.
• he ends by declaring that he will find out about his own history for himself.

Question 5

form, structure and context

Answer 5

• there the alternation between 2 stanzas. the British version of history which is mostly written in rhyming couplets making them sound jaunty and infantile. and the interspersed with references to iconic Caribbean figure
• the Caribbean stanzas are shorter and broken syntax is seen to be used
• the narrator uses a mixture of stanza forms which could suggest that he is breaking the regulations and rules that have been bestowed upon him.
• he uses elements of oral poetry such as repetition, strong rhymes, phonetic spellings and chanting