Look We Have Coming To Dover Flashcards
Title
Broken English echoes the voice of the immigrants
Establishes a voice to attach to the narrative of the poem
Gives the immigrants their own version of English identity
Poorly phrased language and mix of tenses
‘So various, so beautiful, so new…’
- Matthew Arnold, ‘Dover Beach’
Epigraph - literary allusion
Open-ended poem that has irregular rhyme and rhythm and follows no classical template - broke with old forms, unconventional. Links to Nagra’s own unique form + phrasing.
Arnold’s poem structure also mimics the sea as he describes wavelets shifting the pebbles - Nagra used as inspiration
Writes about uncertainty - a time where people were losing their faith in God as the advancements in technology, science and evolution were introduced. Ideas of morphing from the old to the new - Nagra looks into this as he exposes how difficult it is for immigrants to adjust to their new way of life.
