Look We Have Coming To Dover! Flashcards
1
Q
Form + structure
A
- rhyme scheme very varied in between alternate, half and assonance which implies the speaker is not classically trained or even speaks English as a first language. Could also represent the irregularity of the reality of being an immigrant as you cannot be sure of your place.
- the singular long enjmabment lines could sped up the poem in order to reflect the speakers excitement in moving to a new country
- stanzas somewhat resemble waves due to their irregular line length, symbolic figures of chantage for the immigrant and also reflective of the journey they have toiled through
2
Q
Title
A
- impérative starting phrase that strongly repels the negative connotations of Dover as a mouth for immigration
- celebration of cultural change against xenophobia
- there’s a slightly jarring grammatical error however which, like the rhyme scheme, reveals that the speakers optimism may be hiding the fact they dont speak the ‘queens English’
- the exclamation point connotes unabashed optimism
- Dover is the entry point for ships often in the war, this reveals perhaps a xenophobic idea of invasion
3
Q
‘So various, so beautiful,so new’
A
- italicised phrase comes from a monoistic and xenophobic poem expressing anxiety towards loss of British orthodoxy and a shift towards a secularist modernity
- irony as it is taken out of context and thus plays into the idea of appearance vs reality in that the British public are often unwelcoming and threatening whilst the speaker disagrees
4
Q
Motif of criminality
A
- ‘stwoed’ hints at illegality of the immigrants, a dehumanising lexis that implies they are being shunned and hidden
- ‘ invade’ connotes similar to the title of troops landing in from war which often happened in Dover, suggests that Many xenophobic brits see immigrants as a genuine external threat
- the usage of these words are either mocking or indoctrination to show how the immigrants are internalising the hateful speech used against them
5
Q
Motif of cultured words
A
- camouflage and alfresco are famously European and Germanic phrases rather than that from the queens English
- here the speaker is insidiously proving that the English culture has never been rawly English and that change has been and will constatluy come
6
Q
‘Prowd’
A
- lexis with multiple definitions
- it can mean the front of a ship like that the cruisers are on
- moreover it can play on the word ‘proud’ as they are lording their unquestioned British citizenship over those who strive for it
- we see this in the following line, separated emphatically by caesura which shows a focus on their superiority as the tourists are described by a semantic field of superiority in the words ‘lord’ and ‘minister’
- it may also refer to the lexis PROWL which plays into xenophobic stereotypes that the immigrants are sneaking and illegal
7
Q
Scummed cliffs
A
- the white cliffs are a patriotic figurehead of England
- irony created by the subversion of the image of scum being the immigrants to the notion of scum being England itself and its xenophobic nature
8
Q
Swarms of us, grafting in
A
- swarms is alike to katy Hopkins anti immigrant article, common rhetoric used to evoke fear by those who lead the movement of cultural conservatism
- very animalistic scare tactic and generalisation
- grating is a lexis referring to the act of joint two things together- connotes to the merging of cultures which is a threat to cultural conservatism
-but can also mean working hard and thus implies that despite the fear and scare tactics immigrants often help the English economy and workforce a lot by being employed into more labourous jobs than the educated Brit would go into
9
Q
Miracle of the sun… passsport us to life
A
- likens the idea of getting a British critizenship to a human necessity for living
- lexis ‘passport’ used as a verb implies that it is the only way to live is to be granted an identity
- reveals against British perceptions that immigration is not a selfish act but a desperate attempt to be able to live and enjoy life
10
Q
Unparasoled tables
A
- parasoles such as those in pub gardens are typically used to keep skin fair
- reveals how they do not want to merge with the predominantly white brits but rather want to celebrate their culture in this new land
11
Q
Final stanza
A
- sense of victory and unabashed identity in the face of opppressuin
- how they have merged into British culture whilst still retaining who they were
- ,free, surrounded by caesura puts emphatic pressure on the word which reveals that getting a citizenship is the answer to a happy and free life
