Singh Song! - Daljit Magra Flashcards
Singh Song!
The poem brings out that love is more important than money, and the fact that you can create romance anywhere.
General Context
- Dalit Nagra is a British poet of Indian descent. His middle name is Singh and is a Sikh.
- His parents emigrated to Britain from India. He is a second generation immigrant. His poems explore the experiences of first generation immigrants and their descendants to Britain.
- He used Punglish in his poems as he thinks this can capture the spirit of what they said. He is also making a political point in not writing in standard English. He is challenging the dominance of white, male, English poetry and showing how it needs to be more diverse to reflect British culture.
‘Singh Song’
Singh is a popular hame in Sikh religion and it is translated from Punjabi.
The combination of English and Punjabi implies that there is a mix in culture where the speaker belongs, British and Indian.
‘vunt’ ‘ven’
Examples of Punglish.
‘Hey Singh, ver you bin?’
L - refrain
This emphasises the fact that the speaker is often not in the shop as he would rather be with his wife.
‘her Sikh lover site’
L - pronoun
The wife is traditional in sense that her Sikh dating site is a modern version of arranged marriage but modern in the sense that she is using technology to make money out of it.
The speaker admires his wife as she is ahead of her time as the poem is set at a time when computers and websites were in early stage of development.
‘effing at my mum’
‘making fun at my daddy’
L - verbs
The wife is unconventional as she uses explicits and makes fun of her father-in-law.
However, the speaker admires her because she criticises his father which he feels like he cannot do. He obeys his father and runs the shop.
‘daddy’
L - juvenile diction
I -
1. Shows respect to his father.
2. The speaker is still treated like a child as he is still dependent on his father for job and income.
‘tickle of my bride’
L - repetition of possessive pronoun
The repetition of the phrase ‘my bride’ throughout the poem shows that the speaker is proud of his wife and is possessive of her.
L - noun
Suggests that they have a playful and affectionate relationship.
‘whispering stairs’
‘silver stool’
‘beaches’
‘brightly moon’
L - lyrical, romantic imageries
This creates a calmer, slower and romantic environment.
The fact that the speaker and his wife never left their shop but created their own romantic paradise prove that they can create romance anywhere if they have each other.
‘yoo’
L - direct address
The pronouns of the last four stanzas change to direct address to his wife.
It makes it seems like the readers are now like one of his customers, keeping him from his wife.
‘half the cost’
‘how much’
L - mercantile lexis
For the speaker, making love is more important than making money although the mercantile lexis is used in their romantic conversation as he says their love is priceless.
Use of italics for comments from customers
Italic represents the words of the speaker’s critical customers, which regularly interrupts the speaker throughout the poem.
This represents how the customers and the shop interrupt him from being with his wife.
Change of stanzaic structure at the end of the poem
The two-line stanzas show that they are a couple.
The last line uses a hyphen instead of full stop
It shows that their love has no end.
