checking out me history Flashcards
what can be said about
‘dem tell me dem tell me what dem want to tell me bandage up me eye with me own history’
-anaphora
- ‘dem’ rejection of typical english
- ‘dem’ repetition
- personal pronoun ‘me’
- ‘bandage up me eye’ metaphor
- homophone ‘eye’
‘dem tell me dem tell me wha dem want to tell me bandage up me eye with me own history’
- anaphora- powerful protest poem: battle between ‘dem’ and ‘me’. anaphora also builds up power making a powerful political point
- ‘dem’ rejecting typical english language, speaking in his own dialect
- repetition: trying to educate children as he wasn’t taught about his heritage- reinforcing his dialect and rejection of the eurocentric education system
- metaphor- his vision is false history is damaged because of the false history OR ‘bandage’ makes this better, with this poem, Agard tries to improve and educate
- ‘eye’ is a homophone for ‘i’. its his identity which is being taken from him- he is being made ‘blind’ (bandage covering eye). bandage could represent the eurocentric- history in this context
“toussaint a slave with vision like back napolean”
- when talking about african history, form changes to free verse, rhymes are much more unpredictable freedom
- “a slave” (toussaint) contrasted with “napoleon” (a great director)- a slave was much more powerful that this “great” leader : he could conquer europe but not a small island where the slave toussaint lead a rebellion- may represent what agard wants to do, take a stance against the education system
what can be said
“dem tell me bout columbus in 1492 but what happen to de caribis de Arawaks too”
- anaphora
- “columbus”
- caribis
“dem tell me bout columbus in 1492 but what happen to de caribis de Arawaks too”
- anaphora: emphasis
- “columbus”- he ‘discovered’ america representing a misguided portrayal of history which disregards existence of native tribes- this part of history is not taught we are only taping about columbus discovering america, perhaps we too have our “eye” “bandaged”
- “caribis” were a dominant group in the caribbean and arawaks were people who migrated to the caribbean. columbus’ arrival resulted in their death, they were basically victims of genocide
what can be said about
“a healing star”
- describing mary seacole
- point of the poem
- context
- semantic field
“a healing star”
- describing mary seacole who became a nurse in war
- agard uses individuals to make his point, point of the poem is to heal us
- Stars weren’t just named after God’s Zeus, took people from history, who he thought were significant in someway, and then take their bodies when they died, and Turned them into stars and constellations so in that way, they became beacons of hope for future generations, this is what Mary Seacole is
- Agard employs a motif of light to idealise references to black history (“beacon of de Haitain Revolution” “fire-woman struggle” “a healing star” “a yellow sunrise”) These references all play on the literary trope of light as a source of guidance or hope, for instance, “star” quintessentially provides a source of direction, it also characterises someone with a divine quality. This could be emblematic of how these historical figures carved out a passage to freedom and illuminated a route out of colonialism. Alternatively, the references to light could be a metaphor for these figures coming out of the shadows and theoretically ‘shining through’.
what can be said about
“but now u checking out me own history, i carving out me identity”
- conjunction
- present tense of ‘carving’
- no end stop
“but now u checking out me own history, i carving out me identity”
- conjunction- changes trajectory of poem - bc he was educating people about his identity yet now he forcefully takes his hand in his own education
- present tense- process of reeducating has become- he is leaving his mark
- no end stop- his story and history isn’t complete
5 points about form
-It is written in free verse with the periodic use of rhyming quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines). Through this we see him undulating between European literary traditions and extended stanzas of free verse which allow him to praise the characters of black history. This could be a metaphorical act of breaking free from European convention as he abandons poetic tradition to give voice to the past that is oppressed by this very tradition (poetry with a meter is generally what is taught within the British education syllabus).
- The extended, longer stanzas which discuss black history physically take up more space on the page, this may be an act of compensation- giving them the recognition that they were previously denied.
- Looking more closely at the rhyming quatrains, each reference to black history comes at the end of each stanza, perhaps critiquing how white history was prioritised. However, by it being the final image of the stanza it remains more pertinent in the reader’s mind, so Agard is now giving them the acknowledgement they deserve.
- The rhyme scheme is used to combat segregation as it pairs together these symbols of black and white history.
Alternatively, it imbues the stanzas that speak of white history with a rigid and rehearsed childlike quality- they sound like nursery rhymes. It could be an implication that this teaching of history is contrived and superficial, it lacks complexity.
3 points about structure
Enjambment appears consistently throughout the poem and Agard refuses to use any punctuation within the text. This could be a rebellion against education systems as it fails to employ the literary conventions regarding sentence structure.
Alternatively, it could reinforce and pity how the contents of his diatribe are merely oral- mourning how his cultural history is not documented enough, and it is only spread through word of mouth.
In another sense, it could display the intensity of his emotions, as he cannot contain and restrain himself within punctuation.
You could also argue that it forces black and white history to merge, the use of the connective “But” rather than punctuation intentionally avoids creating a barrier between the two aspects of history and once again fights literary segregation.
- The harsh accusatory phrase “Dem tell me” is repeated throughout the poem. The plosive ‘d’ sound establishes a level of aggression and bitterness that Agard feels towards the education system. As it dominates the beginning of each stanza it could show the repressive and overbearing nature of the British colonial education, it branded itself over every time period in history which masked other cultural events.
• Moreover, “Dem” celebrates his regional dialect and a refusal to conform to the lexis of those that educated him. It is important to note that there are other examples of this unorthodox phonetic spelling within the poem such as “de” and
“bout”, this is atypical for Agard’s poetry so it is clear it is a deliberate act of defiance against literary norms for this poem. - This concept of repetition could also allude to a superficial education as it gives the impression of rote learning which is when facts are simply repeated in order to memorise them. This makes the information seem futile, suggesting it was only memorised for the sake of an exam and lacked enough importance to otherwise endure in his memory.
