Checking out me history (TOP 5)

Question 1

Checking out me History (CONTEXT)

Answer 1

Growing up in British Guyana, Agard received British education. After living in Britain for 30 years and seeing flawed and oppressive education system, COMH was published in a collection “Half-caste and other poems” exploring issues of race and identity

Question 2

COMH (Quote 1)

Answer 2

“I carving out me identity”

Taking personal charge over identity, a power denied to him through systematic exclusion of black history. Omission perpetuates a cycle where his identity was often stifled. Colloquialism celebrates regional dialect and refusal to conform to the lexis of those who educated him - it is a clear act of defiance against literary norms.

Question 3

COMH (Quote 2)

Answer 3

“Mary seacole” “fire-woman struggle” “a healing star”

Agard pairs motif of light with black historical figures. “star” quintessentially provides a source of direction, and characterises someone with divine quality. this is emblematic of how these historical figures carved out a passage to freedom and illuminated a route out of colonialism.

Question 4

COMH (Form)

Answer 4

Free verse with periodic use of rhyming quatrains is a metaphorical act of breaking free from European convention as he abandons poetic tradition to give voice to past that is oppressed.

Rhyming quatrains. each reference to black history comes at the end of each stanza, criticising how white history was prioritised. alternatively gives more pertinent image in readers mind

Question 5

COMH (Links)

Answer 5

Identity - London
Human control/power - London
Memories - Ozymandias

Question 6

COMH structure

Answer 6

enjambment: rebellion against literary conventions. or could reinforce pity his contents of his diatribe are merely oral-mourning how his cultural history isnt documented enough, only spoken.

plosive repetition of “dem tell me” establishes bitterness and aggression