Hurricane Hits England
Grace Nichols
Learning Intentions
 Key Teaching Points
 To read the poem
 To consider how the
poem presents feelings
about emigration
 To make comparisons
with ‘Presents from my
Aunts in Pakistan’
Key Terms
Metaphor
Exclamation
Contradiction
Grace Nichols
Grace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950, where she grew up. She worked
there as a journalist and reporter, before coming to Britain in 1977 and has
since published three books of poems for adult readers. Her first, i is a long
memoried woman (Karnac House, London, 1983), won the 1983
Commonwealth Poetry Prize. The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984) and Lazy
Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989) are published by Virago, who also brought
out her first adult novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986) which is set in Guyana.
She says of Poetry Jump Up:
"As a poet, whenever I come across a poem that I love, there's a desire to
share it. The book stems from a desire to give fresh voices an exposure. A
number of anthologies ... seem to be recycling, largely, the same old poems; so
I like looking at other sources, such as voices from oral traditions, from
Caribbean, Asian, African and North American Indian cultures."
Grace Nichols lives near Brighton with the poet John Agard and their daughter
Kalera.
When a hurricane hit Southern England in 1987 she was near the coast.
Now read the poem
In pairs: try to find and list words that suggest
the violence and destructive power of the
hurricane.
“rage . . . havoc . . .trees falling. . . shaking the
foundations . . .”
Now try to find words that suggest a more
positive attitude to the effects of the hurricane.
“reassuring. . . cousin. . . sweet mystery. . .talk
to me”
There seems to be a contradiction here: how
can a hurricane be reassuring?
Where does the poet:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Use metaphor?
Shift the focus to being more personal?
Speak to the hurricane directly?
Speak to West African gods?
Show emotion?
Why and how is the Carribean linked
with West Africa?
How has the experience of the
hurricane affected the speaker?
How has she been feeling about being
away from the Carribean?
How does the hurricane affect her
feelings about this?
Look at the next sheet and say how the
hurricane has affected her feelings from
what is said there.
How the hurricane affects the
speaker’s feelings?
It took a hurricane to bring her closer to the
landscape.
Tell me why. . . ?
What is the meaning. . .?
The blinding illumination
O why is my heart unchained?
Come to break the frozen lake in me
Now copy the following chart and complete
it for homework
Comparing ‘Hurricane’ and
‘Presents’
Presents
CONTENT
STRUCTURE
LANGUAGE
STYLE
IDEAS
ENDINGS
Hurricane
CONCLUSION
Read the last line of the poem again.
What new understanding does the speaker have
about her place in the world?
How has the hurricane helped bring this about?
The hurricane helps her overcome her
feelings of alienation that were caused by
her relocation from the Carribean to
England. The fact the England could share
the Carribean experience of being struck by
a hurricane makes her realise the world is
one place, the ‘the earth is the earth’.