NAME
My Parents
AUTHOR
Stephen Spender
Dreaming Black Boy
James Berry
 Racism/Oppression
(not sink to lick boots. I’m no woodchopper now
like all ancestors)
 Segregation/ Isolation
 Longing to be accepted
 Hopes/ Dreams
 Determination/ Resilience
(I wish nobody would want to earn the terrible
burden I can suffer.)
(…for I could suffer. I could suffer a big big lot)
The Woman Speaks to
the Man who has
Employed her Son
Lorna Goodison
 Disappointment/ Betrayal
 Fear
“She went downtown and bought three and
one-third yards of black cloth…”
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THEMES
Childhood experiences
Segregation/Isolation
Longing to be accepted
LITERARY DEVICES
Simile:
“Threw words like stones”
“ I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron”
“ They sprang out behind hedges like dogs to bark at my world”
Metaphor:
“I feared the salt coarse pointing”
“They threw mud while I looked the other way pretending to smile”
Repetition:
“I wish:
- To be educated to the best of tune up and earn money and not sink to lick boots (hope of
wealth)
- My teacher’s eye wouldn’t go past me today (hope of recognition)
- I myself wouldn’t hold back when answer comes (hope of confidence)
- Only boys were scared behind false bravados (hope for change)
- Life wouldn’t spend me out opposing (hope for ease of life)
- I could go every crisscross way of the globe (hope for freedom)
- People wouldn’t talk as if I dropped from Mars (hope of acceptance)
Metaphor:
“wish same way creation would have me stand it would have me stretch and hold high my voice Paul
Robeson’s, my inside eye a sun”
- The speaker wishes to have the courage and influence of an activist like Paul Robeson to
make changes in society and he wants to stretch beyond the limits set on him. The speaker
also introduces a comparison of his inner self to the sun (a symbol of hope, life, and light). He
wants to be seen and appreciated for his inner worth.
“wish torch throwers of night would burn lights for decent times”
Irony:
“wish plotters in pyjamas would pray for themselves”
Biblical Allusion:
- To the Lord’s Pray (daily bread)
- To passage which says ‘the wages of sin is death (Bloody salary)
- To King David’s son betraying him (Absalom)
 Yearning and Dreams
She carried him full term tight up under her
heart”
“Set no ceiling on what he could be, doctor,
earth healer, pilot take wings. But now he tells
her he is working for you…”
 Determination
 Parenting (Love)
(she has no power over you at this level of earth.
What she has are prayers and a mother’s tears.
And at knee city she uses them she says psalms
for him she reads psalms for you she weeps for
his soul)
Little Boy Crying
Mervyn Morris
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Childhood Experiences
Parenting (Love)
Vulnerability
Sarcasm:
“He was fair-minded; he treated all his children with equal…”
‘Fair-minded’ here means that he treated all his children with the same amount of
indifference.
“… that you value him so much that you give him one whole submachine gun for him alone”
Metaphor:
“She is wondering what kind of father would give his son hot and exploding death when he asks for
bread’ – bread refers to all of one’s basic needs (emotional support, food, shelter, protection, good
guidance.)
“… for the day he draws his bloody salary”- she anticipates his impending death
“she is throwing a partner with Judas Iscariot’s mother the thief on the left-hand-side of the cross”
-she shares in their sorrow, regret, and shame not just once but twice because she is both his mother
and father.
Metaphor:
“your bright eyes swimming tears”
- His eyes are as someone swimming in a pool
“the ogre towers above you that grim giant, empty of feeling a colossal cruel”
“… but dare not ruin the lessons you should learn. You must not make a plaything of the rain.”
- The lessons here are a metaphor for learning not to use your emotions to manipulate others.
It can be supported by the line, “ you stand there angling for a moment’s hint of guilt or
sorrow for the quick slap struck”
- Rain is compared with the little boy’s tears
“… Nor guess the wavering hidden behind the mask”
- The mask is not physical but represents an expression on his face that does not reflect his
inner feelings.
Water Imagery:
“your bright eyes swimming tears, splashing your bare feet”
“ you cannot understand, not yet, the hurt your easy tears can scald him with”
Allusion:
“soon victim to the tale’s conclusion, dead at last. You hate him, you imagine chopping clean the tree
he’s scrambling down”
- Allusion to the story of Jack and the beanstalk
Once Upon a Time
Gabriel Okara
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Nostalgia
Parenting
Hypocrisy
An African
Thunderstorm
David Rubadiri
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Man vs Nature
The Power of Nature
Metaphor:
“now they only laugh with their teeth, while their ice-block-cold eyes search behind my shadow”
- People are deceptive and cold (unfeeling) and only seek ways to exploit the weaknesses of
others (shadows usually represent secrets or hidden truths).
“… now they shake hands without hearts while their left hands search my empty pockets”
- People try to seem loyal in an effort to steal what you may have.
- ‘empty pockets’ may metaphorically mean emotional depletion. The speaker has nothing to
offer.
“... for then I find doors shut on me.”
- People only fake being welcoming and caring but after a time of depending on them they
close off from you, no longer providing any form of support
“I want to unlearn these muting things”
- The ‘muting’ things are the experiences he has had that have silenced his true feelings
- Being deceived, unwelcome and adopting the hypocrisy around him
Simile:
“I have learned to wear many faces like dresses … with all their conforming smiles”
- The expressions he presents suit each situation but are only a covering like clothing. It also
means he has adopted the hypocritical ways of those around him.
“with all their conforming smiles like a fixed portrait smile”
- A portrait is only a single moment in time captured on paper or canvas and the expression of
the person in it can change anytime afterward but his smile is fixed like the one in the picture
and therefore disingenuous.
“I want to relearn how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror only shows my teeth like a snake’s bare
fangs.
- Compares the speaker’s laugh to a snake bearing its fangs. Snakes are symbols of deception
and malicious intent and in the same way, the way people laugh only disguises their
intentions.
- The mention of the mirror could also suggest that the smile is practiced.
Personification:
“Clouds come hurrying with the wind”
“Whirling Tossing up things on its tail”
“Pregnant clouds ride stately on its back”
Simile:
“turning sharply here and there like a plague of locusts”
Birdshooting Season
Olive Senior

Gender Roles
“Like a madman chasing nothing”
“Gathering to perch on hills like dark sinister wings”
“clothes wave like tattered flags flying off to expose dangling breasts”
Imagery:
“the wind whistles by and trees bend to let it past” (auditory and kinaesthetic)
“screams of delighted children toss and turn in the din of the whirling wind” (auditory)
“women- babies dangling on their backs dart in and out madly” (visual)
“As jaggered blinding flashes rumble, tremble and crack” (visual and auditory)
“amidst the smell of smoke” (olfactory)
Contrast:
The children are blissfully unaware of the dangers of the storm to come and are so delighted while
the women anticipate it with apprehension and so dart in and out madly in preparation.
Repetition:
The idea of the wind forcing other things out of its way. ( the wind whistles by and trees bend to let it
past/ The wind whirls by whilst trees bend to let it pass)
Metaphor:
“and the pelting march of the storm”
- The rain is compared to a marching army.
Metaphor:
“the men make marriages with their guns”
- The men and their guns have a deep bond and are unified, as a married couple would be.
However, this marriage will not bring life as one usually does but death, which is ironic.
“Little girls whispering fly birds fly”
- The women are compared to the birds and wish to be free. They are trapped doing menial
tasks expected of them for being women.
Contrast:
The little girls want to discontinue the cycle, unlike the boys who long to grow up as bird hunters
too. The women are stuck with labour in preparation for tomorrow’s sport.
Evidence: All night long content-less women stir their brews:
- Hot coffee
- Chocolata
- Cerassie
- Wrap pone and tie leaf
Tonight the men drink white rum neat.
South
Kamau Brathwaite
Landscape Painter
Vivian Virtue
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Nostalgia
Social Unrest
Nature
Migration
Longing for Home
Contemplating Nature
Nature
Metaphor:
“Life heaved and breathed in me then with the strength of that turbulent soil”
“sojourned in stoniest cities”
“walking in the lands of the north in sharp slanting sleet, and the hail”
“crossed countless saltless savannahs”
“come to this house in the forest where shadows oppress me”
“the only water is rain and the tepid taste of the river”
Simile:
“Their flowing runs on like our longing, reproves us our lack of endeavour and purpose, proves that
our striving will fonder on that.”
- People from the Caribbean (we who are born of the ocean) can never “seek solace” in rivers.
The flow of the river is continuous like his longing for the Caribbean.
Contrast:
Nature in the North vs Nature in the Caribbean
Caribbean- bright beaches, blue mist from the ocean rolling into the fishermen’s houses, the sound
of the sea came in at my window, life heaved and breathed in me then with the strength of the
turbulent soil.
Up North- sharp, slanting sleet and hail, stoniest cities, the tepid taste of the river, saltless
savannahs, house in the forest where shadows oppress him
Metaphor:
“A tireless humming-bird, his brush dips, darts, hovers, now here, now there”
- The movement of his brush is compared to the swift and unpredictable movements of a
hummingbird.
“where puddles of pigment bloom in the pallet’s small wild garden.”
- The pallet is compared to a wild garden because it is both colourful and disorganized. It
suggests that the painter is uncertain of what to do at first.
“His brush a hummingbird, meticulously poised.”
- Extended metaphor of hummingbird
“in a family group/ to confine them for the pleasant formality of the family album”
Personification:
“The mountains pose for him”
“Dignified, self-conscious against the wide blue screen of morning”
“… aloof, shouldering the sky, patriarchal in serenity, Blue Mountain Peak Bulks”
“ The little hills fidgeting”
Simile:
“low green foot-hills sprawl like grandchildren about the knees of seated elders”
Oxymoron:
“Changelessly changing”
- The painter is challenged to simultaneously capture the concept of stability and change. He
wants to capture that contradiction.
A Lesson for this Sunday Derek Walcott
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Man vs Nature
Human Nature
Disappointment
Humans operate in cyclic cruelty. In the same
way, she hurt the butterfly she will also be hurt
by someone bigger and stronger.
“Frail as a flower… Not marked for some late
grief that cannot speak”
“The lesson is the same”
“Heredity of cruelty everywhere” (Cruelty is
passed on to each generation)
“As summer grass sways to the scythe’s design”
Human nature seems to be destructive
Sarcasm
“frowning like serious lepidopterists “
- The persona is critical of the children. Lepidopterists are fascinated with butterflies and
moths but the children are not.
Irony
“The little surgeon pierces the thin eyes.”
- The word ‘surgeon’ is used ironically because a surgeon tries to save lives but the little girl is
killing the butterfly.
“The maid removes both prodigies from their interest in science.”
- The speaker does not think the children are prodigies so it is ironic.
“She shrieks to eviscerate its abdomen”
- The shriek could suggest that the girl is excited which is uncharacteristic of women in
general. Women are thought to be nurturing not murderous.
Symbolism
The butterfly is a symbol of joy, tranquillity, freedom, and beauty.
Biblical Allusion
Title- A Lesson for this Sunday
The ‘lesson’ is usually a sermon in church.
“Protestant Hosanna”
“Who break my Sabbath with the thought of sin”
- Butterfly massacre
“The long look back to where choice is born”
The speaker is thinking about the Adam and Eve story (humans always seem to make bad decisions)
Metaphor
“And everywhere the frocks of summer torn”
- Summer is destroyed
“With frail kites of furious butterflies”
- Kites are compared with butterflies
Imagery
Auditory
“And rituals no more upsetting than a black maid shaking linen as she sings the plain notes of some
Protestant Hosanna”( a religious song of praise and adoration).
Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen
 Death
 Man vs Man
 Disappointment
 Trauma
“ In all my dreams before my helpless sight, he
plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”
-The speaker details his experience in war to be
critical of the false sense of patriotism fed to
young men.
“If in some smothering dreams, you too could
pace behind the wagon we flung him in and
watch the white eyes writhing in his face”
Simile/pun:
“Crouched on plump haunches, as a mantis prays”
- She is just as much a predator as a praying mantis.
“She is herself a thing of summery light, Frail as a flower in this blue August air, Not marked for some
late grief that cannot speak.”
Simile
“like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags”
Exhausted and burdened soldiers trying to survive.
“But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, and floundering like a man in fire or lime”
- A soldier was too slow to put on his gas mask and so was caught in it. As expected, his erratic
and strained movement could be likened to being on fire or being swallowed up in the
burning sensation of lime juice.
“If you could hear at every jolt, the blood come gurgling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as
cancer, bitter as the cud ”
- The effects of war can only be portrayed as a diseases that eats away at a person and leaves
a bitter taste in the mouth.
“His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin”
Metaphor:
“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”
- The ‘sea of green’ represents clouds of poisonous gas
Hyperbole:
“All went lame, all went blind”
“ like a devil’s sick of sin”
- The devil is the author of sin and therefore will never be sick of it hence this is an
exaggeration.
First-person speaker
It is the Constant Image
of your Face
Dennis Brutus
 Love (romantic)
The attention of his lover’s eyes stays with him
and perennially accuses and convicts him of
heart’s treachery, yet he says his land takes
precedence of all his loves.
Then he tells her he begs mitigation, pleading
guilty for her.
He is indecisive and irresolute.
 Patriotism
This is the Dark Time
my Love
Martin Carter
 Resilience
“It is the season of oppression”
The word season suggests that the oppression
will not last forever; they will recover.
“… tramps down the slender grass.”
The grass is often trampled upon but still grows
and survives.
 Sorrow/ oppression
“Everywhere the faces of men are strained and
anxious.”
“It is the man of death, my love…”
 Hope
“Till on haunting flares, we turned our backs”
- Use of ‘I’, ‘we’, and ‘he’.
Imagery:
(Auditory)
“come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”
(Visual )
“an ecstasy of fumbling”
“guttering, drowning, chocking”
“Of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues”
“white eyes writhing in his face”
“dim, through the misty panes and thick green light”
Metaphor:
“the grave attention of your eyes surveying me amid my world of knives”
- This is a metaphor for the danger his lifestyle poses. It also suggests that living in that world
is painful like the cut of a sharp blade and that his world is void of trust as being stabbed in
the back with a knife.
Personification:
“I confess without remorse or shame to the still-fresh treason to my country and hope that she, my
other, dearest love will pardon freely, not attaching blame being your mistress (or your match) in
tenderness”
- South Africa is presented as his lover whom he has also left for a time. He hopes that she too
will forgive him and pardon him.
Rhetorical questions:
“Who comes walking in the dark night time?”
“Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass?”
Metaphor:
“All around the land brown beetles crawl about”
Beetles have a hard shell, which is a metaphor for British weaponry/ army.
“Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow”
A metaphor for the suffering of the Guianese.
“dark night time”
Used metaphorically to indicate a difficult time
“The shining sun is hidden in the sky”
A Stone’s Throw
Elma Mitchell
“The shining sun is hidden in the sky” the sun is
only hidden not destroyed so there is still hope.
 Patriotism
“my love” /“you”
- The use of personification gives the
country a human-like aspect that he
speaks to throughout the poem. Also
the repetition of the words “my love”
shows he is constant in his support of
and sorrow for Guyana. He is an
unwavering patriot.
The sun is symbolic of hope and life which means that its hiding is paralleled to hardship and
death.
“boot of steel tramps down the slender grass”
- Boot of steel is a metaphor for the overwhelming strength of the aggressor while slender
grass is a metaphor for the vulnerability of the people.
“It is the man of death, my love, the strange invader watching you sleep and aiming at your dreams”
- Sleep here is used as a metaphor for the naivety, lack of awareness, and vulnerability of the
Guianese people to the British attack.
- Aiming at your dreams is a metaphor for the fact that the Guianese dream of Independence
is at risk.
Repetition:
“This is the dark time, my love”
- Shows that it is a time of pain and suffering
Symbolism:
“Dark metal” – represents British guns
“Brown Beetles” – represents the enemy
Personification :
“Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow”
Oxymoron:
“It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery”
Positive events are paired with negative objects. By doing this the poet uses oxymoron to
convey how unnatural and devastating the time is.
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Metaphor:
“These were love-bites compared to the hail of kisses of stone, the last assault and battery, frigid
rape, to come”
- The men will not literally do these actions but they are a metaphor for the pain and violation
they plan to inflict on the woman through their words and harsh treatment. Words can be as
painful as being pelted by stones and as demeaning as rape.
“we walked away still holding stones that we may throw another day given the urge”
- The stones represent all of their prejudice, judgments, and cruelty.
Irony:
“But ours were virtuous of course”
Gender and Religion
Prejudice
Hypocrisy
Abuse of power
Violence
-
-
The poetic depicts his actions as questionable so for the speaker to say this is a direct
contradiction of his actions and therefore ironic.
“For justice must be done”
- Nothing is just or fair about their actions so it is quite ironic for the speaker to say that.
Oxymoron:
“kisses of stone”
- Kisses are often endearing but stones are hard and can be used to hurt others. This contrast
shows the twisted and perverted nature of the men.
Biblical Allusion:
This alludes to Jesus saving the woman by the well who was about to be stoned to death (John 8: 311).
“And then- this guru, preacher, god-merchant… spoilt the whole thing”
“speaking to her… squatting to the ground-her level, writing in the dust something we couldn’t read”
“and saw something in her something we couldn’t see, at least until he turned his eyes on us, her
eyes on us, our eyes upon ourselves”
- For a moment, this religious figure was able to bring them to self-introspection but it was
short-lived considering they left still holding the stones of prejudice. The men fail to change.
Death be not Proud
John Donne
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Pride
- In the fact that Death will be the one to
die.
Religion (Christianity)
- The poem is a sonnet that consists of
three quatrains and a couplet. It affirms
the Christian belief in the Resurrection.
Personification:
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so”
“nor yet canst thou kill me”
“thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men”
“And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell”
- Personification allows the speaker to talk to death as an opponent/ enemy. It also allows the
speaker to taunt death and boast about his victory.
Death has lost because:
- The people it thinks it overthrows don’t die
- The threat it poses (rest and sleep) are pleasurable rather than frightening
- As soon as the ‘best men’ are taken away by death, they find rest and deliverance from the
physical body.
- It is only applicable when other factors are in place. It has no will of its own hence it is a slave
to circumstance.
- It keeps company with poison, war, and sickness, which are also personified as poor
company.
Mirror
Sylvia Plath
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Honesty
- The mirror is true in both reflection and
speech.
Deception
- The woman turns to the soft glow of
candles or the moon which distorts her
reflection in a way she is more
comfortable with.
Aging
- The woman’s fear is growing old which
makes her feel like she is losing her true
self.
Denial
- The woman bursts into tears in front of
the mirror every time she looks into it
and yet it is one of the constants in her
ever-changing life. She visits the mirror
day after day as if one day she will see
the person she believes herself to be.
Self-Perception
- The woman’s identity Is intertwined
with her appearance. As she ages she
feels she is getting further away from
who she really is.
Womanhood
- The society today promotes the idea
that women lose their value as they lose
their youthful appearance. The effects
of that can be clearly seen in how this
It is not the only thing that can make us sleep; poppies or charms can do it as well. In fact,
they can do it even better (“and better than thy stroke”).
One short sleep past, we wake eternally. Death will die.
Personification:
The mirror is personified to have its own voice and opinions.
“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.’
“Whatever I see I swallow immediately just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike”
“I am not cruel only truthful”
“I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart”
- Mirrors cannot speak, think or have a heart.
“Then she turns to those liars, the candles, or the moon. I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
- The mirror seems to be discontent with her choice to prefer her appearance in the soft glow
of candles or moonlight. Yet, it is proud that it does not distort or change what is seen. The
reflection is exactly as it should be.
Oxymoron:
“The eye of a little god, four-cornered”
- The words ‘little’ and ‘god’ contrast each other since gods are seen to be all-powerful and
bigger than human comprehension. Yet, the mirror is described as four-cornered which
alludes to its limitations. That is why it is effective to call it a little god. It is honest as a god is
but cannot change the reality of the woman.
Metaphor:
“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, searching my reaches for what she really is.”
- The mirror is compared to a lake, which is also a reflective surface, but it is more extensive. It
provides a wider area for reflection and so it suggests the woman is looking deeply at herself
and considering all aspects of herself. The woman is searching for the youthful appearance
that she once had.
“In me she has drowned a young girl”
- The metaphor indicated the passage of time and extends the idea of the mirror being a lake.
Irony:
“She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. I am important to her…Each morning it is her
face that replaces the darkness. “
- It is ironic that the mirror is so faithful and true to reflect what she really looks like and yet
she only ever cries and wrings her hands in response. The mirror seems almost to take pity
woman lives a miserable life and
constantly runs away from reality.
on her. Despite this uncomfortable experience, she looks in the mirror every day, still
searching for herself.
Simile:
“ In me an old woman rises towards her day after day, like a terrible fish”
- The simile further solidifies the fact that the mirror is a constant in the woman’s life and that
she cannot reverse her aging. It also compares her to a terrible fish, which depicts her
worsening attitude as she ages.
First Person Narrative
Ol’ Higue
Mark McWatt
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Myths
Womanhood
First Person Narrative
Simile:
“You think I like this stupidness, burning myself out like cane fire”
- Used to compare how fiercely cane fire burns with how she burns.
Rhetorical Question:
“to frighten the foolish?”
“And for what? A few drops of baby blood?”
“You think I wouldn’t rather take my blood seasoned in fat black-pudding like everyone else?”
Contrast:
The new life in the babies versus the old age of Ol’ Higue
“And if I could only stop hearing the soft, soft call of that pure blood running in new veins”
VS
“ tempting an old, dry-up woman who been holding her final note for years and years”
The contrasts between life and death
“singing the sweet song of life”
VS
“afraid of the dying hum”
The death of the babies means the continued life of Ol’ Higue.
Then again, if I didn’t fly and come
to that fresh pulse in the middle of the night,
how would you, mother,
name your ancient dread,
And who to blame
for the murder inside your head…?
Test Match Sabina Park
Stewart Brown
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Disappointment
Race
Culture
Believe me –
As long as it have women giving birth
A poor ol’ higue like me can never dead
Sarcasm:
“England boycotting excitement bravely”
- The speaker is not happy that the team is losing so he is criticizing how they play by saying
they are avoiding excitement.
Metaphor:
“Proudly wearing the rosette of my skin I strut into Sabina”
- A rosette which is often a prize given for winning a competition is compared with his skin
colour. He is proud to be white hence his skin colour is the prize”
“tarnished rosette somewhat frayed now ”
His rosette (pride in his race and country” is now tarnished and frayed which means that he
is embarrassed of his earlier actions and his team’s performance while also allowing his pride to be
pulled apart. This is probably because of the taunting of the crowd.
Eg. “Eh white bwoy , how you brudders dem does sen we so sleep?”
Pun:
“boycotting excitement… something badly amiss”
- Geoffrey Boycott and Dennis Amiss were excellent British cricket players so to use their
names in describing how poorly his team is doing is a witty play on words.
Contrast:
His initial demeanour vs when he leaves.
“Proudly wearing the rosette of my skin I strut into Sabina”
VS
“skulking behind a tarnished rosette, somewhat frayed now but unable, quite to conceal a blushing
nationality”
The culture of the West Indians vs the British
“Cricket. Not the game they play at Lords”
- The speaker distinguishes how cricket is played in England versus the Caribbean. He even
goes as far as to suggest it is a whole different game. Lords and Sabina Park are not the same
in any regard.
“the crowd- whoever saw a crowd at a cricket match?”
- The word ‘crowd’ is often used to describe a large body of rowdy people and thus the
speaker once again contrasts Britain and the West Indies by saying that he has never seen so
many people avidly interacting with the game. One can assume that the attendees at a
cricket match at Lords are quite spectators.
“are caged vociferous partisans, quick to take offence”
- ‘Caged’ suggests that the crowd has to be barred from interfering with the game (going onto
the pitch) and the use of ‘vociferous partisans’ further distinguishes the crowd in the West
Indies from the spectators in Britain.
The diction of the speaker and that of the crowd.
He speaks in his “Hampshire Drawl” trying to explain how his team lost miserably while the West
Indians turn to “loud ‘busin” which is just their way of teasing.
Sonnet Composed upon
Westminster Bridge
September 03, 1802
William
Wordsworth
 Nature (Man and nature co-existing)
“ Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
open onto the fields, and to the sky all bright
and glittering in the smokeless air”
- The speaker suggests that man-made
creations are in harmony with nature.
They are able to coexist and be beautiful
together.
Personification:
“the city now doth, like a garment wear the beauty of the morning”
- The city of London is personified as wearing the beauty of the morning as clothes.
“The river glideth at his own sweet will”
“the very houses seem asleep”
Hyperbole:
“Earth has not anything to show more fair”
- Beauty cannot be standardized so saying a scene is the most beautiful thing earth has to
offer is an exaggeration.
“Never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendour, valley, rock or hill”
“Never saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!”
Simile:
The city now doth, like a garment wear the beauty of the morning”
- The beauty of the morning is a fine covering for London.
Metaphor:
“And all that mighty heart lying still!”
- The ‘mighty heart’ are the people of London, which gives the city its sound and motion.
West Indies, U.S.A.
Stewart Brown
Disappointment
Race
Deception
Imagery:
“above the endless green”
“shattered innards of a TV set”
“all painted valves and circuits.”
Simile:
“The islands seem like dice tossed on a casino’s baize, some come up lucky, others not. Puerto Rico
takes the pot”
- The simile shows how small and insignificant the islands seem from that high up and the way
in which the prosperity of each island seems to be determined by chance. ‘Puerto Rico takes
the pot’ suggests that it has won the game of chance in which it has gained all the prosperity.
“San Juan glitters like a maverick’s gold ring”
- The word maverick suggests unorthodoxy or non-compliance with the usual order of things.
Comparing San Juan’s appeal to that of a maverick’s ring further reinforces that it is separate
from the other Islands in the region. It can also be interpreted as showing that the island
belongs to the USA because the Dallas Mavericks (basketball team in America) wears gold
rings when it has won a match, and since San Juan is like those gold rings it shows that it
belongs to the USA.
“all across the Caribbean we’d collected terminals- airports like calling cards, cultural fingermarks”
- The speakers compares airports to calling cards, implying that the airport of each country,
gave information about the country overall. The quality of the airport would depict a
condensed view of the socioeconomic state of the country.
-
The poet also calls the airports “cultural fingermarks” as they each have a unique aspect to
them that relates to the culture at large.
o The signs were hand-written in Haiti rather than printed which suggests poverty
o In Trinidad and Tobago, the art is solely geared towards tourists and hence described
as ‘sleazy’. It is as if the country is devaluing itself to please visitors. (Almost like
prostitution.)
o The ‘lethargic contempt’ of the baggage boys in Antigua (Vere Bird) shows that they
are slow and displeased with their jobs.
The persona expects all of these countries to contrast the ‘plush San Juan’.
“all painted valves and circuits the roads like twisted wires.”
- San Juan is a disorganised and jumbled mess.
Allusion:
“The Dallas of the West-Indies, silver lining on the clouds”
- The speaker alludes to Puerto Rico’s prosperity being like that of Dallas, which is a rich city in
the state of Texas. It reinforces the idea of Puerto Rico being overwhelmingly prosperous
and affluent when compared to its Caribbean neighbours.
Sarcasm:
“Subtle Uncle Sam, afraid too many desperate blacks might re-enslave this Island of the free, might
jump the barbed electric fence around ‘America’s back yard’ and claim that vaunted sanctuary...
'give me your poor...'"
- ‘Subtle’ here is used to criticize the USA for its prejudice which they try to disguise as
regulations. This regulation prohibits you from stepping foot onto Puerto Rican soil if you are
not to disembark there.
- The speaker is disgusted with the Americans for being so prejudicial. He believes that the
USA is afraid of an influx of Caribbean people coming to the island to seek economic
opportunity and undermine the prosperity of Puerto Rico.
- ‘give me your poor’ alludes to the New Colossus on the Statue of Liberty which says the USA
with accept all the world’s poor and desperate masses seeking freedom. Yet they will not
even let the people on the plane step one foot outside hence that humanitarian vision is not
realized there.
Pun:
“Island of the free”
- The poet also uses a pun here with 'island of the free.' The USA is often called the Land of the
free. The poet utilizes a play on words here to again reinforce the idea that Puerto Rico
belongs to America.
Irony:
“Island of the free”
This could also be seen as an instance of irony, since it is ironic that the poet refers to Puerto Rico as
an 'island of the free' while subtly insinuating that it is not truly free and is property of the US.
Contrast:
How the speaker perceives Puerto Rico Before and After he has been there
“Puerto Rico takes the pot”/ “Dallas of the West Indies”/ Silver lining in the clouds”/ “San Juan
glitters like a maverick’s ring”
VS
“San Juan’s fools-glitter calls to mind the shattered innards of a TV set that’s fallen off the back of a
lorry”/”the roads like twisted wires”/ “It’s sharp and jiggered and dangerous”
- In reality Puerto Rico’s glittering is not of real gold but upon closer inspection the Island is
only prosperous for some.
- Puerto Rico is reduced to a shattered television set; it is broken and whoever possesses it, is
in receipt of stolen property. The juxtaposition of wealth and destitution is dangerous.
The lives of the people
“galvanised shanties”
VS
“condominiums”
______________________________________________________________
“Cadillacs shimmying”
VS
“Rastas with pushcarts”
Author: Rihanna Hinds
Date: May 2, 2023