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Melissa Louise
Compare the way the central characters are presented in ‘checking out me history’ by John Agard and ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The poems ‘Checking out me History and ‘Ozymandias’ both use a wide range of various language and structure techniques to explore in great detail the central characters as well as their thoughts and feelings. The poem ‘Checking out me history’ uses various structural techniques to present the main character and to show his views, which also explains his frustration about not having a personal identity. In contrast to this, the poem ‘Ozymandias’ uses more linguistic features to describe the deteriorating decline of the statue.
In the poem ‘Checking out me history’ the language used in the poem helps to create a clear image to the audience that shows the characters frustration and aggressiveness by using nonstandard English. For example, ‘Dem tell me’ implies that no matter how much the character is told about English history, he will continue to rebel against English society to prove how proud he is about his own culture and background by using phonetic spelling. This may help the readers to empathize with his thoughts and feelings. The non – standard English that is used throughout the poem also conveys how the character is representing himself through the language he is using. The almost sarcastic tone he uses to display his lack of interest in British history suggests that believes that black people’s history should be taught just as well as other cultures. Due to this poem not being grammatically correct, the audience are assured that the main character is unhappy with the way he has been taught through English education. The phonetic spelling shows us a rebellious side to the character as he challenges society to balance out histories of many cultures equally.
However, In the poem ‘Ozymandias’ the tone created by Percy Bysshe Shelley connotes the idea of past occurrences. It can create the image that power is only

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