Checkin' Out Me History
“Checkin’ out me history” By John Agard
Analysis Essay
Toussaint L’Ouverture, Mary Seacole, Shaka the Zulu. Have you ever heard of them? If not, it is probably because from a young age, we have all been taught history but were we given all the facts or just being ignorant? Many of the historic and inspirational figures we have learnt about are based in the culture of England but what about the black historic figures because some of these made a huge difference to our lives. John Agard is a poet from Guyana who writes passionately but often and politically and seriously. In one of his poems-“Checkin’ out me history” he questions why some of these great black historic leading figures were pushed away when they truly deserve our respect. In this essay, I will investigate the following question-“How does Agard use language and structure to convey his feelings in ‘Checkin’ out me history’?”
In Agard’s use of language, he has purposely written some of the words in phonetic spelling. For instance he has said “dem” instead of “them” and when you are reading the poem out loud, no matter how hard you try not to, you will hear a Caribbean accent because writing in phonetics will force the reader into the accent even if they don’t want to. I think he wants them to speak in this way because the poem is based on how his heritage is being pushed away and since he is black, he wants to show who he really is and he wants to bring back his heritage by speaking in a black dialect.
In addition to this he uses structure to portray his feelings in relation to his heritage. For instance he has made the stanzas on the black historic figures very thin in comparison to the other stanzas because they are quite wide. I think he has made the lay out this way because of how black historic figures are being pushed aside and it isn’t fair. Another way to look at this is that the other stanzas are wide because they are told more often and more widely over the world because of the historic
Analysis Essay
Toussaint L’Ouverture, Mary Seacole, Shaka the Zulu. Have you ever heard of them? If not, it is probably because from a young age, we have all been taught history but were we given all the facts or just being ignorant? Many of the historic and inspirational figures we have learnt about are based in the culture of England but what about the black historic figures because some of these made a huge difference to our lives. John Agard is a poet from Guyana who writes passionately but often and politically and seriously. In one of his poems-“Checkin’ out me history” he questions why some of these great black historic leading figures were pushed away when they truly deserve our respect. In this essay, I will investigate the following question-“How does Agard use language and structure to convey his feelings in ‘Checkin’ out me history’?”
In Agard’s use of language, he has purposely written some of the words in phonetic spelling. For instance he has said “dem” instead of “them” and when you are reading the poem out loud, no matter how hard you try not to, you will hear a Caribbean accent because writing in phonetics will force the reader into the accent even if they don’t want to. I think he wants them to speak in this way because the poem is based on how his heritage is being pushed away and since he is black, he wants to show who he really is and he wants to bring back his heritage by speaking in a black dialect.
In addition to this he uses structure to portray his feelings in relation to his heritage. For instance he has made the stanzas on the black historic figures very thin in comparison to the other stanzas because they are quite wide. I think he has made the lay out this way because of how black historic figures are being pushed aside and it isn’t fair. Another way to look at this is that the other stanzas are wide because they are told more often and more widely over the world because of the historic