Comparative essay between two poems namely, Half - Caste by John

Comparative essay between two poems namely, Half - Caste by John

Agard and Unrelated Incidents by Tom Leonard.

John Agard and Unrelated Incidents by Tom Leonard.

You can clearly see before you begin to read these poems that they are

set out differently to your average poem. For example in Unrelated

Incidents that there are no more than four words per poem. The

punctuation in Unrelated Incidents is based on the phanetic way of

spelling, this means that you spell the way speak and pronounce words.

The poems is also meant to be spoken in a Glaswegian accent. In Half

- Caste it’s spelt and meant to be spoken in a Caribbean Patois.

In both poems they’re defending the way that they are (The colour of

his skin in Half - Caste and his accent in Unrelated Incidents). In

Half - Caste he defends himself by saying that you don’t discriminate

against a Picasso painting or a Tchaikovsky symphony because they’re

half - caste, but in Unrelated Incidents his defence is slightly

difference claiming that there are never any over news readers apart

from ones with posh and standard English accents.

Unrelated Incidents

Tom Leonard was born in Glasgow. He has described his childhood

upbringing as 'working class West of Scotland Irish Catholic' (his

father was from Dublin). Although his passport identifies him as a

'British' citizen, Tom Leonard sees himself as thoroughly Scottish.

Unrelated incidents, the poem. Is set out as if it was being read off

a television autocue. There is very little punctuation and the words

are spelt phonetically. The way that this poem is written, it is

written like this because the poem is about BBC newsreaders. Its laid

out as if it was being read on the 6 o’clock news.

Almost all ...

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...because he mixed a variety of colours in his

paintings? Should the English weather be scorned because it is full of

sun and darkness? Should Tchaikovsky's music be seen as inferior

because he used both the black notes and the white notes on the piano?

Is someone who is called a 'half caste' only half a person? John Agard

asks the reader to begin to think in a more open-minded way.

The poem is set out is a peculiar way as it only contains a maximum of

8 words per line. Also this poem contains no punctuation at all. I

think that this is put in to create an impact on the reader. He has

also spelt his words the way as he would speak them. It’s a way of

phonetic speaking.

Overall both poems are tying to prove the same point, that they are

discriminated because of who they are. John Agard for being half -

cast and Tom Leonard because of his Scottish accent.