Comparing Hurrican Hits England and Not my Business

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Comparing Hurrican Hits England and Not my Business

The two poems I am to compare are Grace Nichols “Hurricane Hits

England” a poem that shows that the whole world is one world and how a

storm reminds a Caribbean woman of home. The author obviously misses

her home country and feels it in the storm which she wrote about, the

violence of the storm is harsh and causes some damage. The second

poem, with which I will be comparing “Hurricane...” is Niyi Osundare’s

“Not my Business”. This poem describes the violent and horrific nature

in which the Nigerian Government treated those people who disagreed

with the state. It describes the pain and suffering they forced upon

these people and how the pain and suffering is then brought to the

narrator.

This poem is about shared responsibilities and the way that tyranny

grows if no one opposes it. It is composed, simply, of three stories

about victims of the oppressors, followed by the experience of the

speaker in the poem, in which he has not done anything, but the fact

that he knows makes him a target. The poet is Nigerian but the

situation in the poem could be from many countries, there are words

used like “yam”, and the names of the people which tell you this. The

poem echoes, in its four parts, a statement by Pastor Martin

Niemöller, who opposed the Nazis. Speaking later to many audiences he

would conclude with these words, more or less:

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because

I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I

did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came

for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then

they came for me, and there was no one left to speak...

... middle of paper ...

...oem.

The last lines of this poem emphasise the confusion surrounding why

they are there. The line,

“The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawn” is personification which

suggests that no-one, not even his lawn, knows why it’s happening. And

then a repetition of the word “Waiting” makes it seem as though the

men have to do a lot of waiting and that time maybe seems to go so

slowly because of these things that are happening.

Both of these poems are excellent at enforcing their own point in

their own ways, “Hurricane…” through tactile emotional words and

beautiful yet violent images of the storm, and “Not My Business.”

through blatant disregard for human life depicted through the eyes of

a hunted man, who is hunted because he knows what is going on. All in

all two excellent and well thought out poems, each with their own

perfectly presented message.

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