In class we have been studying poetry, and the two poems I have chosen to compare are “In a Brixtan Markit” and “Not My Business”.
“Not My Business” is about four people who are standing up for what they believe in and they are getting arrested by the government to stop them from speaking out. In the last verse the man who is trying not to get involved because he doesn’t want to get punished but when they come after him his attitude changes. Niya Osundare who is a Nigerian poet of whom uses his poetry to speak out against the cruel dictatorship that ruled his country.
“In A Brixtan Markit” is about a man who walked into a market and a police officer takes his bag and in the end the office beats up the man. “In A Brixtan Markit” was written by James Berry a Jamaican writer and poet. When he was seventeen he moved to America and worked as part of a war time contract labour scheme. Four years later he was disgusted by how the black workers were exploited. In 1948 he came to Britain and his poem “In a Brixtan Markit” was written shortly after his terrifying experience in London.
In the first poem “Not My Business” the structure is quite simple. The poem is split up into four different verses. The first three verses are in a regular structure they are seven lines long and the last three lines repeat themselves. Whereas the last verse is irregular it is made up of five lines and those three lines are not repeated in this verse. I think the poet has structured it like this so that:-
It is simple and easy to read.
The first three verses are about other people and the repition is to give it atmosphere.
The last verse is irregular because it is about when they come after him. There is no repition and the atmosphere is diffrent.
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...t like that the people are standing up for what they believe in. They are physically harming them.
In “In a Brixtan Markit” the poet shows that discrimination exists by talking about his experience. The poem is very personal as it is based on a real life experience of his in London. The discrimination in this poem is racism, because he is black. The officer seems to have just chosen him out of the crowd in the market. He has chosen him because he is different.
So in conclusion I think both of the poems are very interesting. Both of the poets have felt similar emotions throughout their experiences and poems. Such as anger, humiliation, unfairness and sadness. Although I like them both I prefer “In a Brixtan Markit”. I prefer this I because it is based on a real experience, and it is in a West Indian dialect which I think makes it unusual, interesting and different.
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This is, however contradicted by the verse’s meter, which is uneven. This may show the persona’s struggle with
on: April 10th 1864. He was born in 1809 and died at the age of 83 in
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