The Context of Unrelated Incidents

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Recommended: Introduction to analyzing poetry

The Context of Unrelated Incidents

What is from Unrelated Incidents about?

this is thi

six a clock

news thi

man said n

thi reason

a talk wia

BBC accent

iz coz yi

widny wahnt

mi ti talk

aboot thi

trooth wia

voice lik

wanna yoo

scruff. if

a toktaboot

thi trooth

lik wanna yoo

scruff yi

widny thingk

it wuz troo.

jist wanna yoo

scruff tokn.

thirza right

way ti spell

ana right way

to tok it. this

is me tokn yir

right way a

spellin. this

is ma trooth.

yooz doant no

thi trooth

yirsellz cawz

yi canny talk

right. this is

the six a clock

nyooz. belt up.

* The poem seems to be spoken by a BBC newsreader.

* He or she explains why the BBC thinks it is important to read the

news in a BBC accent: no one will take the news seriously if it's

read with a voice lik / wanna yoo / scruff.

It is not that simple, though!

* He or she speaks here in the accent of an ordinary speaker/viewer

- just the kind of voice which the newsreader is rejecting.

* A newsreader would never really reveal his or her prejudices

directly to the viewer in this way. So what the newsreader 'says'

in this poem perhaps needs to be seen as the unspoken message (or

sub-text) of the way the news is presented.

Try re-writing the same poem in Standard English. Would it carry the

same trooth?

Structure and Language

Structure

The poem is carefully written in a phonetic version of the Glasgow

accent. If you pronounce it exactly as it's written, it should sound

more or less like a Glaswegian voice. Try to listen to Tom Leonard's

own reading of this poem, which is on the BBC TV programme Roots and

Water: Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions.

Language

The poet has played with language in a number of ways, apart from the

phonetic spelling:

* There is almost no punctuation.

* There are lots of slang and colloquial words (scruff, belt up).

* The newsreader talks directly to the reader (or viewer).

How do these features add to the effectiveness of the poem? For

example, there is a mismatch between the conventional image of BBC

newsreaders, and what this one is saying - calling the viewers yoo

scruff and telling them to belt up.

The lines of the poem are very short. What effect does this have

(especially when you read it aloud)? Does it make the poem sound

serious or amusing?

Tone and Ideas

How would you read this poem?

* Is it an amusing poem?

* Is it a serious poem?

Perhaps it is both.

Is the poet arguing that this is actually the way the media think

about us?

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