Checking out me history
The writer John Agard uses a
dialect which indicates that he
comes from a Caribbean
background using word like
‘Dem’ instead of ‘Them’. This
indicates an informality in this
poem and shows that the poet
uses originality in his writing and
uses his natural speech patterns
in his poems too which indicates
authenticity in the poem. John
Agard uses non-standard
phonetic spelling to represent his
own actual accent.
Dem tell me
Dem tell me
Wha dem want to tell me
Bandage up me eye with me own history
Blind me to me own identity
Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat
dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat
But Toussaint L’Ouverture
no dem never tell me bout dat
Toussaint
a slave
with vision
lick back
Napoleon
battalion
and first Black
Republic born
Toussaint de thorn
This poem consists of 10
Stanzas; 7 of which give his
actual opinion, thereafter
we have 3 Stanzas spread
through the poem which
are informative Stanzas
and give details about his
opinion e.g. John Agard
speaks of ‘Nanny de
maroon’ and follows with a
paragraph giving details
about Nanny de maroon
and who she was. These 3
Stanzas are written in
Italics to show this
separation of the aims
which is informing
whereas the other 7
Stanzas have a purpose of
showing his opinions and
views.
to de French
Toussaint de beacon
of de Haitian Revolution
Dem tell me bout de man who discover de balloon
Again we see the use of the
Dialect showing John
Agard’s Caribbean roots
through the use of a
Caribbean dialect.
and de cow who jump over de moon
Dem tell me bout de dish ran away with de spoon
but dem never tell me bout Nanny de maroon
Nanny
see-far woman
of mountain dream
The second structure written in
italics gives stories of three
iconic and historical black
figures Toussaint L’Overture,
Nanny de Maroon and Mary
Seacole. Even though these
three stanzas are smaller, in my
opinion they show a deeper,
more emotive meaning with
emotive language like ‘freedom’
which implies true liberation
being achieved.
fire-woman struggle
hopeful stream
to freedom river
Dem tell me bout Lord Nelson and Waterloo
but dem never tell me bout Shaka de great Zulu
Dem tell me bout Columbus and 1492
but what happen to de Caribs and de Arawaks too
This poem is written in two
alternating structures shown
by the different styled fonts.
The first starts mostly with
phrase ‘Dem tell me’; by
‘Dem’ he is indicating towards
the media but mainly towards
the ‘White’ version of history.
This structure is written
mostly in rhyming couplets
with stanzas ending with that
technique e.g. ‘dat and cat’.
This addition of rhyming
couplets helps to create a
flow within the poem.
Dem tell me bout Florence Nightingale and she lamp
and how Robin Hood used to camp
Dem tell me bout ole King Cole was a merry ole soul
but dem never tell me bout Mary Seacole
Throughout the poem, John
Agard uses the word ‘Dem’
numerous times, many of
which are sentence starters.
The word itself is part of
Agard’s dialect but the actual
meaning lies within. In my
opinion by the use of ‘dem’,
John Agard actually means the
media and people of the
world; he means to say that
throughout life himself and
everyone else is taught not
about Black history and all the
greatness behind it but instead
people are fed with useless
information that has no actual
meanings or values.
From Jamaica
she travel far
to the Crimean War
she volunteer to go
and even when de British said no
she still brave the Russian snow
a healing star
among the wounded
a yellow sunrise
to the dying
Dem tell me
Dem tell me wha dem want to tell me
But now I checking out me own history
I carving out me identity
Through this poem, John Agard gives his opinion on how history was
and currently still is taught. He concludes that history has always
been biased against Black people, with the view that his ‘identity’
(Black history) has always been looked over. Therefore Agard in this
poem contradicts how history has been taught through the use of
emotive and powerful language e.g. ‘fire woman struggle’; this
indicates to us as the audience that this woman being described was
extremely strong through struggles in life, one of them I assume was
racial discrimination.
The poet uses Personification in
this line and gives a star a quality of
life which is ‘healing’. This blends
well into this stanza in the fact that
generally throughout this stanza
John Agard has used multiple
amounts of emotive language such
as ‘brave’, ‘healing star’,
‘wounded’, ‘dying’. All of these
represent deep emotion and in my
opinion are to represent a strong,
brave and respected woman who
fought through life, with many ups
and downs but always managed to
heal and continue fighting.