Grace Nichols comes from Guyana and Hugh Boatswain from the Caribbean Essay

Writers who came from over seas write the two poems that I have been asked to analyse. Grace Nichols comes from Guyana and Hugh Boatswain from the Caribbean. The poems deal with identical themes, a man who has immigrated to Britain from the Caribbean, and must learn to adapt to a new life and culture. Both men suffer a sense of loss for their past, but in Hugh Boatswains poem ‘Old Father’, the central character tries to forget about his earlier life. Hugh Boatswain writes the poem ‘Old Father’ in a Caribbean dialect. It is a narrative poem, which tells the story of old father’s arrival in Britain. At first old father is very unhappy, we can see this in the quote. â€Å"Man, a takkin’ ‘de nex’ boat back home.† The writer is trying to show the reader that old father is thinking of taking the next boat back home. At this point in the poem old father still uses Caribbean dialect. I think that the use of the word â€Å"home† tells the reader the old father wants to go home. Later as he forgets about his past and rejects his earlier culture. Old father is trying to ignore his heritage and trying to become English. We can see that old father rejects his earlier culture when he makes jokes about his people to the white people, we can see this in the quote. â€Å"tut tut†, he would say, â€Å"isn’t it disgusting how they make a spectacle of themselves.† The poem is divided into four stanzas. The writer uses alliteration and assonance, to give the poem a rhythmical sound. Assonance is where the vowels sound the same in a line, for example in this quote. â€Å"make him bawl in his small basement room.† Boatswain also uses alliteration when he repeats ‘b’ consonants. We can see alliteration in this quote. â€Å"Bouncing down the road with a blond.† We can also see the writer using personification in the quote. â€Å"Cold bite him hard.† The poem gives a lot of detail about old father’s life and now he changes to adapt to his new life. He changes his appearance by straightening his hair and ignoring his old friends. The writer is quite critical about old father, he sees him as betraying his identity. ‘Island Man’ written by Grace Nichols is an imagist poem. The writer gives images or ‘pictures’ of the man’s dreams rather then telling his story directly to the reader. The poem is written in free verse, without rhythm. However, the writer uses alliteration in the phrases. â€Å"Sun Surfacing† â€Å"heaves himself† Nichols also repeats word, we can see this in the quote. â€Å"groggily groggily† â€Å"muffling muffling† Which describes the man waking up. The repetition helps to emphasise the emotions of the man. The poem is divided into the man’s dreams of the Island and his waking life in London. The writer uses enjambment, which means that each line flows into the next. We can see an example of enjambment in the quote. â€Å"Morning and Island man wakes up† This gives the language in this poem a rhythmical pattern like wave on a beach. The use of colours is very important in this poem. The dream Island is â€Å"blue surf† and â€Å"small emerald Island†. In contrast London is â€Å"grey metallic soar†. By reading and analysing the two poems â€Å"Old Father† and â€Å"Island Man† I have come to a conclusion that I think that the poem â€Å"Old Father† is better in the sense of language and themes. I enjoyed reading the poem â€Å"Old Father† more because the writer has used a large range of language skills. It also shows the use of Caribbean dialect, and the way the writer has structured out the poem.