How do the poets in ‘Half-Caste’ and ‘Unrelated Incidents’ Essay Example

be using a paradox to get his messages across.

The tone in the poem 'Half-Caste' is quite sarcastic to begin with, John Agard is 'making fun' of the term half-caste. 'half of mih ear' This quote show him being sarcastic he is implying that if he a half-caste then he is only half there and only has one eye, one ear and so on. The reader knows that this is not what the term means and picks p on the fact that Agard is being sarcastic, this also add a bit of humour to the poem because the reader get the image that there is only half a man. In 'Unrelated Incidents' the tone is quite different it is much more aggressive and seems quite angry.

Leonard is conveying his message in a very different way to Agard rather then gently and humorously saying how ridiculous the issue is, Leonard seems to get very cross and just repeatedly demands that his way is right. This shows the reader that he is very cross with the prejudices and social attitudes of people who are different to him. Even though the poems both have very different tone and different ways of getting the message across they have similar tones at the same time because they are both trying to make their reader understand that people are prejudice towards their way of living.

The poem 'Half-Caste' has a very unconventional structure, there are five unequal stanzas, made up of quite short lines. There is a lot of enjambment and slashes are used rather then commas or full stops. The structure here just makes the poem more effective in publicising Agard's thoughts.

The stanza can make certain lines more effective and give the reader time to think about them. The poem has been structured like this so it is easy for the reader to read and understand exactly what is happening.

The language makes it difficult to understand but the structure helps to balance out this. The poem 'Unrelated Incidents' has a very unconventional structure, it is made up of one long stanza but all of the lines only consist of two or three syllables. The poem has been structured like this to reflect the 'autocues' used by newsreaders. The poet has done this because he is criticising the new for always using the 'BBC accent' and to continue the theme throughout the poem he has also used a news-related structure.

This structure also shows us that the poet was angry when he wrote this because the short lines make the poem move a lot quicker and the fast pace of the poem gives the reader the impression of anger. Apart from the fastened pace and the relations to 'autocues' the structure doesn't really help us understand how the poet explores the prejudices and social attitudes, in either poem. Neither of the poems has a Rhyme scheme as such. 'Half-Caste' has a few lines that rhyme with one another. 'I'm sure you'll understand why I offer yu half-a-hand'

By having a few of these rhymes it allows the poem to flow more and makes it seem even more sarcastic. By being more sarcastic it adds to the tone of the poem, letting the reader see that Agard really does think that the term 'Half-Caste' is ridiculous and that it shouldn't

be used. 'Unrelated Incidents' doesn't have any rhyme in it at all, this helps the reader to see how angry Leonard is because he seems to be very angry and having no rhyme adds to this tone. This is because the poem seems to be just coming out of his mouth and he is not thinking about it at all.

When reading the two poems the reader imagines two very different images, 'Half-Caste' is quite a humorous poem and the images created are fairly humorous too. When reading this poem I can see a man standing on one leg, pretending he only has one eye and one ear. These images are funny and I think this helps to show the reader what Agard thinks of the term 'Half-Caste', he thinks it is a ridiculous phrase and in his poem ridiculous images are being made so his thoughts on the term are reflected in the images he creates.

While reading 'Unrelated Incidents' quite different images are created, I can imagine a very coarse Scot getting very angry at a newsreader on the television. This image could be quite amusing but the reader can tell from the tone of the poem that it isn't a funny image and should be taken seriously. As this image is created the reader understands that the poet isn't happy with the way the people with his cultural background are treated. The image is quite vicious and could be seen as threatening or unpleasant.

These images are very different and show the different ways the poets tackle a similar problem. The poem 'Half-Caste' uses a lot of extended metaphors. These metaphors are very good at

making the reader think and proving his point. 'yu mean when picasso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas' This is one of the metaphors he uses and it does prove that the term is ridiculous, because mixing two colours makes a new colour just as mixing two races make a new race.

Agard shows this prejudice towards mixed race people by being sarcastic, but also uses metaphors, repetition and non-standard punctuation and language to create the "picture" that people of mixed races are labelled unfairly in most social environments. 'Unrelated Incidents' doesn't use many poetic techniques. This could be because the poet, Leonard, wanted the readers to think that he is in a lower class and less able academically because he wants to emphasis the stereotype that the Scottish accent is put into.

The only technique that Leonard uses is the non-standard, phonetically spelt language, this adds emphasis to the stereotype as well. Together both poets use a lot of different techniques and methods to show that they feel that the groups of people they are writing about are under prejudices from people around them. Both poets feel that general social attitudes are against these groups of people and that these attitudes are pointless. Even though the poets are doing the same "task" they are both using different means of showing their feeling to their audience.