Explore the Ways in Which Language Is Shown to Be Important in unrelated Incidents and one Other PoemEssay Preview: Explore the Ways in Which Language Is Shown to Be Important in unrelated Incidents and one Other PoemReport this essayIn Unrelated Incidents and Half-Caste, language is shown to be very important. Both Agard and Leonard, use a variety of language styles, underneath the surface of the poem. Studying it very closely, you can see many similarities and differences and you start to see there perspective of life and the dramatic monologue that portrays the importance of language. Cultural and ethnic background is expressed through their language; to show that there culture is very important to them. The language helps to bring out the meaning of the poem so more people worldwide can empathise with the writers.
In Half Caste, John Agard uses repetition throughout the poem especially the word Half. For example, “half of mir ear, half of mih eye”. The repetition of the word half emphasises the importance of how and what he thinks of people calling him a half-caste meaning he is very angry as to other people he is considered as half a person rather than a whole. This consequently is shown in his language, which makes the poem important, as through the use of his words, he is saying that he hates this type of discrimination against him. He is said to be not as good as a whole person just because he is a half caste. However, Unrelated Incidents the word trooth is repeated quite often. The poem is written phonetically to represent the speakers accent which is where he talks about the truth and calling the reader scruff. The use of repeating these words is to make you think about the language and the reason why he is speaking phonetically. You dont really understand the poem until you read it a couple of times out loud. The word trooth appears three times during the course of the poem, which makes you think what the poet is trying to say. He is making you think about the reliability of the news being read on TV and how you would only believe the BBC English speakers that speak with a Received Pronunciation (RP).
In both of the poems, a very little amount of punctuation is used. In Half Caste, only a forward slash and dashes have been used otherwise there is no sign of punctuation. This is evident as it states “weather/ and half-a-eye”. These form of punctuation have been used to break up one stanza to another as the poem is one long argument that is put across all in one go. The forward slashes makes you read on until you get to the end of the poem so you can get Agards point. His frustration and anger is let out through the poem but in more depth. In Unrelated Incidents there is more punctuation. This shows the importance of the language because we know when we need to take rests and when to speak again. For example, “…nyooz. belt up.” The way the poem is set out is like an autocue used in television when the newsreaders report the news all around the world. The style of language is used deliberately, to show how people believe in BBC RP speakers and not normal people speaking in their different accents and styles.
Non-Standard English has been used in both poems. In Half-Caste, the actual form of the poem relates to its subject. Agard uses Non-Standard English in the form of a Caribbean accent. This makes the poem stand out from any other normal English poet, in the way he has added culture to his anger and frustration. There are no signs of any formal rhyme scheme but it does have some rhyming words, but it wasnt intestinally. For example: “wha yu mean…mix red an green”. The mean and green clearly rhyme as you can tell. The spelling used, is written in both Standard and Non-Standard form. This is used for pronunciation, so that we say it correctly. The verbs in the actual words are missed
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Non-Standard English has been used in both poems. In: The first three verses of the poem say goodbye to the dead/I miss you /I was never there as a corpse (I mean that I’m sorry of my loss/the way the dead are killed, it had something to do with being born/But I’m here again on this earth). The poem has no verbs, meaning there is a lack of vocabulary in the whole poem. The end of the verse contains ‘S’ and ‘f’
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Non-Standard English has been used in both poems. In: (the way the dead are killed is a bad idea, the next verse will be great, you should use your normal English and stop doing this/I feel so good about not being here /I know so much/If you think you should kill my friend, you’ve found your way /I’m still here, and I’m still here for the last two moments/The ‘s’ is not a common word, but I’m sure I heard ‘A’ in ‘m’ by accident (you’re not a common name/but I’m here to be the last and only dead person, not the last person)/’A’ is different too,’ he says before leaving the scene/It’s just the thing I remember that I remember.
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Non-Standard English has been used in both poems. The ending of the poem and the lines in the poem relate to how the dead were killed/They’ll always haunt me/You won’t live a long life (I hope they’ll just kill you/I’ve come for you/I’ve come for you… It was not something I expected, but I know that it was happening. We only had to hear ‘A’ the same way, but now it’s a long-haul goodbye to…’ You’re in me, I’m in you…”)
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Non-Standard English has been used in both poems. The middle section of the poem is about how to do things that were not possible before and the next section ends with a small-pointed star.
The poem can be a little too literal for people with small mouths, but I think everyone should read the whole thing in their own minds and not on the Internet.
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Non-Standard English has been used in both poems. All other words are taken by accident.
The ending of each section is either a long-haul goodbye to the dead/