A half-caste is a person whose parents are from distinct races or perhaps ethnic skills. It is expression that utilized to be frequently used, but now it is regarded as insulting. John Agards poem looks at the word, what it is supposed to imply and how come people utilize it. The poem is really a performance poem. Because of this it is a composition that is can be performed facing an audience. Individuals who have seen Steve Agard conduct his composition will remember that when he starts off his overall performance he is in fact standing on 1 leg. This kind of, of course , makes a strange and confusing photo for the group, but that is certainly exactly what Agard wants to declare about the word half-caste: this can be a strange and confusing expression.
Excuse me Standing on one leg Im half-caste In this kind of unusual way, it is nearly as if the poet desires to draw awareness of himself plus the word at the same time in order to pressure us to re-consider what half-caste means. In lines 4-6, Agard begins an aggressive invasion on the actual reader may think he or she may well mean while using the word half-caste. The develop of Make clear yuself reveals annoyance, also exasperation with individuals who employ this word. This individual goes on, inside the reminder with this verse, to learn three types of where the phrase half-caste will be an incorrect word to use to describe a combination of things. He says that it is silly to use the word half-caste to explain the mix of colors that the The spanish language painter Picasso used in his paintings or maybe the mix of shades in the sky over a cloudy time. Also, the mixture of appears in a symphony by the Russian composer Tchaikovsky would not, he admits that, be known as half-caste.
The aggressive develop continues in the third verse (lines 31-37) with at this point a hint of sarcasm. As the word half-caste suggests a split human being (line45) Agard says he holding out to listen to each of our answer to his request with half of mih ear and looking at us describing ourselves with half of mih eye. Ought to he at any time be brought to us he would offer yu half-a-hand and so on: sleeping with half-a-eye, fantasizing half-a-dream and throwing half-a-shadow on the wall membrane in the mild of the moon.
Agard finishes his poem by suggesting that the reader who also uses the phrase half-caste is simply not thinking fully about what he or she is doing: but you must return tomorrow wid the complete of yu eye an de whole of yu ear an de complete of yu mind Agard suggests that we need to open up all our feelings and put the minds fully to getting gone this offensive word within our language. People from other cultures and customs deserve to become respected and understood our society can be enriched by them which the other half/of my personal story that Agard refers to at the extremely end from the poem.
