Us

• Context

  • Refering to a personal relationship, but it also refers to all of us and how we can work together to bridge our differences
  • Need to be more unified and become more tolerant of people from diverse backgrounds
  • Dual heritage --> Pakistan & English
• Form

  • Isometric
  • Free verse --> stanzas flow into one another mimicking the motion of ocean showing we can come together & apart
  • Poetic I --> informal. Intimate internal reading of abstract thoughts
  • Vague consonance rhyme
  • overall extended metaphor
  • 7 tercets & 1 single line
  • deviates at end --> emphasises writer's uncertainty in their identity
  • 1st line = cataletic
• Structure

  • enjambment --> ensure pace of poem is maintained, reader able to follow his thoughts and feelings in a natural and simple way
  • Lack of rhyme scheme --> identity = disorganised & unsure
  • Cyclical structure --> links to metaphor of waves
  • Semantic field of sea
  • Juxtaposition between "love" and "loss" = loving & losing can coexist
• "If you ask me, us takes in undulations-"
• "but when I was young, us equally meant me,"
• "and the way supporters share the one fate-"
• "cresting the Mexican wave of we or us,"
• "a shore-like state, two places at once"
• "my heart's sunk at separations of us"
• "and though far-fetched, it won't be too far wrong"
• "I'd love to think I could stretch to it-us-"
• Language

  • " undulations" shows rising and falling. Motions between all the different coasts bring us together
  • "maybe" shows uncertain emotion --> relatable
  • football is a sport of togetherness but still feels a struggle to belong
  • "shore-like state" --> simile. Shore = connotations of being on the edge. Dual heritage.
  • Fricatives --> discovering oneself
  • Sibilance --> sounds of waves --> wants a sense of belonging
• Tone & imagery

  • Very personal & colloquial in some places. Speaker directly addresses reader to keep them involved & to follow his train of thought and his concerns about the future.
  • Lexical field of sea, coasts & islands running throughout poem. "Undulations" in first line sets up strong image of waves & overall structure of poem supports natural rhythm of waves.
• Comparison poems

  • We refugees --> Addresses reader directly. Uses personal pronouns to discuss issues of belonging. 10 stanzas, with 2 of them being longer stanzas. Not set rhyme scheme. Uses lots of repetition and anaphora.
  • Peckham Rye lane --> also uses enjambment to mimic ebb and flow of her thoughts & journey. Kunial wants to see unity & people overcoming differences, Blakemore's poem describes different ages coming together in London