Checking Out Me History

• Agard uses a mixture of stanza forms - suggesting he’s breaking away from the tradition he’s been taught. The rhymes emphasise the childishness of what he has been told about the past. The effect of all this is to mock what he has been told about the past and to mock the attitudes of those who seek to marginalise black achievements.
• Repetition of ‘Dem’ emphasises how the poet doesn’t identify the people/ teaches that taught him history. The poet replaces the ‘th‘ with ‘d’ in order to suggest his Caribbean dialect. The use of phonetic spelling could emphasise how he sees his identify as different (to the history he has been taught).
• The poet uses the tone of the poem to convey that the history he was taught in school was like a nursery rhyme or made up story to him. It creates a childish effect - perhaps a mocking tone.
• The repetition of “Dem tell me“ is used at the start of all of the four line stanzas that rhyme. The repetition creates an angry and accusatory tone. The words “Dem tell me“ - emphasise the control that white society has over history.
• “Bandage up me eye with me own history / Blind me to me own identity“ 


  The alliteration of the ‘b’ sound helps to empathise how history is not fully presented but is distorted and destructive

  The metaphorical image of the “bandage” is ironic - bandages should aid healing, but here they’ve caused blindness.
• “carving out me own identity”


  The verb highlights a careful desire to shape, sculpt and fashion out his own history.

  “identity” is the empathetic final word which sums up the main theme. He will no longer be force fed historical information.

  He is going to use his own history / culture to create his identity / sense of self.
• “Mary Seacole..” 


  The poet‘s use of natural imagery for women could represent mother nature and / or showing the power of women.

  She is described as a “healing star” which suggests images linked to light, hope and warmth.
• “Blind me to me own identity” 


  No light shed upon his own identity / feels that he has been forced to learn an ‘alien‘ history.
• “Bandage me up with me own identity” 


  Bandages are usually white therefore he has been blinded by the ’white‘ history
• John Agard was born in Guyana and received a British education due to the country being colonised up until 1966.
• The rich imagery in Agard’s poem juxtaposes with the almost childish lexis in the other stanzas to show the beautiful and complex nature of black history.
• The repetition in Agard’s poem creates an oppressive tone to the teaching of history.
• The volta “but now” in Agard’s poem marks a turning point in the poem as the speaker switches from referring to “Dem” to “I”, showing him taking ownership of his own identity and making the poem about himself rather than them.
• The overflowing sentences in Agard’s poem show that the speaker is attempting to express too much emotion to be constrained to a single line, showing how much Agard cares about the subject matter which has impacted him as a person.
• European tradition presented in a nursery rhyme with rhyming quatrains which ridicules and mocks the views of Europeans who celebrate their own culture and ignore other nations

  Emphasises his message within the poem

  When talking about his own culture he uses free verse which shows freedom he feels in his own identity as well as juxtaposing the quatrains
• Theme of power is prevalent due to the power struggle that Agard goes through to get his identity back from the Eurocentric history that is taught

  Also shows the power struggle of those who have been culturally oppressed before him

  Links to the theme of identity this way as well as through the fact that it is speaking to those who are oppressed and the people who teach the history that Agard is criticising
• Theme of war can be suggested through the historical wars that are mentioned within the poem and the metaphorical war Agard is fighting against the eurocentric history that is being taught