Comparing Poems 'Unrelated Incidents And Half-Caste'

Homework – Compare how poets explore language in ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and one other poem.
The language employed in poems ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and ‘Half-Caste’ effectively portrays the discrimination both poets receive. The writers’ use of language shows how they feel and how they deal with the discrimination.
Both poems show positive diction. ‘Unrelated Incident ‘ is written as third person, making it feel we are being directly spoken to and half-caste is written in first person so the reader can empathise with the characters feelings.
‘Unrelated incidents’ is about the poet presenting himself as a BBC broadcaster with a Glaswegian accent. The poets point is to say that just because someone has regional accent and not a RP accent does
not mean he is not trustworthy or worthy of respect. He is commenting on the snobbery associated with accents and challenging the presumptions people make about others based on their accents. ‘Half-Caste’ is an objection to the term half-caste used to mean ‘of mixed race ‘. Both poems suffer pre-judice.
‘Unrelated Incidents’ starts off with the language close to standard English.
“this is thi/six a clock/news”. The reader gets to experience the beginning of the poem as if it was the real news-caste. As the poem moves on, the Standard English begins to fade away and becomes more dialectal. “thi reason/a talk wia/BBC accent”. The language used here shows that the newsreader is trying to get some other message across and not the actual news. Therefore the reader will want to read on faster to see what this message is. The poet also uses informal language. “Scruff”. This type of language is dialectal, they are used to show which social group the persona belongs. He values the way that he speaks and feels that it is good enough to use in his
poem.
Pre-judice diction can also be found in ‘Half-Caste’ where repetition is involved. “wha yu mean/when you say half-caste”. By saying this, it shows that people do not understand the actual meaning of half-caste and by repeating it would mean that people find half-caste people as aliens and think they are abnormal. In ‘Unrelated Incidents’, by contrast, pre-judice diction is used to show the discrimination received because of your accent. “Jist wanna yoo/scruff tokn”. Just because you don’t have an RP accent, you cannot do certain things because it is said that some people may not understand. On the other hand, people who have a regional accent may be because of the way they had been brought up or because that is how they speak where they are from.
In ‘Unrelated Incidents’, the layout is unusual, compromising short phrases. It looks like a television autocue from which newsreaders read. This highlights the contrast between the accent and dialect used by newsreaders and the strong Scottish accent and non-standard dialect used by the character in the poem, just as similarly we can in ‘Half-Caste’, it is written in a Caribbean dialect which is from Creole. This shows that the poet values this form of language; he uses it to mock the attitudes of people who call him ‘Half-Caste’. This suggests that both poets are trying to get the readers to experience, what they did, themselves. Also I believe that it has left a long-lasting impression on both poets lives.
Sarcasm can be seen in ‘Half-Caste’ in the introduction when the poet says “excuse me” .
it is used sarcastically by the character to apologise for being different. The poem is a dramatic monologue. Monologues are often used to make comments about society as they are quite direct in tone and use the second person. Punctuation often is not used because it is supposed to sound like speech, which is not punctuated. Alternatively, it could be seen as a challenge to grammatical conventions just as the poet is challenging societies views. The poem also presents the reader with a series of funny images. “One leg”. This humorous tone shows that the poet does not take the people who term with half-caste seriously. He tells them to open their minds and use their whole brain to see for what he is – a human being. The poet wishes people could see with their “whole eye”. This metaphoric phrase means he wishes people could see things as they really are. Repetition of the word “half”, and the many different contexts the poet puts it into, emphasises the stupidity of using the term ‘half-caste’. Aural imagery is also used. “So spiteful dem don’t want de sun pass”. The constant sound of ‘S’ and ‘D’ can help to create the tone and influence the reader to maintain this tone. Back in ‘Unrelated Incidents’ assonance is used. “this/is ma trooth/yooz doant no/this trooth”. Here, the constant sound of ‘O’ makes the tone faster and gets the reader to read it fast as
well.
The rhythm in ‘Unrelated Incidents’ is fast and upbeat. It helps create the mood of anger and the atmosphere as defensive. By contrast, ‘Half-Caste’ has the rhythm of medium pace so that the readers can read and take everything into mind and slowly experience the situation so that they gain a better understanding.
To conclude, both poems seem, superficially, to portray scenes in a controversial issue. They both end with a political comment. It is apparent that both poets stand up for what they believe in; this can be seen by the reverential tone that runs through both poems. ‘Unrelated Incidents’ claim that regional accents should be considered as normal and in ‘Half-Caste’ the poet facts out that mixed-race people should be considered as normal human beings.