Half Caste

Half Caste By John Agard

What is it  about? 

Half Caste is a poem by John Agard. Agard. It I t is a poem which talks about how people who are Half caste find it hard to express express themsleves beyond beyo nd their skin colour. colour. The title t itle itself it self is mocking half caste people. John Agard wants the readers readers to feel open minded about Half  Caste people because he talks about people like Picasso and Tchaikovsky mixing things together and not being prejudiced. His message is for other people to feel the same.

Structure 

The structure of the poem is irregular with the first and last stanzas having only three lines. The first stanza which says excuse me son standing on one leg Im I m half caste shows shows that at the beginning the speaker is sarcastic and ignorant. However in the last stanza where there are still 3 lines, the mood changes because Agard Agard wants to educate the person person he is talking to we can see this when he says an I will tell yu de other half of  my story. story. The fact that there t here are no n o full ful l stops or commas suggests that he is very passionate about the term half caste.

Language Techniques 

There is repetition repetition in the poem the sentence explain yuself wha yu mean shows that Agard is addressing the reader directly. The fact that there is no punctuation makes us feel that he feels strongly strongly about about the subject of caste. caste. Agard writes in patois but he is still coming across as well educated because he makes references references to Picasso Picasso and  Tchaikovsky chaikovsky .

Tone In the poem Agard Agard also shows that he has feelings even though he thinks of himself as half a person. We can see this when he says Im sure youll understand why I offer yu half-a-hand hal f-a-hand.. He is is making fun of the person he is talking to by using the metaphor light and dark to contradict contradict the person he is addressing. This is shown when he says yu mean when light an shadow mix in de sky sky . It is a deliberately deliberately ambiguous question so that the half caste person is confused to how he/she should feel.

Ima gery  

There is a very clear use of visual imagery in Half  Caste, Caste, it is used when the poet says yu mean when Picasso mix red an green the message behind the quote intended to say that even though Picasso mixed colours together he was successful and people who are mixed race could also be. He also uses different examples of what half-caste can be so the reader gets the idea of what he is trying to portray another visual image used to show this is yu mean when Tchaikovsky sit down at dah dah piano an mix mix a black key wid a white white key. These visual images relate back to the imagery and they both link lin k together. together.