Two poems from 'Text from Other Cultures'

My coursework is to juxtapose two poems from 'Text from Other Cultures'. The two poems that I am going to compare are 'Old father', written by Hugh Boatswain and 'Island man' written by Grace Nichols. In my coursework the following targets are going to be covered: Use of Language, Theme of poems and comparing and contrasting both poems. The different Caribbean poets wrote these two poems. The poems have brief description about the comparison and the contrast between England and Caribbean Culture.

'Old father' and 'Island man', is about two old men that are missing their motherland so much. They are missing the country so much that they have dreams about it. They both can feel that they are missing out on the atmosphere, environment and people. They have been in England for such a long time they are being to forget were they have come from.

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They have been in England for such a long time; they are starting to forget where they have come from. They are so desperate to go back to their motherland they have recorded their atmosphere, seaside, nature, birds, cricket matches etc.

Old Father: How they make a spectacle of themselves At cricket matches. Island Man: Wild seabirds And fisherman pushing out to sea The sun surfacing defiantly In 'Old Father' the quote is saying 'how they use to love watch the cricket matches. In 'Island Man' the quote is saying 'he can relax and listen to the sound of birds, and watch the sunset.

Theses two quotes above both men are representing what each man felt, when he was living in his country. They felt more relaxed and peaceful in there country.

Just looking at both poems, you can see that 'Old Father' has more written and descriptive than 'Island Man'. But both men have described and explained their wishes and reasons behind missing their country. Hugh Boatswain describes 'Old Father' as real life story. He describes his passion, his feelings as much as he can. He has got a lot of subjects that he brings up; to make the poem realistic, he makes the poems come toward the audience and gives life to the poem. In the four stanzas he mentions the atmosphere in England first then he compares it to his motherland.

He has spent so much time in England he has not forgot his native country. But he does think that he has forgotten about in root where he came from. Old Father: His roots have not meaning now. Most of is life he tried to become an English man, he tried a lot of time to blend and get connection with the white people, but everywhere were he turned around he got looked or commented on. He even tried to get used to the atmosphere and the people around him but he had no luck.

Old Father: They don't like serving black people Or And his suit, cream and beige Never anything dark. The two quotes above are representing how hard he tried to be an English man. The first quote is saying, he went to pubs down the down the road and the bar man/lady wont not serve him because he's black. 'Island Man' is formatted in a different way compare to 'Old Father'. The poem is about an 'Island Man'. Grace Nichols has tried to compare her feeling with the 'Island Man'. The poem is short and clear when reading it. It is also easy to understand because it's short.