Ah Rass Poem Analysis

Firstly, Moniza Alvi and both John Agard use specialist language from their cultures. This suggests that they are being truthful and wholesome to their specific identities and cultures in their writing. Agard uses the phrase ‘ah rass’ he wants to show that he still uses dialect from the other half of his culture. Alvi uses words such as ‘salwar kameez’ or ‘sari’ to portray that she does recognise her culture and lives it to an extent because she could have simply that they were traditional dresses but she didn't because she wanted to stay with her roots and past. Also, we can see that because she wrote and even published this poem later on in life, it shows that she only felt ashamed in her child and teen years because of the peer pressure …show more content…
Agard uses enjambment, it flows without stopping. Alvi uses stanzas in her poem because she wants to show that she feels segregated or even stuck between two worlds. Her structure consists of various lengths in her stanzas, some are short while others are long; showing that she is broken like shards of glass. Also, you could say that she is defiantly saying that she is mixed race. On the other hand, Agard has one long stanza which is his poem with only forward slashes to ‘partition’ his writing with new ideas he talk about. This is because he wants to show a continuous flow of life, whatever race or religion you happen to …show more content…
In different ways, Alvi feels offended that even her schoolfriend was not impressed by the clothes her aunts gave her but also that thy couldn’t give her anything she liked or felt comfortable in. the quote ‘unlike Aunt Jamila’ shows her dislike for the aunts who send her presents which she loathes but also that in return they ask for clothes too as stated in the quote ‘requested cardigans from Marks and Spencers’. On the contrary, Agard feels offended in the sense that he is trying to confront the haters and make them feel guilt or let them see differently because of what he has been though. The quote ‘Explain yuself wha yu mean’ implies that Agard wants answers to all of the hardships that he has been facing, calling out to all of those who have called him ‘half-caste’ that they are stupid and narrow-minded. He also uses the quote ‘England weather nearly always half-caste’ the technique is the use of personification, classing England as being multi cultural which can also imply that he wants to say that the weather is natural and so is being mixed race. Both poems mark their offence in different ways, agreement and guilt. Whilst Agard shows his offence by being facetious, Alvi agrees and doesn't stand up for herself when others around her are setting her back or lowering her self esteem to a minimum. The impact on the reader is good because they know to embrace their cultures with devotion and educate others to see that it is