Look We Have Coming To Dover Beach Poem Summary

Daljit Nagra’s portrayal of immigration in the poem, ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover’, is a rather negative one as he appears to ridicule the perception of immigration through various techniques. From an initial glance one can already look at how the diction connotes with an unpleasant journey of immigration. The words ‘diesel-breeze’ and ‘phlegmed’ both describe the expedition to Dover as being foul since diesel is not a pleasing smell and phlegm is usually associated with snot, both of which create repulsive imagery. More so, the word ‘stowed’ indicates that the people are packed onto a ship as if they are cargo or some sort of heavy load. In stanza two, this diction continues through the use of the word ‘camouflage’, which suggests that the immigrants have to sneak into the country and, thus, perhaps indicates that they are there illegally. This makes the process of immigration appear worse and more challenging
Imagery continues, yet takes a new form of life in the last stanza. Whilst the previous stanzas explain the immigration journey, the last stanza explains a dream of the new life the …show more content…
The speaker in ‘Dover Beach’ goes on to explain the beauty of nature and the world to his lover, only to admit that it is all deception as the world is, actually, full of chaos and misery. Nagra, has used this allusion to emphasise that his poem talks of the immigrant-dream in the same way: the speaker mentions how glamourous this new immigrant-life seems, when in reality, he is implying that immigration is difficult and filled with troubles making it far from what it appears to be. Moreover, in the beginning of ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover’ a specific line, ’So Various, so beautiful, so new…’, of ‘Dover Beach’ is mentioned. This reiterates Nagra’s mockery of the immigrant’s view of Dover and their new life in England as this line appears in a rather cliché