MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
West Indian Poetry for Children and its Place in Contemporary British Literature
Diploma Thesis
Brno 2017
Supervisor: Written by:
PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. Mgr. Tatiana Savchenko
Annotation
The diploma thesis West Indian Poetry for Children and its Place in Contemporary British Literature deals with peculiarities of children’s poetry by James Berry, John Agard, Benjamin Zephaniah, Valery Bloom and Grace Nichols in the selected volumes of poetry. The thesis defines what is meant by Black British literature, comments on the main topics in West Indian literature for children as a part of Black British literature, speaks about performance features of West Indian children’s poetry, its target audience, genre variations and the language. Attention is drawn to the connection of the oral poetic traditions of West Indies and Britain.The crucial part of the thesis is the analysis of the above mentioned collections of poetry in the context of the information acquired from the academic texts dedicated to Black British literature and children’s literature.
Anotace
Diplomová práce “Západoindická poezie pro děti a její místo v současné britské literature” se zabývá zvláštnostmi dětské poezie ve vybraných dílech, jejímiž autory jsou: James Berry, John Agard, Benjamin Zephaniah, Valery Bloom a Grace Nichols. Diplomová práce si klade za cíl definovat pojem “Černá britská literatura”, podat komentář k hlavním tématům, zastoupených v Západoindické literatuře pro děti. Teoretickou část práce také tvoří vhled do zmiňované oblasti literatury, zaměřuje se na cílovou skupinu, variaci žánrů a soustřeďuje se na volbu jazykových prostředků. Stěžejní částí diplomové práce je její praktická část, ve které je provedena analýza výše uvedených jevů básnických sbírek. Analýza sborníků byla vzpracována na základě současných odborných textů, jež jsou zaměřeny na "Černou anglickou literaturu" a literaturu pro děti. Pozornost je upřena na propojenost ústní poetické tradice Západoindické literatury a Velké Británie.
Key words: children’s poetry; West Indian children’s poetry; James Berry; John Agard; Grace Nichols; Valerie Bloom; Benjamin Zephaniah; ethnic literature
Klíčová slova: poezie pro děti; Západoindická poezie pro děti; James Berry; John Agard; Grace Nichols; Valerie Bloom; Benjamin Zephaniah; etnická literatura
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Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.
V Brně 29. 03. 2017 .…………………… Tatiana Savchenko
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Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D., for her professional advice, patience, motivation, and engagement through the whole process of woking on this master thesis. I would like to thank my sister Natalia Savchenko for the language corrections and support.
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Table of Contents
Introduction …………………………………………………………………6
Chapter I. Theoretical Background of the Research ……………………..9
1. Black British Literature ……………………………………………9
2. Contemporary Children’s Literature and Oral Lore …………...... 18
3. Creole Language and its Peculiarities ……………………………24
Chapter II. The Analytical Part …………………………………………..29
1. Themes in West Indian Poetry for Children ………………………30
1.1. Caribbean Nature, Weather and Food ………………………….30
1.2. Caribbean Folklore and Traditions. Carnival …………………..36
1.3. Racism, Migration and Equality ………………………………..41
1.4. Rastafarianism ………………………………………………….47
1.5. Modern Technologies …………………………………………..49
2. Oral Lore and the Reflection of Contemporary Trends in Children's Literature in West Indian Poetry for Children ……………………………………..53
2.1. Target Audience ……………………………………………….53
2.2. Poetic forms and Genres ……………………………………….55
2.3. Performance Features of West Indian Poetry for Children and Poetry Based on Music ……………………………………………………………………60
2.4. British Nursery and school Lore and West Indian poetry for Children…………………………………………………………………………….65
3. Creole Language in West Indian Poetry for Children …………….69
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….75
Bibliography ………………………………………………………………..80
Appendix ……………………………………………………………………87
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Introduction The British Empire was the greatest and the largest territorial formation that ever existed in the world history. At the end of the 20th century, the empire collapsed but millions of people from its previously administrated lands (such as Africa, Caribbean Islands and Asia) relocated and settled in the territory of Great Britain, thus becoming an indefeasible part of the British culture. Contemporary British literature reflects the diversity and complexity of the modern British society.
For my research, I chose five Black British poets of the Caribbean descent: James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valery Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah. Black British is an umbrella term that defines those people of African and Caribbean ethnic background who either were born or spent the major part of their lives in the United Kingdom. It should be noted, that in the recent academic research the terminology is not yet settled. For instance, Michael Lockwood considers Benjamin Zephaniah, who was born and educated in the United Kingdom, to be a Black British poet, while James Berry, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and John Agard are called Caribbean British. For the aims of my research, this terminological differentiation is not crucial, therefore, I use the terms West Indian, Caribbean and Black British as interchangeable synonyms.
The main objective of the diploma thesis is to examine and evaluate the selected poetic texts by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valery Bloom, Benjamin Zephaniah with the focus on thematic, genre, form and language peculiarities of these texts and to make conclusions about the place of the Caribbean poetry for children in the context of the modern British poetry. My hypothesis is that West Indian literature for children can be considered a part of a mainstream British literature.
The thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical and analytical. In the theoretical part I firstly discuss the approaches of different researchers to defining Black British literature, I dwell on the topics that are considered conventional for West Indian literature for adults, I comment on the oral lore and performance traditions in the Caribbean region and the United Kingdom. Secondly, I attempt to depict characters, genres and tendencies specific to contemporary children’s poetry. Thirdly, I describe the history and linguistic features of Creole language and its use in the poetry for children.
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In the analytical part of my research, I, first of all, focus on the topics that are frequent in the Caribbean poetry for children and define which topics of the West Indian literature for adults and of the world’s children’s literature found their reflection in the poetry for children of the Black British authors. Secondly, I deal with genre variation, target audience, graphic design and performance features of children’s poetry by West Indian authors. Lastly, I speculate if Creole language is an obstacle in understanding Caribbean poetry for children and I put forward a hypothesis on the reasons to use Creole in poetic texts.
The analytical part of my research is based on the analysis of the following volumes of poetry: Only One of Me (2004) by James Berry, I Din Do Nuttin' (1983) and Goldilocks on CCTV (2011) by John Agard, Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems (1992) and Whoop an’ Shout! (2003) by Valery Bloom, Everybody Got a Gift (2006) and Come on into My Tropical Garden (1990) by Grace Nichols and Wicked World (2000), Talking Turkeys (1995), Funky Chickens (1997), We are Britain! (2003), J is for Jamaica (2006) by Benjamin Zephaniah.
Concerning the methods used in this diploma thesis, the theoretical part is developed out of an examination of the fields of Black British literature, contemporary children’s poetry, Creole language and finding specific academic texts related to it. In the analytical part of the work I am using the standard means of stylistic analysis and the approach to poetry analysis suggested by David Wheeler in his book Moon on the tides: the aqa gcse poetry anthology -a guide for students (2011) while keeping in mind the aims and goals of my research as well as the material that was gathered in the theoretical part.
The Caribbean children’s poetry is a relatively new field of study and the majority of the related academic texts either deal with the practical use of poetry in English classrooms or describe the peculiarities of Creole language. Consequently, I was forced to ground my work on the books and academic articles dedicated to West Indian literature for adults, the most helpful among them being A Reader’s Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature (1997) by David Dabudeen and Nana Wilson-Tagoe and a collection of essays Write Black Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature edited by K. Sesay (2005). Contemporary poetry for children itself is one of the marginal subsets of literature and there are not many writings dedicated specifically to British children’s 7 poetry. Thus, I founded the analytical part of my study on academic articles devoted to contemporary children’s poetry in Britain and in the United States. The most crucial among them being Children’s Literature a Very Short Introduction (2011) by Kimberly Reynolds, the chapters by Laura Apol, Janine L. Certo and Betsy Hearne published in Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2011) and the essay by Richard Flynn in Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature (2009).
In my opinion, my research may be valuable to anyone who is interested in contemporary children’s poetry. Moreover, those whose field of interest includes Caribbean poetry and culture may find this diploma thesis as a useful source of information. It may be equally helpful to people who are eager to know more about performance poetry and the Creole language.
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Chapter I. Theoretical Background of the Research
1. Black British Literature The aims of this chapter are as follows: to examine what the term Black British literature implies; to define the main topics in West Indian literature as part of Black British literature; to look at the poetic traditions of West Indies; to draw attention to the problems of the performance poetry in modern Britain, and, finally, to provide an outline of Black British poets. I start by reviewing different approaches to the problem of defining Black British literature; then I list the topics that are considered traditional for West Indian literature, after that I explore to the oral lore in West Indian poetry and contemplate about its place in modern Britain, and finally, I name some the most prominent representatives of Black British literature. This chapter is based on the book by David Dabudeen and Nana Wilson-Tagoe A Reader’s Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature (1997); on the book by Catherine Lynette Innes The Cambridge Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures in English (2007); on the article by Benedicte Ledent1 “ Black British Literature” that was included into The Oxford Companion to English Literature (2009); on the book by Mark Stein Black British Literature: Novels of Transformation (2004); on Louis James’s book Caribbean Literature in English (1999); on Robert Humpson’s and Peter Berry’s book New British Poeties: The Scope of the Possible(1995), and on the collection of academic essays by modern scholars that were firstly presented at the conference on Black British Literature in Barbican Centre in London and later were included into the book Write Black Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature (2005).
Benedicte Ledent in the article “Black British Literature” states that now, when much work on Black British writings has been done, the term Black British literature is still considered reductive, divisive and controversial by many literary practitioners. When the term Black British literature appeared in the 1970s, it was used to describe writings by the authors who originated from the former British colonies in the Caribbean, Asia and Africa but were living in Britain or holding a British citizenship. In the British context
1Benedicte Ledent is a senior lecturer at the University of Liege who focuses on contemporary Caribbean literature, Black British drama, literature of the African diaspora, the work of Caryl Phillips, post-colonial and diaspora studies. “Benedicte Ledent” University de Liege.Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
(unlike the American one), the adjective “black” is still frequently used to refer to all “people of colour”. Benedicte Ledent summaries that "it was at that time a political rather than a purely racial label, pointing to a common experience of postcolonial migration, alienation, and discrimination, combined with an oblique yet potentially subversive assertion of attachment to Britain"(16, 2009). Ledent points out, that since then, the authors of Asian descend have gained their own category of “British Asian or Asian British” and “the shift in the limits of the term suggest[ed] changing relationships between so-called ethnic minorities in Britain and a growing gap between communities once bound by shared status as racial and cultural outsiders” (17, 2009). Salman Rushdie, who himself may serve as a bright example of the problem of inclusion, claimed that “the category [of black British literature] is a chimera” (Rushdie qtd. in Ledent 16, 2009) and just an attempt to create an “exclusive literary ghetto” (Rushdie qtd. in Can 82, 2015). A British-Guyanese poet, novelist and playwright, Fred D'Arguiar in his debate against much praised David Dabudeen argues that “there is no Black British literature, there is only literature with its unusual variants of class, sex, race, time and place” (D’Arguiar qtd. in Stein 10, 2004). Robert Humpson in his book New British Poeties: The Scope of the Possible agrees with him by stating:
“…It is nonsense to pretend that what black writers are doing in Britain is so unlike what their white compatriates in craft are practising that it merits a category entirely of its own. … The reality is that poets of particular age, class, and locality, often have more in common in terms of their craft and themes, whatever racial differences may obtain. … [Black] is a definition which is political; this means it doesn’t necessarily hold for a definition of who writes what” (Hampson, 1995, 70).
Mark Stein, on the other hand, proves that, although “blackness” and “Britishness” in the term produce a “reciprocal tension”, Black British literature "does have its own space...[which] is not homogeneous in terms of time or culture or location, it is an imagined experimental field of overlapping territories" (Stein 17-18, 2004).
The problem of defining Black British literature was also approached by Mahlete- Tsigé Getachew in her essay "Marginalia: Black Literature and the Problem of Recognition". The definition she deals with, was suggested by Eddie Chambers, a British contemporary art historian: “Black art is art produced by Black people, largely and specially for the Black audience, and which, in terms of its content, addressed Black
10 experience” (324, 2005). Champers’s conception of Black art can as well be applied to Black literature and can, therefore, provoke a question of Black literature being worthy of widespread recognition and assimilation into the mainstream British literature. Getachew successively examines three above mentioned components - black authorship, black readership and black content - and comes to the conclusion that neither of them, taken singly or together, provide justification for the general and aesthetic recognition of Black literature. She sees the way out in developing of “an apolitical but linguistically innovative Black literature [that] would meet the criteria for aesthetic and commercial success and would overcome both the limitations of traditionally conceived Black literature and the segregation associated with this form” (324, 2005).
The point of view expressed by Mahlete-Tsigé Getachew seems to be more reasonable, well-grounded and modern and, therefore, I will rely on her vision of Black British literature in my attempt to identify whether children’s poetry by Black British authors has managed to overcome the boundaries of the traditionally perceived Black literature in terms of style, themes and forms.
In their book A Reader’s Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature David Dabudeen and Nana Wilson-Tagoe selected a number of themes conventional for West Indian literature. Among those topics are anti-imperialism and nationalism, the treatment of race, the theme of childhood, the treatment of woman, the theme of migration, Rastafarianism, carnival, and calypso.
Speaking about anti-imperialism and nationalism Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe point out that West Indian literature featured evolutionary trendsetting that manifested itself in the political movement for independence and cultural nationalism. These themes found their realisation mostly in poetry where writers were “single- mindedly committed to the socio-political function of poetry and in which the poem was less an imaginative evocation than a strident protest expressing outrage of colonial repression” (23, 1997). Since the 1950s and 1960s anti-imperialism themes gained more variations and depths and focused on the ways of expressing or explaining the West Indian experience (26, 1997).
In regards of treatment of race and migration Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe maintain that “race has always been a crucial issue in colonial relations and surfaced in
11 various dimensions in the literature of West Indies” and in West Indian literature “migration has been a response both to an actual historical phenomenon and to a psychological problem created by colonial relations” (49, 1997).The starting point of the black presence in Britain is usually marked by the arrival of the S. S. Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks on June 21st 1948. West Indian immigrants who came to rebuild British cities, ruined by the Second World War, had a strong sense of cultural identification with Britain, which they saw as their Motherland (Ledent 79, 2009). However, as commented by Fred D’Aguiar, “whites made sure that the Blacks in Britain were always aware that they were visitors in their homeland"(qtd. in Wikia: Black British Literature). The white British society was convinced of “otherness" of Black people to the extent of denying them the ability to produce artists and scientists. This viewpoint was since expressed by many white politicians and can be exemplified by the words of Tomas Atwood, chief judge of Dominica and later of the Bahamas, who said in 1791: “There is...something so very unaccountable in the genius of all negroes, so very different from that of white people in general, that there is not to be produced an instance in the West Indies of any of them ever arriving to any degree of perfection in the liberal arts or sciences” (qtd. in Dabudeen, Wilson-Tagoe 84, 1997).
The theme of childhood was also a recurrent motif in West Indian writings. As per Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe, in all novels about childhood the main character was always involved in recording the influence of a particular experience or environment, such as getting accustomed to new life settings, experiencing racial tension, being culturally confused and insecure, progressing towards emotional and physical maturity, etc. (38-39, 1997). It should be emphasized, that the authors do not speak about the illustration of childhood in West Indian children’s literature but deal with the representation of childhood in the literature for adults.
Reflecting on the treatment of woman, Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe highlight that for centuries West Indian women were considered “repositories of folk wisdom and the oral tradition” and mothers in the almost divine sense: their connection with a child was “as sacred as the bond between earth and creativity”. However, in the second half of the 20th century this image of “earth mother” extended and brought new female characters, like workers and prostitutes struggling to find their way in the urban society. Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe highlight that only recently West Indian women have acquired the
12 chance to express themselves in written literature. However, “the voice of contemporary West Indian woman is yet to be established in literature” because, oddly enough, until now only a few of them (like Merle Hodge, Jean Rhys and Grace Nichols) have intentionally explored the psychological and social problems of women (43- 45, 1997).
Rastafarianism2, according to Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe, held the attention and fascination of West Indian writers at different stages of the literature’s progress. Rastafarian rituals and beliefs found their reflection both in prose and in poetry. To a certain extent, the peculiar interest to this theme was “a response to the sense of self and dignity which the sect maintains through its very rejection of the imitative, bastardised version of “British” society which most middle class West Indians consider the norm for their societies”. Besides, Rastafarianism represented dissatisfaction of the new generation of writers with the “mulatto-image projected in earlier literature” (54, 2007).
The last two topics named by Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe are Carnival and Calypso. The scholars explain that after the abolition of slavery, Carnival (originally an entertainment for upper-class white people) received a new symbolic meaning for fun- loving West Indies, and now it is “no longer a European inspired nature festival but a deeply meaningful anniversary of deliverance with ritualistic significance rooted in the very experience of slavery” (Hill qtd. in Dabudeen and Wilson- Tagoe, 65, 1997). Carnival celebration consisted of masquerade, calypsonian music, theatrical performances, street dances, drumming, songs, stick fighting and different rituals. As a folk form, it captured imagination of writers working with the “written” form because Carnival represented the “interplay between oral and written form [as] a significant unique aspect of West Indian literature” (69, 1997). The topic of Carnival is closely connected to the theme of Calypso3. At first, Carnival songs emerged spontaneously, but after some time they started to be composed on purpose during the course of preparation for Carnival. Calypsonians (leading singers) were performing them in special Carnival
2 Rastafarianism is a religious cult, originally of Jamaica, that regards Africa as the Promised Land, to which all true believers will someday return, and the late Haile Selassie I, former emperor of Ethiopia, as the messiah. "rastafarianism". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.
Apart of the above-mentioned topics, Sandra Courtman and other scholars like Mahlete-Tsigé Getachew and Kwame Dawes, spoke about the importance of recognising Black British literature as part of the mainstream literature in modern Britain. The topic of recognition is linked to the topic of marginalization and discrimination of black writers both in prose and poetry and Courtman states that only “exceptionally determined, talented and charismatic writers from British "ghettos" did eventually break through into the literary mainstream" (213, 2005).
Another topic, mentioned by Sandra Courtman in the essay “Blacks in Ivory Towers Can’t Write About Ghettos’: West Indian Worker Writers in 1970s Britain” was the “desperate sense of homesickness” that found its realisation in “reminiscence work” (218, 2005). To exemplify this topic, Courtman provides an authentic West Indian recipe collection Captain Blackbeard’s Beef Creole and other Caribbean Recipes. The book includes stories connected to certain meals, songs and poems, and therefore it represented “knowledge and skills which would have been previously been passed on as an everyday part of an oral culture” (218, 2005). Courtman emphasises that some of the materials of the book could have been written down for the first time in history to ensure their survival in British circumstances (219, 2005). Hence, preservation and depiction of the Caribbean cultural heritage is also an important theme in West Indian literature.
In poetry, one of the fundamental ways of preserving the uniqueness of West Indian experience is the “recognition and exploitation of the ordinary speaking voice as an expression of felling” and “the complementary relationships of the oral and written traditions”. (Dabudeen and Wilson- Tagoe 21, 1997). Louis James in the book Caribbean Literature in English investigates the connections between oral and written traditions of Caribbean countries and notices that modern West Indian poetry is rooted into the rhythms of work songs, popular religious rituals, Calypso, mento4 and such
4Mento is a traditional Jamaican song or ballad similar to a calypso. "mento-." Collins English Dictionary. Harper Collins Publishers. Web. 17 Nov. 2016
In 1970 Oku Onuora experimented with chanted or spoken words that resembled the rhythm of reggae and introduced the world to “dub poetry” (127, 1999). As stated in Doumerc and Moqapi, in the 1980s experiments with dub poetry were continued by a number of Black British oral poets, like Benjamin Zephaniah, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Levi Tafari, John Agard and Grace Nichols, who insisted on the concept of ancestral culture and on the communal aspect of oral art, and who tried to dissociate dub poetry from the over-reliance on reggae rhythm. In 1986 Levi Tafari and his friend Eugene Lange founded the “African Griot Poetry Workshop” and toured throughout local schools and community centers. The first part of the workshop consisted of the presentation on the oral tradition and the role of the griot6 in Africa. These authors continued developing dub poetry traditions in cataloguing “the experiences of a sunshine community learning to make their place in the cold” (Kehller 249, 2005). Benjamin Zephaniah provided a “methodology” for the “dub poetry” in his poem “Rapid Rapping”:
Long time agu before the book existed
Poetry was oral an not playing mystic
Poetry was something dat people understood
Poetry was living in every neighborhood
Story telling was compelling listening, an entertaining
Done without de ego trip an nu special training
Found in many forms it was de oral tradition
When governments said quiet, poets said no submission.
(qtd. in Doumerc, Moqapi, 2008)
5 Reggae is a type of West Indian popular music having four beats to the bar, the upbeat being strongly accented. "reggae-." Collins English Dictionary. Harper Collins Publishers. Web. 17 Nov. 2016
West Indian poetry has always been associated with performance and in Britain modern Black performance poetry has its roots in dub poetry (Doumerc, Moqapi, 2008). Observing Applesandsnakes web pages, England's leading organization for promoting performance poetry and spoken word, one can see that young black artists perform in bars, theatres, bookshops and festivals. They do not usually do solo shows but rather 3- to-20-minute sessions in the form of poetic competitions called "slams". There are also open-mic nights, readings, stand-up poetry, bardic expressions, poetry club read-arounds, etc., most of which usually accompanied by music (hip-hop, reggae, jungle or punk) (Applesandsnakes: Performance Poetry Guide, Performance poets).
As rightfully observed by Dawes, in Britain “most of the Black poets … have emerged through the performance medium - a medium that is seriously aware of voice, idiom, dialogue and popular discourse” (282, 2005). However, for Dawes it is not altogether a positive phenomenon. As he points out, “the co-opted use of the term [performance poet] has created in many Black poets a desire to either run away from the label, or embrace it with defiance and as a kind of a statement of race and aesthetics” (282, 2005). It is still perceived with ambivalence and has almost become the synonym to all black poets. Dawes sees the problem in the reductionist and false dichotomies between the “book poetry” that editors are eager to publish and the “performance poetry” that is usually left behind as if unable to “stand up in print”. Most publishers seem to be unable to embrace the fact that performance poets are very well aware of the linguistic means that work better on the page than on stage and that their works feature "exuberance, sensationalism, a profusion of language play and a heady enjoyment of the richness of colour and texture of language" (292, 2005), which are not commonly found in terse and classics-based western poetic models. What is important to my study is Dawes’s conclusion that in this circumstance the most significant mainstream success was received by the authors of children’s books (282-300, 2005).
Dawes mentions, that apart from not being accepted by major publishing houses, Black British poets face other challenges: the pressures of the audience that every time demands only popular hits and therefore discourages them to produce new material and the low income that makes young performers take on other jobs (such as workshops and readings in schools) to survive (285-290, 2005). As humorously noted by
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Applesandsnakes: "Well paid poetry is a mythical form of poetry that lives in same spirit realm as the Yeti, unicorns and Shergar7 " (Applesandsnakes: Performance Poetry Guide).
If one looks at the outline of Black British poetry in Britain one can see that it is represented by several generations: the first generation of Black British artists, among which was James Berry, came to Britain with S.S. Empire Windrush in 1948 and formed the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) that “recalled the voices and idioms and rhythms of everyday Caribbean life and culture” (Innes 184, 2007). Edward Brearwaite was one of the founders of the group and performed his poems first at CAM meetings and then touring around the United Kingdom. Through presenting the combined poetry and theatre to the multicultural British audience poets of CAM not only expressed their frustrations with British culture and society but “created and reinforced a sense of communal identity and established a [different] hybrid oral/literary tradition…or rather, [gave] new life and new directions to an older oral/literary tradition characterized by Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and the drama of Shakespeare” (Innes 184, 2007).
The second generation of Black British poets was represented by those who were born, brought up in England in the 1960s in West Indian families or moved to England in early ages and they “were not going to put up with the challenges of Britain in the polite way that their parents had done" (Wambu, 2011) and fought an endless battle of connecting the rich culture, from which their parents came from, with the British society where they were born. In other words, the creative consciousness of this generation resonated throughout Britain when “Caribbean roots met with British circumstance” (Kelleher 249, 2005) and produced “a sophisticated hybrid in the performance poetry of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valerie Bloom and others” (Courtman 223, 2005). These writers, as Onyekachi Wambu puts it, "were critical insiders not outsiders, and had moved from post-colonialism to multicultural Britain” (2011).
In the 21st century poetic traditions of the previous generations of Black British poets were continued by the third generations of poets who were born in the 1980s and
7 Shergar was an Irish-bred, British-trained racehorse, and winner of the 202nd Epsom Derby (1981) by ten lengths – the longest winning margin in the race's history. Two years later he was stolen and was never seen again. The incident has been the inspiration for several books, documentaries, and a film. "Shergar." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Feb. 2017. Web. 29 Mar. 2017 17
2000. Among them are Abi Peppers Idowu, Chanje Kunda, Selina Nwulu, Zena Edwards, Yusra Warsama, Yomi Sode, Beyonder, El Crisis, Charlie Dark, etc. (a more exhaustive list of modern Black British poets can be viewed at the Applesandsnakes website).
To summarize, in this chapter I tackled the notion of Black British literature and the ways it is defined by contemporary scholars. I discovered that some of them deny the whole concept of Black British Literature as it is, while others take into consideration such aspects as race, audience and authorship, taken singly or together. The latter emphasize that despite the ongoing problems of literary marginalization, Black British literature still occupies its niche in the modern literature. One of the ways of expanding its borders is to develop a non-political but linguistically inventive form of Black literature. We cannot say for sure if this goal has already been achieved in Black British literature because the list of topics that are still raised in Black British literature includes such themes as politics, treatment of race, migration and other sharp issues. On the other hand, many of the topics are apolitical and reflect the uniqueness of West Indian culture and experience.
In the analytical part of my research I will take a look at the selected topics of West Indian adult literature that found their reflection in West Indian poetry for children. I will conclude if children’s poetry by James Berry, John Agard, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah can be considered a part of the mainstream British literature. I will also show how performance features of West Indian poetry work on page by analyzing stylistic devices that are employed by West Indian poets in order to transfer folklore traditions of their land of origin into the world of modern children’s poetry.
2. Contemporary Children’s Literature and Oral Lore The chapter is aimed at outlining the changes that took place in children’s literature written in English starting from the second half of the 20th century until the present time; at examining contemporary trends in the development of children’s poetry and at analysing how the present-day poetry is connected with oral poetic traditions. Firstly, I centre on the topics, characters and genres in the changed literary canon. Secondly, I give a brief survey of the tendencies specific forthe modern children’s poetry and, finally, I discuss the oral lore and performance traditions in poetry. This chapter is based on the contemporary texts by Kimberly Reynolds in the book Children’s Literature a Very Short Introduction (2011), the chapters by Laura Apol, Janine L. Certo and Betsy Hearne 18 published in Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2011), the essay by Richard Flynn in Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature (2009), on Iona and Peter Opies’ books Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959) and The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1997), on Jeffrey Wainwright’s book Poetry the Basics (2004) and on Evelyn Freeman and Barbara Lehman’s book Global Perspectives in Children's Literature (2001).
Traditionally, children characters in literature were mostly, as Reynolds describes it, “prepubescent, white, middle class, and living in families with two heterosexual parents” (19, 2011). In the first half of the 20th century childhood was strongly connected with nature and children were seen as strong, independent, free from any type of care human beings. The second part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century (which was the time of postmodernism and post-postmodernism in culture) have seen some major changes in this literary canon: writers have begun to portray different children, and the white, happy, middle-classed child from a full heterosexual family has no longer been the only character that one could find in a children’s book. On the contrary, children of different ethnicity, various backgrounds and from single-parent families started to appear in various literary works for children.
Moreover, Reynolds notes that until the middle of the 20th century childhood was relatively short and, consequently, the motive of nostalgia for childhood was prevailing in children’s literature. In the second part of the 20th century, the childhood period prolonged and brought new writings for teenagers. The development of teen culture gave rise to a wide range of topics, that were previously regarded as forbidden. Gender inequality, vandalism, politics, homosexuality, teenage pregnancy were among such topics. To some extent, the appearance of topics unusual for children’s literature happened due to the development of information technologies. “Information gathered from Internet, satellite television channels, and computer games in particular [changed] what children [were] likely to know or have experienced about such things as violence, sex, self-injury, and bulling, affecting what and how writers address readers and the way they introduce and explore issues” and “this led some to claim that far from being extended, childhood, as measured by lack of experience, was in fact disappearing” (Reynolds 113, 20, 2011).
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Additionally, Reynolds states that the development of media and information technologies has broadened the range of genres in children’s literature. Apart from traditional genres (picture books, realistic fiction, historical fiction, modern fantasy, poetry, biography and nonfiction), such genres as e-books, fan fiction, comics, computer games based on books, graphic novels became part of children’s literature. Stories and poems for children are now written to be read on the radio, showed on television or Internet and performed on stage (23-24, 2011).
Children’s poetry as a subgenre and a vital component of children’s literature has also seen a major development. American scholars and poets Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo in the essay “A Burgeoning Field or a Sorry State: U.S. Poetry for Children, 1800- Present” have distinguished five recent trends that are specific for modern U.S. poetry. These trends are: changes of authorship, changes of an imagined audience, reconfiguration of poetic forms, inclusion of a range of cultures, re-emphasis on poetry performance (283-284, 2011). Since the trends in the contemporary children’s poetry are more thoroughly studied in the U. S. academic school, I am using their findings and ideas in my research of the today’s trends in British poetry for children.
Speaking about the changed authorship, Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo conclude, that despite the ongoing debate whether poetry by young writers should or should not be considered as poetry, most scholars and children’s poets are ready to acknowledge amateur children’s works as proper poetry (284, 2011).
Discussing the changes of imagined audience, Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo claim that even though “for many contemporary scholars the line between adult and children’s poetry is- and always has been- blurred”, it is only recently when “writers of fine poetry for children earned the attention of the literary world beyond juvenile booklist” (284, 2010). The above listed phenomena are bringing us to the conclusion, that in the 21st century children’s poetry is no longer considered too childish or too simplistic for adult audience.
As far as the reconfiguration of poetic forms is concerned, Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo comment, that “in addition to the blurring of notions of authorship and audience, publication of poetry for children… has also blurred notions of poetic genre and form” (284, 2011). Poetry for children re-defines its boundaries with such genres as parodies,
20 novels written in the form of poems, themed anthologies, concrete poems, poems based on music or art, linked poems, poems for multiple voices. Parodies reproduce the structure of the original poem and let children hear the dialog between poets and epochs. In concrete poems, which are also called shaped verses or visual poetry, the meaning is carried through the graphic shape of the poem on the printed page. Poems based on music or art involve readers with non-verbal media. Poems for multiple voices are written to be read aloud by more than one speaker and to be performed on stage. Themed anthologies put poems in discussion with each other. Verse novels are represented as series of short poems connected by a certain plot, theme and have a main character (284-285, 2011).
Along with children’s verse, poetry for children has also started to include a wide range of cultures and topics that are important for understanding those cultures. Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo stated that “the themes of slavery, violence, racism and immigration are now a part of wider world of poetry for children through poems by and about people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and there is a growing canon of poetry for children on issues of social justice” (285, 2011). On the other hand, Richard Flynn’s in his essay “The Fear of Poetry” earlier wrote:
“The truly inclusive anthology, one that practices neither cultural partition, nor what poet Harryette Mullen terms “aesthetic apartheid”, remains to be made. Anthologies of African-American poetry, such as those by Arnold Adoff or Ashley Bryan, British- Caribbean anthologies, such as those of Grace Nichols and John Agard, or Naomi Shihab Nye’s anthologies of poems from the Middle East are all necessary steps in moving towards a culturally inclusive canon in developing counter-cannons” (82, 2009).
British scholar Kimberly Reynolds is interested in this topic as well and emphasizes that the widened range of cultures did not, however, imply that “the job of making children’s literature representative [was] complete”. Reynolds adds that many indigenous writers are either not published as often as “the members of dominant culture” or their works undergo the process of alterations that makes them “no longer a part of that valid culture” (22, 2011).
One more specific feature of the contemporary children’s poetry that Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo list, deals with the re-emphasis on poetry performance. The performance quality of children’s poetry has a long-lasting tradition and it finds its roots in folklore. At the present time, we witness an increasing and renewed interest in spoken 21 poetry (286, 2011). Richard Flynn in his essay “The Fear of Poetry” puts the emphasis on the prominence of folklore when saying that “the importance of nursery rhymes, nonsense and verse from the oral tradition for children’s poetry cannot be overestimated” (83, 2009). Betsy Hearne echoes Flynn’s words in her essay “Folklore in Children’s Literature: Contents and Discontents”: “Folklore is born with a child. Children begin their lives as a part of oral tradition, hearing rhymes, songs, games, images and stories, incorporating them into play and daily activities, and retelling to what they’ve read heard told or read aloud with peers as they socialize” (209, 2010). Jeffrey Wainwright in Poetry the Basics also explores oral traditions and children’s rhymes and stresses that “poetry is far more ancient than print or even written culture, and it is devices such as rhyme, beat and recurrent structure that enable singers, clappers and storytellers to organize and remember their material for the audience” (12, 2004). In Poetry the Basics Wainwright gives the answer to why “English-language poetry mov[ed] away (both developmentally and culturally) from its oral roots toward literate and literary abstraction, toward “words- on-the-page,” [whilst] visual play, and … other poetic traditions rooted in oral cultures (e.g., Caribbean poetry), maintained or returned to the larger traditions from which they came” (Apol, Certo 285, 2011). He suggests that the development of printing technologies “eclipsed oral verse” and as a consequence “oral cultures have remained most important to groups with least access to standard publications” (18, 2004).
In Britain traditional oral poetry for children was preserved in different collections of nursery rhymes such as Mother Goose Melody or Nursery Rhymes of England. In recent academic literature the most complete collection of nursery rhymes can be found in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes edited by Iona and Peter Opie. In the introduction to the Dictionary Opies say that “that the themes of nursery rhymes are so diverse that it does not seem to matter what they are. … They contain extravagances, invitation to irresponsibility, and illustrations of violence” (2, 1997). Originally many of them referred to historical events and ballads, ancient customs or rituals, stage productions, folk-songs, the mummers’ plays, many were based on proverbs, some came out of taverns and mug houses and had not much to do with children and “from before 1800 the only true nursery rhymes [were] rhyming alphabets, the infant amusements and lullabies. Even the riddles were in the first place designed for adults” (4, 1997). Commenting on the singing tradition of nursery rhymes, Cecily Raysor Hancock points out that many nursery rhymes were associated with music and in the modern era, musical versions of nursery rhymes 22 became remarkably popular and tunes are composed to any rhyme, nursery riddles or proverb (44, 1997). What is more, not only singing versions of nursery rhymes are of utmost popularity, but in general “most of the old rhymes seem to be better known today than they have ever been. References to them in literature are more common now than at any period in the past” and “rewritten nursery rhymes are to be found everywhere” (Opies 41, 1997). For instance, on British television “shows as Sesame Street…present songs and nursery rhymes in ways that are very appealing” (Flynn 89, 2010). Another example to this statement was given by Freeman and Lehman in regards to use of nursery rhymes by West Indian authors: John Agard and Grace Nichols in the book No Hickory No Dickory No Dock: Caribbean Nursery Rhymes “demonstrate[ed] the universality of Mother Goose by including their original texts together with poems that they remembered from the childhood” (81, 2001).
As my study deals with poetry for children of different ages, from preschool to teenagers, it is also essential to define what is meant by school or playground lore. In 1950s Iona and Peter Opie studied the playground lore and based their research on observation of some 5000 schoolchildren of England, Scotland and Wales. The collection of rhymes, songs and traditions was first published in 1959 under the name The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. Opies made a clear distinction between nursery lore and school lore and explained that “by its nature a nursery rhyme is a jingle preserved and propagated not by children but by adults”, while “the schoolchild’s verses are not intended for adult ears” (1, 1959). Different speed of oral transmission of a nursery lore and the playground lore was also noted: nursery rhymes were not typically passed on again until the child has grown up and became a parent on his or her own, while the playground lore could be passed within an hour it was composed and learnt. Opies divided school rhymes into two major classes: ones that were used for game regulations and those that were “merely expressions of exuberance: a discordant symphony of jingles, slogans, nonsense verses, tongue-twisters, macabre rhymes, popular songs, parodies, joke rhymes, and improper verses” (17, 1959).
In conclusion, since the middle of the 20th century children’s literature has seen the principal transformation in its literary canon. Children writers started to focus on various themes, even those that were formerly neglected. The way of representation of children characters has changed from white middle-classed boy to a child of different age, social
23 class or ethnic background. The inclusion of different cultures gave the chance for indigenous writers to publish their works and share their cultural traditions and heritage with the reader. Apart from culture diversity, the variety of genres became major characteristics of modern literature as well. Poetry has experienced foremost changes in regards to themes, genres, forms, authorship, imagined audience and its attention to the oral lore. Traditional nursery rhymes that have long been held in low esteem, saw the revival of interest to children’s poetry.
In the analytical part of my thesis, I will research and assess how the recent development of children’s literature can be seen through the works of Black British writers of West Indian origins: how they represent their indigenous cultures, what characters are predominant in their works, what are their genre preferences. I will trace the connection between traditional British rhymes and the oral culture of Caribbean Islands.
3. Creole Language and its Peculiarities The aim of this chapter is to look closer into the distinctive traits of the language brought to Britain by immigrants from Caribbean Islands and to try to understand how language interconnected with the ethnic identity of people using it and how this connection is represented in children’s poetry by West Indian authors. To start with, I explain what is behind the notion “Creole language” and outline the historical development of Caribbean Creole. Then, I list linguistic features of Caribbean Creole in regards to phonetics, grammar, syntax and vocabulary and, finally, I attempt to apprehend interrelations between Creole language and cultural uniqueness of people speaking it and the use of Creole language in children’s poetry by West Indian authors. The chapter is based on academic texts by Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey N. Leech’s book English: One Tongue, Many Voices (2006), Christie Pauline’s article "A Guide to the Language of Caribbean Poetry", Alfred Jean-Baptiste’s book Caribbean English and the Literacy Tutor: Tutor’s Kit (1995), David Crystal’s book The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995), Mike Storry’s and Peter Childs’ book British Cultural Identities (1997), David Dabydeen’s, Nana Wilson-Tagoe’s, and Floraine Eastelow’s book A Reader's Guide to Westindian and Black British Literature (1997), and Michael Lockwood’s article “Bad Talk” Made Good: Language Variety in Four Caribbean British Children’s Poets” (2013).
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According to David Crystal, Creole is a pidgin language which has become the mother tongue of a community. The term creole comes from Portuguese crioulo and originally meant a person of European descent who had been born and brought up in a colonial territory. Later, it came to be applied to other people who were native to these areas, and then to the kind of language they spoke. There is no single point of view whether every Creole has its unique, independent development or all Creole languages had a common origin (i.e. monogenetic), but the fact is most of Creole languages share common features such as the use of particles to replace tenses, simple word structure, reduction of grammatical endings of singular and plural, the use of repeated forms to intensify adjectives and adverbs and others (336-337, 1995). In regards to Caribbean Creoles Michael Lockwood states that there is a degree of uncertainty around the terminology and in different academic sources one can come across different terms to name this language: “dialect, patois, creole, ‘‘nation language,’’ ‘‘english’’ or even ‘‘bad talk’’ (75, 2013). While a variety of definitions have been suggested, this paper will use the term “Creole” as it has the widest currency in the related literature.
Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey N. Leech’s stated that Caribbean Creoles were formed under the influence of languages belonging to the Niger-Congo family of languages from Western and Southern Africa and Standard English. These languages were spoken by African people who were sold into slavery and brought to the Caribbean countries. Upon arrival, these people were forced to learn the colonizers’ native languages. Standard English, as well as English literature and history, were a part of school curricula in countries colonized by Britain. As the result, in the modern world in Caribbean Countries Standard English and Creoles live side by side and form “creole continuum” with a wide range of forms. Linguists distinguish those forms and call them acrolect (variant closest to standard language), mesolect (intermediate form) and basilect (variant closest to creole). The choice of Creole form by individuals depends on their social status and the situation where the communication takes place (177-178, 2006). Apart from acrolect, mesolect and basilect forms there are around 30 regional varieties of English-based Caribbean Creoles, where the largest one is Jamaican Creole, with over 2 million of speakers (Crystal 338, 1995).
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Each variety of Creole is systematically structured and its specific features can be observed on every linguistic level: graphical, phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactical.
As far as phonetics and spelling in concerned Jamaican linguist Pauline Christie in her work “Guide to the language of Caribbean poetry” comments on it by saying that “since Caribbean Creole has traditionally been confined to oral use, there is no generally accepted spelling system” (Poetryarchive.org). Thus, words are often written the way they are pronounced and spelling may differ from author to author. In spelling the following phonetic features typical for Caribbean Creoles can be observed (based on Pauline Christie, Jean-Baptiste (Section 3), Svartvik and Leech (178,187, 2004)): th-consonants are replaced by d and t (de – the, ting – thing); h-consonant is added after a vowel in certain words (yuh – you, wahn – want, fah – for, nevah – never, lettah – letter, soh – so); final sound /ŋ/ is replaced by n (singing – singin). The whole list of Phonetic features of Caribbean Creole is given in Appendix 1.
Pauline Christie mentions that some parts of speech in Caribbean Creoles are different from Standard English. For example, personal pronouns in Caribbean Creole have the following paradigm: mi /ma – I; yu/unu – you; (h)im – he; wi – we; dem – they; pronouns he and she have no regular distinction. The whole list of Caribbean Creole parts of speech is listed in Appendix 2.
Apart from part of speech dissimilarity with Standard English Pauline Christie, Svartvik and Leech (187, 2004) defined a number of syntactical and grammatical features specific to Caribbean Creole: there is no ending of a verb in the 3d person singular (He love di pikni- He loves the child); nouns do not have plural –s (two book – two books); adjectives are used instead of adverbs (She sing real sof’– She sings really soft) and many others. The whole list of syntactical and grammatical features of Caribbean Creole is listed in Appendix 3.
After this brief overview of the specific features of Caribbean Creoles, one may consider Creoles and pidgins to be oversimplified and even deficient as they lack many features of Standard English. This point of view seems to be misleading, because, as David Crystal states it, “pidgins are demonstrably creative adaptations of natural languages, with a structure and rules of their own” and “[they are] not languages that are
26 broken down and not the result of baby talk, laziness, corruption, primitive thought processes or mental deficiency” (334, 1995). For example, being predominantly English- derived, Caribbean Creole vocabulary is creative, rich and varied and has many words unique to Standard English (for example, backra – white man, duppy – ghost, ketch – catch, mash-up – smash, massa – master (Christie, Poetryarchive.org)).
Svartvik and Leech in English: One Tongue, Many Voices emphasize that Jamaican Creole is central to a culture with its own traditions and literature, intimately connected with other art forms such as music, dance and drama. The motives for preserving it against the dominant influence of Standard English are the same as those that fuel movements for the preservation of native and vernacular languages throughout the world, whether in Wales, Scotland or Jamaica (185, 2006).
Storry and Childs stressed that in modern Britain, Creole, Jamaican in particular, has caused a number of stereotypical images, some of which are positive and supporting and others are racist and negative (257-261, 1997). As an example of positive attitude to Creole, Storry and Child speak about a television program Desmond’s8 where the comic effect relies on “the difference in perception between the older generation, born in the Caribbean and speaking variations of Jamaican Creole, and the children, born in London and speaking English with a typical London accent” (268, 1997). The negative attitude of the British society towards Creole language can be felt in James Berry’s recollections of his school years: “At school our Caribbean Creole speech had become established as ‘Bad Talk’…. At that time, there was nothing called a ‘Caribbean poem’’ (Berry qtd. in Lockwood 79, 2013). Negative attitude to Creole makes people move towards the prestigious variety of Standard English and Creole starts losing its unique character (Storry, Childs 268, 1997). David Crystal also mentions that “inevitably, Creole speakers find themselves under great pressure to change their speech in direction of the standard- a process known as decreolization.… One of the consequences of decreolization is an aggressive reaction against the standard language on the part of Creole speakers, who assert the superior status of their Creole, and the need to recognize the ethnic identity of their community” (336, 1995). Another consequence of decreolization is the appearance
8Desmond's was a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. "Desmond's." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.
Most Caribbean authors write in both Standard English and in some variety of Creole, but in different proportions. Michael Lockwood in his article “Bad Talk” Made Good: Language Variety in Four Caribbean British Children’s Poets” shared the results of his linguistic analysis concerning the use of Creole in children’s poetry collections by James Berry, John Agard Valery Bloom and Grace Nichols. Lockwood counted the percentage of poems written with the use of Creole language against the poems written in Standard English. For example, Only One of Me by James Berry contains 117 poems and Creole language is used in only 23 of them; Everybody got a Gift by Grace Nichols includes 67 poems and only 8 of them poems show some use of Creole; I Din’ Do Nuttin by John Agard comprises 23 poems and 9 of them use Creole; Whoop and Shout! by Valery Bloom has only 7 poems out of 50 where the use of Creole is seen (79-85, 2013). In the end of the research Lockwood came to the conclusion that the use of Creole language by James Berry, John Agard Valery Bloom and Grace Nichols decreased over time. Lockwood suggests possible reasons for this phenomenon:
“It may be that the poets’ own development as UK-based writers has followed a similar path, so that using the standard British variety on its own is now more often suited to their artistic purposes. The nature of individual collections, for example thematic ones or ones where the focus is on different poetic forms, may also have influenced the choice of language variety at times. Equally, the trend towards including fewer poems which use Creole may reflect the preferences of UK readers, whether children or adults (such as teachers), as mediated by publishers” (86, 2013).
According to Lockwood, James Berry, John Agard Valery Bloom and Grace Nichols made a significant contribution to the British literature as a whole. Lockwood highlights that children’s poetry by these authors belongs predominantly to the native oral tradition, but at the same time it is a part of British written literature and can be considered as a “unique, creative interplay between oral and written traditions, between Creole and Standard English varieties, as well as between free verse and rhyming forms (87, 2013).
In the analytical part of my research I will evaluate if the use of Creole builds a barrier in understanding children’s poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah, James Berry, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and John Agard for the readers who are not familiar with Creole.
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I will speculate on the aims of Creole use by the above mentioned poets and finally I will attempt to conclude whether or not Creole language is one of the tools to manifest the exceptionality of West Indian heritage.
Chapter II. The Analytical Part The analytical part of the research consists of three parts and all of them are based on the following volumes of poetry: Only One of Me (2004) by James Berry, I Din Do Nuttin' (1983), Goldilocks on CCTV (2011) by John Agard, Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems (1992) and Whoop an’ Shout! (2003) by Valery Bloom, Everybody Got a Gift (2006) and Come on into My Tropical Garden (1990) by Grace Nichols, Wicked World (2000), Talking Turkeys (1995), Funky Chickens (1997), We are Britain! (2003) and J is for Jamaica (2006) by Benjamin Zephaniah.
For the examination of the selected poetry collection I attempt to use an approach to poetry analysis suggested by David Wheeler in his book Moon on the tides: the aqa gcse poetry anthology -a guide for students (2011). Wheeler’s method suggests to follow a certain model while reading and interpreting poems. It implies answering such questions as “who?” (to identify a voice of the poem), “when?” (to detect the time when the poem was written and set), “where?” (to recognize the place where the poem is set), “what?” (to determine what happens in the poem) and “why?” (to find out the main idea of the poem) (12-14, 2011). Moon on the tides includes a glossary of poetic terms and sixty examples of the literary analyses of selected works by classic and modern poets. Among the analyses there are poems by John Agard and Grace Nichols.
I am also using the standard means of stylistic analysis while keeping in mind the aims and goals of my research as well as the material that was gathered in the theoretical part. I attempt to trace what influence (if any) the shift in thematic spectrum, poetic forms and means of expression in children’s literature can be found in the Black poetry for children. I look into the stylistic and linguistic sides of the poetry by the above listed authors and try to determine the place of the Caribbean poetry in the contemporary literature for children of the United Kingdom.
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1. Themes in West Indian Poetry for Children According to Dabudeen and Wilson- Tagoe, the most popular topics in modern West Indian literature for adults include: anti-imperialism and nationalism, the treatment of race, childhood, the treatment of a woman, migration, Rastafarianism, carnival, calypso. (23-74, 1997) Sandra Courtman determines one more topic which is the depiction of Caribbean cultural heritage (218-219, 2005). In this chapter I will identify, which of those topics are most frequent in West Indian poetry for children and what expressive means are used by the authors to present these topics to the reader. I start with the topics that are most profoundly explored by all authors and then will devote some attention to the themes that are present in some but none all books that were chosen for my research.
1.1. Caribbean Nature, Weather and Food The first topic that is to certain extent shared by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valery Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah is the depiction of Caribbean nature, weather and food.
In Grace Nichol’s first book for children Come on into My Tropical Garden as suggested by its title, the young readers are going to learn about the jubilant life in the tropical paradise that is very much like the Eden garden of Adam and Eve:
Come on into my tropical garden
Come on in and have a laugh in
Taste my sugar cake and my pine drink
Come on please come on in
And yes you can stand up in my hammock
and breeze out in my trees
you can pick my hibiscus
and kiss my chimpanzees (“Come on into My Tropical Garden”, 1, 1990) The tropical gardens of Grace Nichols are full of exotic animals and fruit, of sounds and smells of nature, and the titles of her poems – “Alligator”, “Mango”, “Banana Man”, “Drinking Water-Coconut”, “The Sun”, “I am the Rain”, “Sky”, “Lizard”, “Crab Dance”, “Sea Timeless song”, “I am a Parrot”, “Parakeets” – say as much. Most animals and natural phenomena are personified and have such attributes as thought, action, speech,
30 body parts and even clothes. For example, Grace Nichols describes the sun as a she – spider with the “bright old fingers of light” (“The Sun”, 23, 1990), while in another poem the sun gives “a big yawn and open her eye” (“Early country Village Morning”, 22,1990). The forest is portrayed as a “bad dream woman” that is “letting her hair down” and is wrapped into the metaphorical “gown of darkness” (“For Forest”, 36,1990). The alligator is also addressed as a “she” and “Mama” (“Alligator”, 2,1990), while other animals (the Lizard, the Cow, the Parrot) and natural phenomena (the Rain, the Sky) talk to the reader directly, asking questions, complaining or telling about their role in the life of humans.
I am the rain
I like to play games…
…Maybe it’s a shame
But it’s the only way
I get some fame (“I am the Rain”, 25, 1990) The recurring use of the pronoun “she” when referring to animals and nature, most likely, has its roots in the traditional Africans beliefs, according to which people were surrounded not by soulless objects and phenomena but by spirits and gods, many of whom were female. Indeed, personifying nature is not a new stylistic device, especially in the romantic poetry. My opinion is that in the Caribbean poetry it demonstrates the inherited connection to the ingenious African culture as well as the reverent and respectful attitude to nature.
A great deal of the above listed poems was also included into the Everybody Got a Gift (2006) collection which demonstrates the noticeable change in the atmosphere and thematic spectrum. Thus, the poems about Caribbean life, food and nature can be combined under the “Good Old Days” heading, while the rest of the book is devoted to animals, plants and weather typical for the British Isles. Thus, the tropical jungles are replaced by the neatly mowed lawns, that “look ready for billiards and cricket”, and gardens full of daffodils, dandelions and daisies (“Mr. Goodacre’s Garden”, 70; “Daffodils”, 55). Mangos, coconuts, bananas and star apples give way to raspberries (“Raspberry”, 68); instead of iguanas, parrots and parakeets Grace Nichols now writes about quite ordinary animals, such as cats (“Cat-Happy”, 28; “Sleeping Out”; 43, “Tabby”, 86) and hedgehogs (“At the Bottom of the Garden”, 59). The exotic flora and fauna of her motherland remain only as a reminiscence, as the poet no longer needs to run 31 for her life from Mama-alligator but admires animals from a safe distance in the London Zoo (“For Dilberta, Biggest of the Animals at London Zoo”, 79). She cannot enjoy the everlasting summer of the Caribs any more but has to endure storms and sunless days of Britain (“Stormman”, 57-58; “Sun is Laughing”, 72), when even the first snowman turns into a Snowcrow in the eyes of a frightened child (“Making My First Snowman in My Mother’s Pink Rubber Gloves”, 60). Here, on such simple examples as flora and weather, we observe the process of a foreigner getting accustomed to the realities of a new home.
Another West Indian and now UK-based female poet and novelist Valery Bloom finds the source of inspiration in recollecting her Caribbean childhood. Through the counting poem “Fruits” the reader learns about pawpaws, guineps, guavas, sweetsops, jackfruits and other tropical treats that not always came easily to kids in Jamaica. For instance, in the poem “It hard fe lef dat one” the children have to climb a tree for a delicious mango and in “Don’ go ova dere” an unfortunate boy called Barry has to outran a bull to pick plums. In “Leave dem wasp alone”, Barry gets in trouble again when trying to steal some honey, and leaves us in no doubt, that such blood thrilling experience can hardly be familiar to a common British child. This way the author familiarizes her readers with another side of the “tropical paradise” that she was raised in, and educates her audience on the world diversity.
Male authors are no strangers to celebrating their land of origin too. James Berry’s childhood memories are filled with beams of sunlight, with lowing of farm animals, with the rustle of palm trees and the murmur of the sea:
Smelling a patch of fermenting pineapples
In stillness of hot sunlight
Smelling mixed whiffs of fish, mango, coffee,
mint, hanging in a market.
Smelling sweaty padding lifted off a donkey’s back. (“Childhood Tracks”, 83-84, 2004) In the poem “A Different Kind of Sunday” Berry lovingly paints the image of Jamaican families gathering in a local church on a hot tropical Sunday and laments that in England this weekly ritual loses its spiritual attraction. The author starts every stanza with the same “you go to church in England” phrase as if trying to tell us about the religious routine in Great Britain, yet his mind inevitably drifts away in recollecting a
32 different kind of Sunday under a lazy tropical sun. His tender gaze lingers on all little details of a familiar route and he endows them with rich and vivid metaphors and similes. By contrast, the image of Britain is drawn by just a couple of cold lines:
You go to church in England,
cleaned-up people listen to parson
but trucks aren’t parked in palm tree yards
when loose boys fix bicycles,
birdsong stripes the day like ribbons,
the sea has a Sabbath day sea song…
…You go to church in England
you sit in a grown
of traffic on and on around you,
where, O, the sun is so so forgetful (“A Different Kind of Sunday”, 15-16, 2004) Indeed, like other West Indian authors, James Berry devotes a significant number of poems to the sun, the lack of which must be particularly pronounced in the misty and foggy British Isles. All primeval cultures used to worship the sun as the source of life, light and warmth. No wonder, that the “Ritual Sun Dance” is written in the form of a chant and praise. Just like Grace Nichols’s grandmother is sure that “wherever there’s God’s earth, I’m at home” (“My Gran Visits England”, 76, 2006), James Berry is certain that the same sun is shining for everyone and makes all fruits ripe, both tropical and typically British:
O sun O sun –
kisser who tickles crust
who swells yams in the ground,
fattens up droppy reeds
like apples and plums
like bananas and mangoes,
like sharp spices sharper-
touch everywhere. (“Ritual Sun Dance”, 97-99, 2004)
33
One more remarkable poem, that James Berry dedicated to the West Indian nature, is called “Thatch Palms”9. The detached parallel constructions create the rhythm of the waves breaking at the cliff from which we, together with the author, ponder on the fate of a single dropped palm leaf and of the Mother Nature, that endures the destructive activities of the humankind:
I wonder at
stance of palms.
I wonder at their beginning.
I wonder at
the stubborn nature
of the fanlike leaves. (102, 2004) The fauna of James Berry’s poems is not so exotic as the flora that he depicts so artistically and skillfully that his readers can almost taste tropical fruits in the mouths:
2. Ouch! tongue! lime juice knifed,
needled, scalded, bitten with
this charged sunlight sting!
4. Mango-you sucked from
Sunrise to sunset to be
This ripe scented flesh (“Haiku Moments”, 96, 2004) Colorful depiction of Caribs is true for John Agard and Benjamin Zephaniah as well, although their Caribbean children’s poetry in analyzed volumes of poetry is more simplistic and not rich in metaphors, synonyms, epithets and other stylistic devices:
When I take
a piece of sugarcane
and put it to the mouth
I does suck and suck
9 Thatch palm is any of various palms (as the nipa) whose leaves are used in thatching; especially: any of several tropical American palms especially of the genera Thrinax, Sabal, or Inodes. "Thatch Palm." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, Web. 6 Mar. 2017.
till all the juice come out. (Agard, “Sugarcane” n.p., 1983) Benjamin Zephaniah is the only author who was not born in West Indies. By his own words, he visits Jamaica almost every year and “always feels that Jamaica [is] a second home”. He adds that it can be true to say that he has got more family in Jamaica than in Britain. (Zephaniah Speaks. The Puffin Post. Benjaminzephaniah.com) Zephaniah loves Jamaica and it was under its orange trees where his poetic talent blossomed out:
It was here
Under this very orange tee,
On this very peace of earth
That I first sang
With a hummingbird.
How great the song (“The orange tree”, 47, 1997) Another Zephaniah’s book J for Jamaica is a photographic alphabet where the poet explores and celebrates the sounds and tastes of a “small island with a big heart” (author’s note, n.p., 2006). Out of twenty-four letters of the English alphabet, ten (Ackee, Hummingbird, Lizard, Quickstick, Rainforest, Sugar Cane, Tamarind, Ugli, Waterlilies, Yams) define different tropical fruit and wildlife:
A is for Ackee – yellow, soft and nice,
They say if you eat ackee once you’ll want to eat it twice.
It’s fruit and a vegetable, both savoury and sweet,
A symbol of Jamaica with a taste that is unique. (7, 2009) By his energetic and colourful verses Benjamin Zephaniah introduces young readers to the land of tragic history and everlasting sunshine, to the land where he wishes to live someday too:
All I want fe Christmas is world peace
I don’t want loads a food dat I really can’t eat
All I want fe Christmas is a long holiday
An a house in Jamaica where I can stay (“Christmas Wise”, 90, 1995) My brief analysis of one of the most prominent and colourful topics of the Caribbean poetry has revealed the deeply rooted connection and closeness of the Black
35 authors to their land of origin and their African roots. The love for the Caribbean nature is conveyed through such ingenious means of expression as personification, rhythmic constructionsand contraposition, along with metaphors, epithets and similes. The skillful use of these devices as well as the significant number of poems devoted to the Caribbean nature, weather and food demonstrates the undying importance of this topic for Black British children’s poets, even those, who were born in the United Kingdom.
1.2. Caribbean Folklore and Traditions. Carnival An integral part of the life in West Indies is its folklore that is deeply rooted into the Caribbean culture and literature. Nowhere is it more clearly seen than in proverbs and sayings that preserve the accumulated wisdom of the nation in a witty and expressive form. James Berry who was particularly fond of the West Indian culture, included a whole set of Jamaican proverbs into his Only one of me collection. Berry organized the proverbs in a very specific way: first he indicated the category, such as “marriage”, “vanity”, “support”, then gave the original variant in Jamaican Creole and, finally, the translation into the Standard English. It should be pointed out that many of the categories are very descriptive which leaves no place for misinterpretation: “On how when somebody gets bad treatment you too could get the same” or “On the need to first protect yourself if you are going to be insulting or abusive”, etc. As I believe, the author realized that the allegoric and somewhat elliptical form of the proverbs and sayings maybe confusing for children and wanted to facilitate understanding. Most of the proverbs present different aspects of the Caribbean life, nature and history, a great deal of them being focused on unfairness of slavery:
Call tiger “Massa” him still nyam yu.
Call a tiger “Master” he’ll still eat you (65, 2004) Perhaps, the most famous and beloved character of the Caribbean folklore is Anancy, the spider-trickster who, in fact, is an import from the Gold Coast of Africa. Anancy takes an important place in James Berry’s lyrics who devoted to the spider a whole cycle of stories that were published under the titles Anancy-Spiderman: 20 Caribbean Folk Tales (1988) and First Palm Trees: an Anancy-Spiderman Story (1997) and that, most unfortunately, were unavailable for this analysis.
36
Even UK-born Benjamin Zephaniah is familiar with this folk character and mentions Anansi among other Jamaicans who were lucky to know Bob Marley (who himself is becoming a part of the Caribbean folklore):
The coconut vendors, the pretenders
A smart spider known as Anansi
All the rich who dress up fancy
Now claim that they knew Bob Marley. (“Everyone’s Friend”, 32, 2000) Anancy is not the only character of the African past who is still submerged in Caribbean consciousness. As Roger D. Abrahams10 believes, West Indian folklore traditions are the result of the cultural synthesis of aboriginal African and European lore brought together by the plantation system (456, 1967). Therefore, it is not surprising that many characters and tall-tales share certain features. Such, Grace Nichols introduces us to Mama-Wata,11 a mysterious water spirit who resembles a European mermaid:
Down by the seaside
when the moon is in bloom
sits Mama-Wata
gazing up at the moon…
…But don’t go near Mama-Wata
when the moon is in bloom
for sure she will take you
down to your doom (“Mama-Wata”, 51, 2006) There are also other dangerous creatures who inhabit tropical nights. In the same book Everybody Got a Gift by Grace Nichols we learn of a Moon-Gazer, an extremely
10 Roger D. Abrahams is a prominent folklorist whose work focuses on the expressive cultures and cultural histories of the Americas, with a specific emphasis on African American peoples and traditions. "Roger D. Abrahams." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Sep. 2016. Web. 6 Mar. 2017.
Moon-Gazer man
standing tall,
lamp-post tall,
just gazing up
at moon eye-ball…
…On a moonlight night
when moon is bright
for goodness’ sake
stay home-
and pull your window-curtain tight (“Moon-Gazer”, 40-41, 2006) However, the greatest fear that all West Indian children imbibe from the tall-tales of their grandmothers, is the fear of a duppy12, or, in Guyanese, jumbie:
The breeze a-blow cool, the night ii dark,
But none o’we no worry,
For we siddung roun’ the fire,
An Granny a-tell we duppy story (Bloom, “Duppy story time”, 26,1992) Duppies are always on watch for naughty children who stay up or play outside after the bedtime:
You walk too-too late at night
duppies make your wrong road the right
Around you they rattle strings of bones (Berry, “Duppy Dance”, 166, 2004) Historically, rituals, recipes and other knowledge were transmitted from one generation to another in the form of songs, proverbs and rhymed texts, which facilitated memorizing (Courtman 219-223, 2005). We come across an example of such recipe in
12Duppy is a word of Caribbean origin meaning ghost or spirit. Much of Caribbean folklore revolves around duppies. Duppies are generally regarded as malevolent spirits. "Duppy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 6 Mar. 2017.
James Berry’s poem “Trick a Duppy” that educates children on how mean night spirits can be outwitted:
You see a duppy. No whisper. No shout.
Make not the least sound from your mouth.
One after the other straight straight,
Strike three match stricks alight. (125, 2004) Yet, in the Caribbean culture, as Lynne Guitar states it in her article “The Origins of Carnival – And the Special Traditions of Dominican Carnival”, the most powerful means of dealing with the ghosts of the dead and other evil spirits is mocking them during the Carnival. Since the pagan times, people had wild celebrations dedicated to different events, such as winter and spring solstices, spring and fall equinoxes, planting and harvesting crops, arrival of guests and marriages, etc. The Catholic Church adopted these celebrations by giving them Christian meanings, and European colonists brought them to West Indies along with African slaves who had similar traditions of their own. It was customary in many African villages to parade along the streets wearing bright fancy costumes, singing and dancing in order to draw good luck and to scare away the angry spirits of diseased relatives (1-3, 2007). The symbiosis of European and African festivals brought life to brilliantly coloured Jamboree Jonkunnus13, one of which Valery Bloom describes in her poem “Duppy jamboree” of the similarly named book.
Me rub my yeye and look again,
Can’t believe wha me just see,
Twenty- seven duppy dere
Staring back at me!..
…De Devil out deh with dem
With him cow-foot an him horn,
Him long tail wrap right round his wais’
13Junkanoo is a Christmas time celebration among slaves in the British West Indies and spread to thesouthern United States as early as the 18th century. Depending on where it is celebrated, Junkanoo is known by avariety of names, such as Jonkanoo, Johnkankus, John Canoe, John Kuner, John Kooner, and Kunering. "Jonkunnu." African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations, 1st ed. 2007. Omnigraphics, Inc. Web. 26 Mar. 2017 < http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Jonkunnu> 39
Him pitchfork in him han. (16, 1992) Devils were one of the most popular costumes for the carnival as this was the only opportunity for people to “turn the world upside down”: to make fun and be part of what usually frightened them. In older days, Devils also cleared the way and controlled the crowd by their whips. Guitar indicates that local governors and slaveholders encouraged festivities as peaceful ways of releasing the social pressure and keeping down rebellions (1-3, 2007). During the carnival parades, black workers were at the spotlight while their masters were just watching. The carnival ended with the crowning of a Carnival King and Queen (Daniel 122, 2011). In the “Carnival Queen” poem, Valery Bloom shares with us the feelings of a small girl who has to find a dress for the parade but, alas, her family cannot afford it:
Ah could see it all a’ready,
De whole class in de parade,
An’ me walkin’ right in front,
Queen o’de masquerade (25, 2003) Nowadays Carnivals are one of the strongest tourist attractions and are still beloved by the Caribs as the time of unity and pure joy, when social and cultural barriers disappear giving way to celebrating life and the talents of local musicians, dancers and fashion designers (Sheehan, Black, and Nevins 114, 2015). James Berry names carnivals with their rich meals and loud music among such children lures as fairs and circuses in his “Somewhere! Somewhere” poem:
Take me somewhere -
to a big street carnival:
finding drummers and bright dancers.
Getting my mouth all fishy, meaty,
peppery, spicy, buttery, sugary
while music and revelry make me giddy (136, 2004) While reading Caribbean poetry one inevitably discovers its ingenious and bright culture as well as the fascinating folklore and traditions that are still carefully preserved by British authors of the Caribbean background. The modern trend of protecting and celebrating cultural diversity has added even more value to the writings of Black authors.
40
Numerous inclusions of such folklore and cultural references as Carnivals, ghosts, tall- tale characters are powerful means of introducing readers to the Caribbean life and of re- embracing the cultural heritage of their land of origin. The research has also revealed the astonishing syncretic nature of the Caribbean culture, the promotion of which has already resulted in the widespread use of the poems by West Indian authors in the mainstream British literature and their inclusion in such poetry collections as 100 Best Poems for Children (2002) edited by Roger McCough, 101 Poems for Children a Laureate’s Choice (2012) edited by Caroll Ann Duffy, The Puffin Book of Modern Children’s Verse (1999) edited by Brian Patten.
1.3. Racism, Migration and Equality The topics of racism and migration have been characteristic for the Black British literature since the moment the S.S. Empire Windrush hit the Tilbury Docks on June 21st 1948 and, despite significant progress in this field, have not lost their importance in the new millennium(Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe 49, 1997).I firstly address the issue of migration and racism in the context of children’s poems written by the representatives of two generations of Black British writers (see theoretical part pages 17-18) and secondly I speculate on the related topic of people equality that may serve as a remedy against these problems.
James Berry belonged to the first generation of Black Britons and devoted a significant number of poems to the issue of racial treatment that was of vital importance and inevitably affected all spheres of life in those times. Through the eyes of a black kid the readers can see what cold and misty Britain must have looked like for an immigrant who got used to carnivals and sunshine of the Caribbean:
I’m like a migrant bird
Who will not return home from here.
I shake out colorful wings.
I set up a palm tree bluesky
here, where winter mists were.
…Rooms echo my voice. I see
I was not a migrant bird. I am
a transplanted sapling, herem blossoming. (“Black kid in a new Place”, 21, 2004)
41
By calling himself a “migrant bird” and a “transplanted sapling” the author refers to the deep connection of his people with nature and all living beings that is specific for the Caribbean culture and was discussed in more detail in the previous chapter.
In the poem “It Seems I Test People” James Berry tackles the problem of alienation and unacceptance that first black immigrants experienced from the native white population of the United Kingdom:
my arrival bringing departures
it seems I test people (“It Seems I Test People”, 44, 2004) The lack of career and educational opportunities was equally acute and was captured in the poem “Dreaming Black Boy”:
I wish I could be educated
to the best of tune up, and earn
good money and not sink to lick
boots. (45, 2004) John Agard of the second generation of Black authors, who moved to England in early ages, does not approach these issues with the same directness. However, the black kid from his poem “Happy Birthday, Dilroy!” does question his mother, “why the boy on the [birthday] card is so white” (n.p., 1983).
The female authors do not assess the racial situation in the United Kingdom in their poetry for children. Or, at least, no such poems were encountered in the chosen volumes. Unlike James Berry’s poetry that deals with many other serious topics, such as loneliness, the artist’s fate, self-identification, etc. and is clearly oriented for an older audience, the books by Valery Blooms, Grace Nichols and John Agard are targeted at younger readers. Perhaps, the latter considered such topics too complicated or too painful for a children’s book.
The poet who has never been afraid to bring up serious issues in children’s books is the youngest author Benjamin Zephaniah. By his own words: “A lot of kids say to me that what they like about my poetry is that it’s fun, but it does talk about racism, bullying and other issues – it doesn’t just paint a rosy picture…I write about the real world. Just
42 because I’m writing for children it doesn’t mean that I can’t be political, it just means I can’t be party political” (Zephaniah Speaks. The Puffin Post. Benjaminzephaniah.com).
In the poem “Walking Black Home” the poet recollects the situation that happened when he was walking back home, “tired, weak and hungry”, and tried to catch a cab. Not a single car or taxi stopped to give him a lift, and as the word play in the heading hints, the roots of this injustice are to be looked for in the color of his skin:
Sometimes it’s hard
To get a taxi
When you’re Black. (“Walking Black Home”, 73, 1997) Benjamin Zephaniah notices such problem as negative stereotyping in Britain in his poem “How’s Dat” (28, 1995), where he explains to the teacher, that despite the common belief that African-Caribbeans are good at cricket, he does not play it and prefers Trigonometry. The poet urges the British society to take after such countries like India, where “there is no such thing as an average Indian stereotype” (“Variety Is the Spice”, 26, 2000).
The poet expands the topic of migration and racism outside the boarders of the United Kingdom. By his own words in the interview to Eric Doumerc: “I want to be a citizen of the world. So you know, being black and all that, being British and all that stuff, it’s not really that important to me. I mean, it’s important, but the most important thing is being a human being” (qtd. in Dourmeric, 2004). He devotes his book Wicked World to the virtual trip around the world and voicing its beauty and troubles. For instance, he recognizes the problem of native cultures being conquered by more aggressive civilizations in “Before All These Cities”:
We brave Apache once lived on the plains
Under the hot sun where it hardly rains,
We fought all who came to steal our territory
…. Now we all live on a dry reservation (“Before All These Cities”, 2, 2000) Another example is the tragic history of the Cherokee tribe that echoes the history of the African people, their culture being as close to nature and their native language being replaced by “the language of the strangers” who intruded their land:
43
We were so in love
That each one of us
Gave ourselves
And married the Earth.
…We learnt the language of the strangers
And tried talk,
Using the language of survival (“We Are the Cherokee”, 33, 2000) Benjamin Zephaniah takes his readers on a tour through time and space for education and awareness, because when the history is forgotten, it will be repeated. The poet speaks of the refugee crisis in Muslim countries in the poem “We Refugees”. It is intentionally written from the first person, because this way the author emphasizes that nowadays no country is safe from being destroyed by mad politicians and greedy businessmen:
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
…We can all be refugees
Nobody is safe,
All it takes is a mad leader
Or no rain to bring forth food,
…I am told I have no country now (“We Refugees”, 74, 2000) Upon taking a look at how the problem of racism and migration is approached by the representatives of different generations of Black British authors, we can come to the conclusion that at first the poets concentrated on the situation in the United Kingdom only, which is understandable, given the reality where they encountered themselves. With the development of anti-racists movements and considerable improvement that has been achieved in this sphere, the poets, like Benjamin Zephaniah, could afford to draw attention to the issue in the more global sense. The tone of the poems has also changed from somewhat melancholic lamentation to the angry “slogan” poetry that calls for action and is not afraid to be political.
44
So, what can be opposed to the hungry imperialistic aspirations of political leaders, intolerance and ignorance that still exists in the modern world? James Berry asks the question of how we should deal with variation in one of his poems:
What do we do with a difference?
Do we stand and discuss its oddity
or do we ignore it?
…Do we communicate to it,
Get application acknowledge it
for barriers to fall down? (“What Do We Do with a Variation?”, 47, 2004) Naturally, the questions are rhetorical but the author expresses his position further in his next poems “Everywhere Faces Everywhere”, “Okay, Brown Girl, Okay” and “People Equal”.
In “Everywhere Faces Everywhere” Berry is looking at a classroom, that, unlike his days, is full of children of different backgrounds. He enumerates different religions through a peculiar example of antonomasia: the child’s ethnicity is shown by traditional religious symbols (Egg and Lotus for Hinduism, Crescent and Star for Islam and so on). The poet admires the progress of the British educational system and the mankind in general which made this diversity in public schools possible:
Again fascination holds me
in a London inner city classroom.
…I am centred on this togetherness
of children
…Is time showing me
a little movement
of human growing? (110, 2004) Even a more straightforward answer James Berry gives to a nine years old girl Josie, who complains that “boys called [her] names because of [her] color”:
Be at school on and on, brown Josie
Like thousands and thousands and thousands
Of children, who are brown and white
45
And black and pale-lemon colour.
All the time, brown girl Josie is okay. (“Okay, Brown Girl, Okay”, 117, 2004) James Berry closes the topic of diversity by a chant-like poem with the self- explanatory name “People Equal”:
One voice is a sweet mango.
Another is a non-sugar tomato.
Yet- people equal. Equal. (“People equal”, 139, 2004) Here again we come across the stylistic device of referring to different nations through certain traditional features, such as food, the peculiar attention to which is characteristic for West Indian poetry. The poet ends every stanza by the same phrase “Yet- people equal. Equal.” with its resolute punctuation that leaves no place for doubting his position.
While in James Berry’s poetry the theme of equality occurs in just a number of poems, for Benjamin Zephaniah it becomes one of the central topics. His direct appeal to the audience on the issue of equality and diversity can be found in the introduction to the book We are Britain! which comprises poems about thirteen children from all over Great Britain who originate from a whole range of cultural and ethnical backgrounds:
“None of these children want to live in the world where everybody looks like them; they are all ready to embrace a multicultural, multicolored land where every child is equal and all children have a poem to call their own. ... The British are not a single tribe, or single religion, and we don’t come from a single place, but we are building a home where we are able to be who we want to be, yet still be British. We are British! We are Britain!” (2, 2003)
Taking into account the multicultural and multinational status of Great Britain, Zephaniah urges all ethnicities to treat each other equally. In the poem “The British” Zephaniah figuratively compares twenty-first century Britain with a soup with different races being the ingredients bound together by the English language. At the end of the poem, Zephaniah leaves a non-verse note to make the meaning of his poem even more explicit: “Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter, unpleasant taste. Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.” (39, 2000):
46
In another poem “Rap Connected” Zephaniah reminds his readers that, despite our differences, we all are connected and are like a big family:
We are black an brown
We are white and sound
We have pride of place
We are on de case
We are wild ad tame
We are all de same
Sister, brother, kid.
We are connected (51, 1995) The same thought is conveyed by closing poem of the Wicked World collection. The poet speaks to all people of Earth and asks them to admit and accept the fact that all races are equal and love is the only favourable future path for this planet.
There is one race
The living race,
Spread love mankind, spread love mankind,
…And let us live as one people, (“Be Cool Mankind”, 88, 2004) To conclude, the Black British writes suggest equality and diversity, respect to authentic cultures and multiculturalism.
1.4. Rastafarianism The topic that is characteristic for West Indian literature for adults and is closely connected to the theme of culture and beliefs is the topic of Rastafarianism (Dabudeen and Wilson-Tagoe 54, 2007). Rastafarianism is a young Afro-Caribbean religious movement that developed in Jamaica in 1930s. Its core its re-interpretation of the Hebrew Bible with the focus on Blacks as God’s chosen race whose role was suppressed by colonization, and the belief that the true Messiah comes in form of the Emperor Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari) of Ethiopia. The movement spread around the world following the success of Bob Marley and the reggae music. Since then, it has lost much of its anti- imperialistic and repatriation ambitions. Jamaica is no longer seen a “hopeless hell” and the whites, that are living rightful lives, are considered as brethren to the blacks (who, in their turn, are no longer sinless). Nowadays, Rastafari are more concerned with having 47 clear conscience, keeping a healthy vegetarian diet, meditating, staying in harmony with nature, avoiding bad habits, actions and materialism, etc. The 2001 census found 5,000 Rastafarians living in England and Wales (BBC - Religions - Rastafari: Rastafari at a glance).
Despite its popularity in the West Indian literature for adults, the topic of Rastafarianism did not appear to be very prominent in the books that were available for this thesis.
James Berry devoted a small poem to his “brother Rasta” but did not proclaim himself to be Rastafari. In the poem, he wishes peace and enlightenment to all followers of the religion, because spiritual awareness and bliss are among those things that Rastafari aspire to.
Good-days wash you mi brother
a-make peace possess you
and love enlightn you (“Googmornin Brother Rasta”, 105, 2004) Among other authors, it is Benjamin Zephaniah who most loudly expresses his position of a Rastafarianism. In the poem “Civil Lies” Benjamin Zephaniah speaks on behalf of all African people and accuses the modern school curricula in distorting the history. To my mind, the poem has noticeable references to the ideology of Rastafarianism that sees Africa as the cradle of the humankind enslaved by Babylon, the white powered civilization:
When I was born in Ethiopia
Life began,
As I sailed down the Nile civilization began.
…So teacher do not say
Columbus discovered me
Check the great things I was doing
Before I suffered slavery. (58, 1995) However, in the majority of his poems Benjamin Zephaniah does not support the idea of superiority of one nation over the other. On the contrary, he calls for racial
48 harmony and unity. As I believe, it demonstrates the evolution of his views in the same direction as the whole Rastafari movement experienced in general.
I am de rapping rasta
I rap de lyrics fasta.
… What I spread is unity
Or to put it simply
I want racial harmony.
… I am proud of every race
I out ran de steeplechase. (“I de rap guy”, 27, 1997) My theory may be supported by the publishing dates of the quoted volumes: Talking Turkeys first published by Viking in 1994, Funky Chickens first published in 1996.
John Agard, Grace Nichols and Valery Bloom do not deal with Rastafarianism, or, at least, no such poems were found in the chosen volumes.
1.5. Modern Technologies It should be acknowledged that the majority of themes in West Indian children’s poetry are traditional for the children’s literature in general (childhood, nature, food, weather, etc.). However, there are topics that have gained popularity only recently: vegetarianism, environment, modern technologies. The theme of modern technologies and their place in people’s life frequently appears in the books of West Indian authors that were selected for this paper.
John Agard deals with technologies in many of his poems: telephone in the poem “Stop Troubling That Phone”, photo camera in the poem “Say Cheese”, closed-circuit television system in the poem “Goldilocks on CCTV”, television in “My Telly”, credit cards in “Golden Goose Talent Show”, etc. Basically, the whole book “Goldilocks on CCTV” is about a clash of modern world and the old fairy-tale world. For example, in “A Giant and a Mobile Phone” a mighty Giant Blunderbog is angry and frustrated because his magical body is too clumsy and unfit for the modern life: his fingers are too big for a mobile phone and he can neither text nor post his blog:
My thumb is used to pushing boulders
Not titchy fiddly digits
49
I guess I Blunderbog
will simply have to bellow my blog
and thunder my text. (9, 2011) Technologies become integral parts of the fairy-tale stories and the new realities turn the magical world up-side-down. Thus, in “Reported Missing” television and mobile phones save lives of two kids who got lost in the wood. In “Not my Uncle Bluebeard” mass media reveal the identity of a serial killer Bluebeard. A pretty girl with golden hair unmasks herself as a real vandal when the CCTV catches her breaking into the house of an innocent bear family in “Goldilocks on CCTV”.
By introducing fairy-tale characters into the modern world, John Agard adds new unexpected meanings to the well-known stories and makes the reader contemplate the ever-changing world.
However, the modern technologies are not always seen as a bliss. Many poets refer to television as the messenger of depressing news and world decay:
The flickering life
of a starving child
A bomber heading
for a distant sky
…Such a small screen
Holding such a wide hunger (Nichols, “On the News”, 85, 2006) The thought that modern technologies can be dangerous is expressed by John Agard in the “My telly” poem:
Little people
crying,
Little people
Dying,
My telly
Eats people (n.p., 1983) Benjamin Zephaniah discloses another problem of modern technologies: the inability of senior generation to adapt to them fast enough. The “Jellyvision” poem
50 describes the unsuccessful attempts of Zephaniah’s father to go on television. He constantly fails and makes a fool of himself because his skills and talents are not needed in the modern society:
He wants to read de news
But he only knows de blues (23, 1997) Grace Nichols in the poem “The Good Old Days” ironically speaks of her grandmother who constantly complaints that in the past everything was better and has to be reminded that nowadays she can enjoy the benefits of the technical progress:
OK, Grandma, but remember while you rave
About the good old days
Your dinner’s ready in the microwave. (27, 2006) Valery Bloom’s view on the modern world technologies is more pessimistic. In two of her poems “Newsflash” and “Computer Virus” she stresses the dangerous addiction of people to their gadgets. In “Computer Virus” the author refers to her personal experience of being unable to have piece until her computer if fixed and her every-day routine getting unhealthy due to computer games:
I’ve caught a deadly virus
And it’s spreading through my house.
…For it’s a major problem.
Keeps me awake at night (70-71, 2003) The degrading obsession with gadgets is ironically shown in the “Newsflash”: Bloom speaks on behalf of a newsreader who makes an astonishing announcement that, according to some report, “life exists outside the box” and it is “not the answer to man’s dreams”. Valery Blooms points out the importance of simple communication and reminds of the destroying influence that electronic gadgets have on human relationships and their health:
Unlike us, they do no depend
On TV for recreation,
Amazingly they don’t even spend
Much time at a PlayStation.
51
… It’s said they have no dark circles,
Or bags, beneath their eyes. (58-59, 2003) Benjamin Zephaniah in his poem “Home alone” approaches the same problem. The poet laments that now, when every member of his family, even pets, have got a TV set, he feels lonely and eventually has to buy one for himself:
I got a telly of my own
To make me feel at home. (81, 1995) Nowadays, when internet addiction is becoming a real disease that is recognized by doctors and psychiatrists, it is particularly important to have a clear head and healthy position on the amount of technology that one should let into their lives. The Black British children’s writes recognize the benefits of the technological progress, yet, at the same time, use their poetry to warn young readers of the dangers that it might bring. Although the poems were written before the widespread use of the Internet, the poets predicted the path that the humanity was going to take and raised such issues as the depressing influence of the TV news, senior citizen adjustment, gadget dependence and the degradation of real life communication.
In this chapter I analyzed the volumes of poetry by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valerie Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah in the attempt to determine which of the topics, that are usually named as characteristic for the West Indian literature, are present and most profoundly explored in the poetry for children. The most beloved topics appear to be the topic of Caribbean nature, weather and food, as well as the topic of West Indian folklore. Black British children’s authors lovingly depict nature and culture of their land of origin, skillfully using various expressive means. At the same time, they are not afraid to include such serious topics as migration, racism and people’s equality into the children poetry, which demonstrates the undying importance of these problems. West Indian poetry for children shows its ability to be modern and up-to-date when it raises such topics as modern technologies, vegetarianism, environmental protection, creative work and the role of an artist in a society, etc. Unfortunately, the format of this thesis did not allow me to pay attention to all of them but the bright variety of topics offers plenty of potential for further research.
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2. Oral Lore and the Reflection of Contemporary Trends in Children's Literature in West Indian Poetry for Children In this chapter I research as to what extend the contemporary trends of children’s literature written in English are present in the writings of John Agard, James Berry, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah, how they are employed and in what genres and poetic forms they are realised. I also investigate the target audience, dwell upon the performance features of the Caribbean poetry for children and its connection with the British nursery and school lore.
2.1. Target Audience According to Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo, the present day poetry for children is no longer considered too simplistic for older audience and the bordering line between children and adult poetry is gradually washing away. Another remarkable issue is the change of the ethnic backgrounds of its target audience (283-284, 2011).
While analyzing children’s poetry by John Agard, James Berry, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah, we immediately stumble upon the phenomenon of the unchildish character of many of their topics. This peculiar trait finds its brightest and most profound realization in the poems by Benjamin Zephaniah who tackles such issues as migration, racism, pollution, vegetarianism, colonialism and others. The publishing house the Penguin Group classified Funky Chickens and Talking Turkeys as teenage poetry, however, leaving the Wicked World collection without a similar note despite the remaining seriousness of the raised topics. In the interview to Puffin Books Publishing House in 1997 Benjamin Zephaniah clearly stated his position on his target audience:
“Well I always thought I wrote poetry – I didn’t really understand the difference between children’s poetry and adult’s poetry, then someone suggested I did a book especially for children, working on the presentation a lot more. I was a bit reluctant at first I must admit, but I did it and I’ve never looked back since.” (Zephaniah Speaks. The Puffin Post. Benjaminzephaniah.com)
As far as other authors are concerned, I came to the conclusion that I Din Do Nuttin' by John Agard, Come on into My Tropical Garden by Grace Nichols, Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems by Valery Bloom are mostly targeted at children of kindergarten and primary school age, as it is suggested by their style, themes and contents. 53
I believe that to Only One of Me by James Berry, Goldilocks on CCTV by John Agard, Whoop an’ Shout! by Valery Bloom, Everybody Got a Gift by Grace Nichols and We are Britain!, J is for Jamaica by Benjamin Zephaniah can be considered both amusing and educative by people of all ages.
The question of ethnicity of the target audience appears to be more complex. In the introduction to Only One of Me, a compilation of James Berry’s selected poems, the author shares the primary goal of publishing the book:
“I will tell you that when I went to my village school in Jamaica, West Indies, in the 1930s, I liked poems. But all the poems we read and studied at school were about life in the United Kingdom. Now changes have happened. I would be happy to know that poems here work to stir young people’s thoughts, feelings, activities and general experiences, in both the Caribbean and the UK particularly” (XI, 2004).
From these lines we understand that James Berry dedicates his poems to young people of different ethnicities throughout the Caribbean and Britain. The poet also draws our attention to the fact that for centuries the children’s literary canon had been promoting images of white kids and had been focusing on stories about white children only. But now, when the historical justice has been restored, children of all origins have got a chance to appear on pages of children’s books. This change in literary canon is evident both from the new heroes of the poems and the illustrations supporting those poems. For example, I Din Do Nuttin' (illustrated by Susanna Gretz), Come on into My Tropical Garden (illustrated by Caroline Binch) and Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems (illustrated by Michael Charlton) contain illustrations that demonstrate only black children and adults (with several exceptions in I Din Do Nuttin’) (see Appendix 4). These volumes of poetry were the first to be written by John Agard, Grace Nichols and Valery Bloom when they relocated to United Kingdom. We can assume that at the beginning of their literary careers they were primarily writing for Caribbean children and the offspring of the Caribbean immigrants in Britain. In this respect, it should also be noted that the design of Everybody Got a Gift (illustrated by Rosemary Woods), Whoop and Shout! (illustrated by David Dean) Goldilocks on CCTV (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura) portrays all kinds of ethnicities (see Appendix 5), and therefore, favors the idea that the target audience was changing with time. Benjamin Zephaniah has always been tolerant to
54 people of all races and the design of his books by Prodeepta Das and Sarah Symonds exemplifies this intercultural unity (see Appendix 6).
2.2. Poetic Forms and Genres As Laura Apol and Janine L. Certo state it, the contemporary poetry for children reconsiders its boundaries in terms of genre as much as in terms of the target audience. Such genres as parodies, novels written in the form of poems, themed anthologies, concrete poems, poems based on music or art, linked poems and poems for multiple voices become typical for this literary field (283-284, 2011). John Agard, James Berry, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah follow this trend and experiment with most of those genres.
Themed anthologies. Come on into My Tropical Garden, We are Britain!, Goldilocks on CCTV, Wicked World, J for Jamaica, Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems are the examples of themed anthologies where poems are unified in the dialog that is devoted to one topic. Come on into My Tropical Garden by Grace Nichols, Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems by Valery Bloom, J for Jamaica by Benjamin Zephaniah have their focus on Jamaica and its unique nature, culture, food and people. We are Britain! by Benjamin Zephaniah contains twelve poems about children of different ethnic background who live in Britain. The book challenges national stereotypes and puts forwards the idea that, ultimately, children all over the world have much more things that unite them rather than differentiate. The Wicked World ‘s by Benjamin Zephaniah vibrant verses invite the reader to travel from one continent to another and explore different nationalities, places and ingenious cultures. Goldilocks on CCTV by John Agar contains 30 poems that are inspired by traditional fairy tales and legends. Fairy- tale characters find themselves in the twenty-first century and get adjusted to the new circumstances. Puss-in Boots trades his boots for trainers; Cinderella turns her pumpkin into a motorbike instead of a fancy carriage; Red Riding Hoodie gets a clone sister RRH 3; Beauty lets the Beast follow his heart and stay fanged and furred; Sleeping Beauty awakens after hundred years of sleep and sells her dress at the action.
Parodies. The strong connection of West Indian literature with the world literary heritage and modern mass culture highlights itself in the genre of poetic parody. Parodies imitate the original structure or theme of a poem and let the readers feel the linking amid centuries and cultures. 55
For instance, Benjamin Zephaniah turns the national anthem of Great Britain "God Save the Queen" into the anthem of all vegetarians:
God save our gracious green
Long live our glorious scene
God save our green. (13, 1997) Grace Nichols plays with the plot of one of the best-known English nursery rhymes “Humpty Dumpty” by giving the story a new ending:
Humpty Dumpty did sit on a wall
Humpty Dumpty did have a great fall
…Along came little Huh
Who knew of super-glue
It took him a while
But Humpty Dumpty was back in style (33, 2006) In another poem “The Fastest Belt in Town” Grace Nichols presumably parodies the song “Fastest Gun in Town” by Roxx Gang (1988). Nichols humorously replaces guns that bring justice in the adult world, with belts that play the similar role in the life of a child. The poem depicts a brutal teacher who is ravaging in the classroom and “reaching for –de belt” for every minor fault of a pupal, just like the main hero of the song is ravaging in his town. But unlike the song, the poem has a different ending: the teacher gets punished by lashing her own leg and learns her lesson. This way Grace Nichols proves the thought the child abuse can easily turn against a lazy educator and should not be present among the modern educational techniques as neither effective, nor humane.
In John Agard’s parody on the famous “Mirror Mirror” сhant from the Grimms’ fairy-tale “Snow White”, the Magic Mirror forgets archaic language and speaks to us in modern slang:
I am the mirror on the wall.
Dare to look into my telling glass.
I speak the truth to all who ask. (60, 2011)
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“Mirror Mirror” is also parodied in Zephaniah’s poem “Fair Play”. It tells us about some boys playing football and accidentally throwing the ball into a mirror. The boys address the mirror using the well-known fairy-tale chant:
Mirror mirror on the wall
Could you please return our ball (80, 1995) Thus, the magical spell no longer serves its dark mistress with her sinister plans but helps kids in their everyday worries.
It should be noted that the genre of parody is not new to children’s literature. Iona and Peter Opie in the book The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959) presented a big number of parodies that they collected in 1950s observing some 5000 schoolchildren of England, Scotland and Wales. Opies highlight that “parody … gives an intelligent child a way of showing independence without having to rebel” (87, 1959).
To conclude, by choosing the genre of parody Agard, Nichols and Zephaniah follow an old children’s tradition of mocking songs or pieces of poetry. In the contemporary settings it allows West Indian authors to connect their poetry with the poetic texts that became a part of world literary canon and to give new life to traditional rhymes. We can assume that their parodies contribute to shaping a new literary tradition.
Poems based on art. Poems based on art interconnect written and unwritten world. Such poems are frequent in Grace Nichols’s poetry: the poetess finds her muse in observing pieces of art in museums and galleries. The poem “Little Dancer” was inspired by the sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Edgar Degas; the poem “Goodbye Shalott” is based on the poem by Alfred Tennyson and enthused by the painting The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse. What is remarkable is that Grace Nichols introduces a very unusual gallery guide in her poem “Gallery-Ghost at the Tate”. Ghosts (or “jumbies”, or “duppies”) usually appear in West Indian folklore as dangerous night creatures that should be fought with ingenious spells and tricks (see analytical part pages 35- 36). Yet, Grace Nichols’s gallery ghost is amiable and eager to serve as a trained English butler. We see how the new British reality influences the very nature of traditional Caribbean folklore.
James Berry’s poem “Looking at the Painting: ‘Fin d’Arabesque’ by Edgar Degas” is dedicated to the painting which is a part of Orsay Museum depository. John Agard’s 57 poem “The Bad Hairday Fairy” is not based on any piece of art, however, the illustration to the poem created by Satoshi Kitamura14 is a caricature of the legendary painting by Edvard Munch “The Scream” (see Appendix 7). This way the visual art and poetry are united again and humorously demonstrate the idea that for a woman a bad haircut can be equally horrifying as the worst of troubles and it does not make it less important.
What is remarkable in poems based on art by West Indian children’s poets is that these poems are dedicated to works of art by white artists, while the black art remains out of focus. It may be the result of educational system established in Britain and former British colonies and, consequently, of the deep connection of Black British children’s authors with European culture.
Concrete poems and the peculiarities of graphic design of the books. In concrete poetry words and verses are arranged in the special shape that illustrates and complements the poem. Among West Indian writers it is Benjamin Zephaniah who regularly exploits this technique. “De Rong Song” which is a parody on Bobby McFerrin’s song “Don't Worry, Be Happy” is printed in the shape of two faces, the first face being happy and another one being sad (see Appendix 8). The poem “Write a Way” consists of several lines that take the shape of what is described in the poem: the line about Benny bends, line about Annie ascends, line about Kitty looks like a kite string, Penny’s line has a horizontal shape (see Appendix 9):
Benny wrote a poem dat bends,
Annie wrote a poem dat ascends,
Kitty’s poem flew like a kite.
And Penny wrote a poem dat writes. (86-87, 1997) The “Beat It” poem contains only four lines that are drawn in the shape of a sound that comes out of gramophone (see Appendix 10). Another four-lined poem “Epic” starts in very small letters and then jumps out at the reader with the huge word “Epic” that occupies the whole spread (see Appendix 11). Other concrete poems are “Luv Song”,
14Satoshi Kitamura is a Japanese children's picture book author and illustrator. In 1983 he received the Mother Goose Award for the Most Exciting Newcomer to British Illustration. "Satoshi Kitamura." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Dec. 2016. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.
“Everyday”, “Vegan Delight”, “Medieval Religious Tribal Chant”, ‘I”, “Running” and others.
It should be noted that concrete poems are present only in Talking Turkeys and Funky Chickens collections which might draw us to the conclusion that this specific poem shape is the illustrator15 rather than the poet’s deliberate choice. However, I am inclined to maintain that it is the result of their combined work; otherwise, these very short and rather uninformative poems would simply lose their sense and would not be able to stir the reader’s imagination. In Talking Turkeys and Funky Chickensthe great emphasis is given to the page layout and fonts: many words are printed in bold, italics or capital letters; one poem can be printed in more than twenty different fonts; poems are inscribed in illustrations to them (see Appendix 12). In all cases the special printing effects serve for the readers’ amusement and better understanding of the poems. For instance, the poem “Sunnyside Up” is purposely printed upside-down to exemplify the main idea of the poem: things are not always the way they may seem and if you see someone holding a book upside-down one should not think that this person cannot read (see Appendix 13). Another example is the “According to my Mood” poem where Benjamin Zephaniah manifests his poetic right to “write the way (he) wants...according to (his) mood”. The words and letters are as diverse and unalike as the author’s mood when he was writing them (see Appendix 14).
Talking Turkeys, Funky Chickens abound in Zephaniah’s portraits and regardless of whether such design was his idea or the illustrator’s suggestion, such layout captures the reader’s attention and refers to the deeply personal character of the poems. I also believe that the reasons of so many photographic inclusions can be traced in Zephaniah’s poem “Think me” where he says: “I want my picture taken…I want to be remembered” (70, 1995).
In John Agard’s book Goldilocks on CCTV each poem is printed in different fonts that match the meaning of each poem. Another bright example is “The Cloning of Red Riding Hoodie” poem. It is printed on the page twice, with the “cloned” part being slighter fader than its original as if making us question together with Professor Wolf whether
15 The illustrator copyright in Talking Turkeys and Funky Chickens belongs to The Point. 59 living beings can really be made completely identical and whether they should be (see Appendix 15).
The similar technique of a copied text is used in Zephaniah’s “Double Talk”, yet there its serves to demonstrate a completely different idea: the words are echoed and repeated because the author is confident that his poetry will spread around and will not just die out (see Appendix 16).
The rest of the analyzed volumes of poetry do not contain neither concrete poems nor specific fonts nor peculiar graphic design that would work as means of carrying or supplementing the theme of the poem. One of the few exceptions is “Counting Sleep” by Grace Nichols where the final word and the final thought of a falling asleep child are represented by a drooping word “sssszzzllleeeep” (48, 2006). Furthermore, in one of the interviews another author, Valery Bloom, admits that the she also experiments with concrete poems: “[What is a form poem?] Now this is a poem called a pyramid and as you can see it's set out in the shape of a pyramid. I like experimenting like that with shape poems” (Poetryarchive.org).
Our analysis has shown that the graphic design of children’s books of West Indian authors make their poetry more entertaining and easier accessible to the reader. Caribbean children’s poets do not stay within the boundaries of concrete poems but go further by experimenting with various ways of demonstrating their poems on a page.
2.3. Performance Features of West Indian Poetry for Children and Poetry Based on Music According to Apol and Certo, contemporary children’s literature is characterised by the growing interest to poetry performance (286, 2011). Benjamin Zephaniah in his interview to Puffin Books comments why it is vital to perform his poetry and I consider his explanation true about contemporary performance poetry in general:
“[It is important] because such a small percentage of people read books. Performing it brings it to a lot more people. People who are poor can’t afford books – they want to buy books, but they don’t want to risk it if they don’t quite know what they’re getting. I mean a lot of people sit in front of the television all day, so it seemed logical to me to do on television!” (Zephaniah Speaks. The Puffin Post. Benjaminzephaniah.com)
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West Indian poetry for children is a performance poetry by its nature. Connecting with the audience and making a listener participate in what is going on in the poem are primary goals of performance poets. Valery Bloom proves this statement by sharing her own experience in the interview to the Poetry Archive: “Occasionally, when I'm writing poems for performance I think about the audience and I think what they would like to do and what I can give them to do so they can become part of the poem.” (Poetryarchive.org). Thus, before reciting a poem “Sandwich”16 Bloom asks the audience to shout “sandwich” every time she does a particular hand gesture. This way, the poetess and the audience’s cooperation creates an entertaining recital.
The importance of establishing a dialog between a poet and the audience is highlighted by Zephaniah: “[Performance] poets do not simply believe in art for art’s sake, they write with conviction, they have a purpose; they believe it is their duty to connect with their audience” (Zephaniah Speaks. Benjamin’s Britain. Benjaminzephaniah.com). For instance, while performing “Talking Turkeys”17 Zephaniah speaks in different voices and intonations which makes the concert incredibly amusing. The poet also makes humorous remarks and takes pauses after certain lines to give time for the audience to laugh.
The majority of poems based on music are meant to be performed. In the interview tothe Poetry Archive, Valery Bloom explained how music influences her poetry and I consider these words equally applicable for the poetry of Grace Nichols, James Berry, John Agard and Benjamin Zephaniah:
“Music is a big influence. I came from Jamaica. In the Caribbean, the art-forms are not separate. You don't just have poetry in one section and music in another, they are all inter-related. And so you would get a poem which has singing and dancing and so on and I draw on that culture when I write, so a lot of my poetry draws on folk songs quite a lot and I use rap in my writing and all those musical forms that I grew up with influence my writing” (Poetryarchieve.org).
16“Sandwich”. Applesandsnakes. "Valerie Bloom performs Sandwich." YouTube. YouTube, Web. 26 Mar. 2017.
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My analysis revealed that the most widely exploited musical genres are rap and folk-songs. Benjamin Zephaniah discloses why he prefers rap for his poetry: “Rap is a form of street poetry. It used to frustrate me when I went to schools and I’d say to kids “Do you like poetry?” and they’d say “No”, then I’d see them in the clubs at night doing rap and I don’t think it’s any different. I speak the way people speak on the street and my poems reflect that.” (Zephaniah Speaks. The Puffin Post. Benjaminzephaniah.com)
Historically, the rap culture “dates all the way back to the motherland [Africa], where tribes would use call-and-response chants” (Afrika Bambaataa qtd. in Perkins, 1, 1996). As far as the connection of poetry and rap in the contemporary contexts is concerned, Adam Bradley says that “every rap song is a poem waiting to be performed” (35, 2012). Bradley adds, that rap employs elements of speech and song. It follows a dual rhythmic relationship where MC pursues a certain syncopation which would sound chaotic without musical rhythm (37-38, 2012). In West Indies rap became the integral part of the oral and musical tradition and children’s poets successfully use this genre in their work. For example, in John Agard’s poem “Dwarf Rap” the gnomes turn into rap singers, and this fresh approach adds modern look to the familiar fairy-tale characters:
Enough, enough of the vertical hype. Time for dwarves to set the record right. (34, 2011)
Benjamin Zephaniah tells a story of a hip-hop chicken under the rapping rhythm: a succession of one-syllable words of the same sound patterns “hop/ cop/ shop/ stop/ rock”, “big/hip”:
He can’t stop He luvs to rock, He’s de hip-hop cop From de big cop shop. (“Hip-Hop Cop”, 82, 1997)
In Grace Nichols’s poetry we come across witty characters such as a cat in a “Cat- Rap” poem and a baby in the “Baby-K Rap rhyme” who rap their mind to young readers:
Dis is my Baby-K rap But it’s kinda plea What kinda world Dey going to leave fuh me? (“Baby-K Rap rhyme”, 83, 2006)
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James Berry widely uses rap motives in many of his poems, such as “Let Me Rap You My Orbital Map”, “Gooble-Gooble Rap”, “Getting Bigger Rap”, “Top Footballer Rap”. It is worth mentioning that many poems that do not include words “rap” or “hip- hop” in their titles (that a priori define the genre of the poem), still share a lot in common with the rap poetry. According to Bradley, rap poetry, as an oral one, relies heavily on poetic devices of sound (39, 2012). West Indian children’s poets masterly use phonetic expressive means such as repetitions, alliterations, assonances, onomatopoeia and others. Thank to them Caribbean poetry sounds fascinating and melodic on stage and looks engaging on a page.
In the poem “They Were My People” Grace Nichols extensively uses anaphora and epiphora to create the repetitive and monotonous rhythm of the slave work. And, according to Grace Nichols, the music, that her ancestors lived to, was not rap, song or any other sort of music, it was the “rhythm of the sunbeat”:
They were those who cut cane
to the rhythm of the sunbeat
They were those carried cane
to the rhythm of the sunbeat
They were those who crushed cane
to the rhythm of the sunbeat (6, 1988) James Berry employs alliteration in the poem “Working of the Wind” by repeating consonants “w” and “s” to imitate whistling and squealing of the wind:
Wind plays
all over woods, with weighty ghosts
all swings in thousands
swinging from every branch. (61, 2004) Another brilliant example of the use of phonetic devices is Valery Bloom’s poem “Halloween” where the skillful use of alliteration makes a striking gallery of scary creatures. The poem consists of four stanzas where the first three start with enumeration of different beasts whose names begin with a particular consonant:
Ghosts and goblins, ghouls and gremlins
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Here on holiday,
… Bats and bogymen, boggarts, banshees,
Baying at the moon,
… Witches, werewolves, warlocks, werecats,
On the prowl tonight (74, 2003) Thus, alliteration in the initial strong position of the g-sound reminds the grunting of goblins and gremlins, repeated “b” alludes to the “boo” scream of bogymen and boggarts, while the repetition of “w” refers to wailing of werewolves and werecats.
Couplet-refrain structure that are used in many West Indian poems for children make them look and sound like songs. In James Berry’s poetry such poems are “Jamaican Song”, “Song of the Sea and People”, “Anancy John-Canoo Song” and many others. Grace Nichol employs this technique in, for instance, the “Autumn Song” and the “Sea Timeless Song”. The latter one consists of three stanzas, which are followed by a four- line refrain typed in italic:
Sea timeless
Sea timeless
Sea timeless
Sea timeless (63, 2006) The combination of repetition, alliteration (consonant s), assonance (vowel e) and the graphic shape of the refrain (font in italic) create an overall impression of the sea waves striking the shore and rolling back with their characteristic murmur.
Much more energetic beat is heard in Benjamin Zephaniah’s poem “For Sale” which is a grim prediction of the possible future for our planet. The poem includes three couplets and two refrains which are supposed to be sung or rapped in chorus:
Roll up, Roll up, Planet for Sale Roll up, Planet for Sale. (62-63, 1995)
In conclusion, since the ancient times poems were declaimed to the audience that was otherwise unable to access information through written or printed pages. The habit of reading poetry to oneself in silence is a relatively new phenomenon which still cannot deem the importance and enchanting appeal of a poem read aloud. Black British poets
64 have never abandoned their performance traditions and have developed many ingenious devices of actively communicating with the audience. These expressive means do not lose their power even when printed on page. My analysis has demonstrated that West Indian poetry for children abound in different phonetic tropes and is closely connected to music. Such effective sound devices, as repetitions, alliterations, assonances, create deep and strong emotional impact on the reader, add musical effect to verses and enhance the overall impression from the poems. Nowadays, the children’s literature sees the renewed interest to performance which makes the West Indian poetry with its rich performance history even more relevant and up-to-date.
2.4. British Nursery and School Lore and West Indian Poetry for Children In order to trace the connection between British oral lore and Caribbean children’s poetry I compared the genres of school lore that are listed in the book The Lore and the Language of Schoolchildren and nursery lore in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes by Iona and Peter Opie with the genres in the poetry collections by James Berry, John Agard, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah.
Many nursery rhymes, according to Iona and Peter Opie, were never truly meant for children; originally they were ballads, folk-songs, folk-plays, political squibs. Specific genres of nursery rhyme are lullabies, counting-out rhymes, riddles, dramatic singing games (11-28, 1997). School and playground can be categorised into such genres as satirical rhymes, tangletalk, tongue twisters, jokes and jeers, trick bets, parodies on nursery rhymes and popular songs, macabre rhymes and many others (Opies xvii-xviii, 1959).
In the volumes of poetry by James Berry, John Agard, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah it is possible to find examples of many genres that are traditional for British school and nursery lore. For instance, the collection of poems Whoop an’ Shout! by Valery Bloom comprises two riddles “How many?” and “I speak with a scrape”. The answer to the riddles is given at the end of the book. The same poetry collection contains a nursery rhyme of identical name “Nursery rhyme”:
Here’s a little caterpillar
Crawling up a tree,
Here’s a little chicken,
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Hungry as can be,
“Hello, little caterpillar,
Come down and play with me.”
“Get lost, d’you think I was born yesterday?” (56, 2003) The use of slang in a humorous dialog between a chicken and a caterpillar makes this nursery rhyme sound up-to-date and the images of insects and farm birds remind readers of the Caribbean roots of the author.
The poem “Fruits” by Valery Bloom from the Duppy Jumboree poetry collection (1992) is an example of a counting rhyme. In 1997 the poetess published “Fruits” as a separate book Fruits: A Caribbean Counting Poem. This poem helps young readers to learn how to count from one to ten and at the same time it teaches them names of Caribbean fruits:
One guinep up in the tree
Hanging down there tempting me,
…Three sweet-sop, well I jus’ might
Give one o’ them a nice big bite,
…Ten banana, mek them stay,
I feeling really full today (6-7, 1992) In The Lore and the Language of Schoolchildren Opies provide numerous examples of rhymes on historic events, such as Amy Johnson’s flight to Australia, Mussolini invasion into Abyssinia, First World War (98-106, 1959). For example, there are various verses scoffing at Hitler:
In1944 Hitler went to war
He lost his pants
In the middle of France
In 1944. (school rhyme qtd. in Opies, 102, 1959) West Indian children’s poetry occasionally touches themes of history and politics. For instance, a rhyme “Wat Tyler” by Valery Bloom is a political squib on a leader of a peasant’s rebellion against Richard II in 1381:
Wat Tyler was a villein,
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A great villein. It was said,
But he met a greater villain
And he kinda lost his head. (6, 2003) In four witty lines Valery Bloom tells a story of the peasant leader Wat Tyler who was killed by Lord Mayor of London. The satirical effect is achieved through the word –play of “villein” and “villain”, which, in the first case means “a free common villager”, and in the second - “a criminal”. By clashing these meanings, Valery Bloom makes us wonder whether Wat Tyler was truly a people’s hero as it was believed, and encourages us not to take traditional views on history for granted. The use of a rather scornful euphemism “kinda lost his head” consolidates the author’s point of view.
Word-play is one of the key poetic devices that children’s folklore is based on. In the poem “Ar-a-rat” Grace Nichols plays with similarly sounding words “a rat” and “Ararat” which gives the poem certain resemblance to nonsense rhymes:
I know a rat on Ararat
He isn’t thin, he isn’t fat. (88, 2006) The poem “Skeleton Sisters” by James Berry reminds of tongue-twisters that are traditional for oral lore. Berry skilfully uses paroemion and starts almost every word in the poem with a consonant “s”:
Seven skeleton sisters all slowly
Swallowed seven small, scrappy suppers.
And, Sunday-fed, soothed and satisfied,
Each sister sang and sang her sweetest,
Till sisters all sighed softly
And seemed ever slightly swelled. (141, 2004) Playground lore is represented in the poem “Caribbean Playground Song” by James Berry. The poet repeats the phrase “good mornin” many times as if we are actually hearing children greeting one another and people around in the morning. At the same time, the poem teaches children how to be polite:
Say, Good morning, Granny Maama
Good moornin, Granpa Taata.
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Good mornin. (159-160, 2004) Humorous and at the same time somewhat sinister rhyme is found in John Agard’s children’s book I Din’ do Nuttin. In this poem a mother-crocodile recommends her offspring to stay away from sweets and eat humans instead:
Don’t eat too much sweet
You’ll spoil your lovely teeth
Don’t touch jelly or treacle
Stick to eating people. (“Alligator’s Advice to Her Children”, n. p., 1983) The four-line poem explains children that artificially made food cannot be healthy as it does not come from a natural source.
It should not remain unnoticed, that there is a whole book of Caribbean nursery rhymes by John Agard and Grace Nichols No Hickory No Dickory No Dock: Caribbean Nursery Rhymes (1995). Unluckily, it was not available for my thesis but internet reviews and page screenshots suggest that No Hickory No Dickory No Dock continues the best Mother Goose traditions with a special Caribbean flavor.18 Thus, there is an illustration where Mother Goose plays a traditional African instrument marimba, or a drawing by Cynthia Jabar where Humpty Dumpty is sailing a boat with two black kids, or a picture by Penny Dann where a famous Anansy-spiderman is standing next to a clock from the English counting nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock” (see Appendix 17). Publishers call this poetry collection “an ideal book for the younger poetry market”.19
One more feature that is common both for British nursery and school lore and West Indian poetry for children is the use of rhyme. In most cases the basic rhyming schemes (aabb, abba, abab, aaaa, aabba, etc.) are employed. They make poems easy to memorize and recite. To compare:
Look up, look down,
You owe me half a crown.
Look at the door,
18"No hickory no dickory no dock." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
You owe me more.
(school rhyme qtd. in Opies 63, 1959)
Funky monkey in the tree
I like when you talk to me
What I really like the best
Is when you bang upon my chest.
(Zephaniah, “Friends”, 22, 1995) It follows that even a brief overview of the genres and features of British nursery and school lore and West Indian poetry for children proves that they share many things, such as similar choice of genres, poetic devices and rhyming patterns. This discovery makes me suggest that poetry for children has a universal character in terms of expressive means and poetic forms.
3. Creole language in West Indian Poetry for Children According to Pauline Christie, almost all Caribbean poets write both inCreole and in Standard English, but use them in different proportions (Poetryarchive.org). This chapter is aimed at finding the answer to the question whether the use of Creole impedes comprehension of poetic texts of Benjamin Zephaniah, James Berry, Valery Bloom, Grace Nichols and John Agard by those readers who do not speak Creole. Furthermore, I elaborate the theory that Creole language is one of the expressive means that serves to capture the uniqueness of the West Indian culture.
Benjamin Zephaniah’s in the interview to the Puffin Group said that “the kids know Jamaican-speak – they listen to Shaggy, reggae, rap and Hip Hop…they are in tune with that stuff. The kids understand how to read it. Nowadays, it’s the teachers who have to go and learn that sort of speech” (Zephaniah Speaks. The Puffin Post. Benjaminzephaniah.com). I am likely to agree with Zephaniah, even though the problem of whether “Jamaican-speak” can be easy to understand is pretty complex and its resolution depends on such factors as the readers’ age, their cultural and educational backgrounds.
Valery Bloom does not share Benjamin Zephaniah’s optimistic certainty that the young generation will easily understand Creole and supplies her collections Duppy
69
Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems and Whoop an’ Shout! with a glossary of those Creole words that she used in the poems. The glossaries provide translations for such Creole words as “craven” (greedy), “chile” or “pickney” (a child), “feba” (to look like), “bruck” (to break), “coco” (a swelling on a head). They also give definitions to the phenomena and objects that are specifically Jamaican: “jackfruit” -a large oval fruit, “rolling-calf” - a ghost that look like a bull, “sweet-sop” - a very sweet fruit. The rest of words listed in the glossaries differ from Standard English only phonetically and graphically: “dis” (this), “noh” (not), “nutten” (nothing), “yeye” (eye)20 and can be understood from the context without much difficulty.
Another approach to dealing with Creole is observed in James Berry’s book Only One of Me: only several Creole words in his poems are explained. For example, in the poem “Breat Pon Wind” we come across the following use of Creole:
Boy! Yu mus learn to turn man, yes,
But noh by gettn in a fool-fool mess.
A boy dohn have to go all boasify–
Bloated, to mek him good smart guy–
So it easy to toss foot up pon train seat
And smoke cigarette like a stupid sweet. (17, 2004) In the cited stanza most Creole words differ from Standard English phonetically (donh – don’t, noh – not, gettn– getting) and grammatically (yu–you, mus– must, up pon– upon, mek–to make a cause, it easy- absence of auxiliary verb) and, therefore, do not create too many troubles to the reader. The only Creole word which meaning remains obscure is “boastify”, but after the poem, the author (or the book editor) thoughtfully interprets the word as “to be conceited and boastful” (18, 2004).
On the other hand, it cannot be guaranteed that any English speaker will easily interpret Creole words that varies from Standard English phonetically or grammatically. My hypothesis about their easiness requires additional empirical studies in different age and social groups. Therefore, I have to come to the conclusion that remarks and glossaries explaining Creole are sometimes essential because they degrade the barrier between the
20 The complete glossaries to Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems and Whoop an’ Shout! can be found in Appendix 18 71 native speakers of Creole and those who are not familiar with it. It is not a coincidental that the Poetry Archive, that lists a great number of articles dedicated to West Indian poets, also offers "A Guide to the Language of Caribbean Poetry".
In contrast to the above exemplified books, poetry collections Everybody Got a Gift and Come on into My Tropical Garden by Grace Nichols explain only one Creole word (“jumbie”) out of numerous others. The poetic collections I Din Do Nuttin by John Agard, Wicked World, Talking Turkeys, Funky Chicken by Benjamin Zephaniah contain neither dictionaries nor Creole explaining remarks which leaves the readers on their own with their linguistic intuition. However, in I Din Do Nuttin (which name itself is in Creole) all cases of Creole use appear to be relatively simple and do not cause major ambiguities. The same is true for the rest of the books that were named in this paragraph.
Despite the seeming absence of hardships in comprehending Creole, Michael Lockwood stated, that over the years the number of children’s’ poems where Caribbean authors use Creole, decreased. In Lockwood’s opinion, it must have happened due to the UK readers’ and publishers’ preferences, as well as due to different thematic and poetic nature of individual collections (86, 2013). Such, in Goldilocks on CCTV John Agard does not use Creole at all, possibly, because this particular book concentrates on modern interpretations of traditional fairy-tales and the use of Caribbean Creole in this context would be inappropriate. Another example is the thematic anthology We are Britain! where Benjamin Zephaniah completely avoids Creole. I dare to put forward a hypothesis that this linguistic choice was stipulated by the multicultural nature of book. In the world literature, the use of specific languages or slang words has always been one of the strongest means of presenting characters, and, therefore, the use of Creole while presenting a child of Indian origin would seem awkward and unsuitable. To support this hypothesis, I will refer to the Wicked World where Zephaniah uses Standard English for all poems except for just one. This specific poem is dedicated to the life in Jamaica and demonstrative pronouns “dis” and “dat” in the text serve to imitate Jamaican speech:
Jamaican summers are so hot,
But all over Jamaica
People walk around saying
Dis is so cool
Dat is so cool 72
She is so cool
Or he’s so cool. (“Jamaican Summers”, 81, 2000) Another example of Creole being used to reproduce the sound of Jamaican talk is in Valery Bloom’s poem “Outdooring”:
“Done baby, done cry, yuh madda gone a fountain
…Sweetie water never dry, yuh get i’ dung a fountain”. (62-63, 2003) Interestingly, other lines that imitating Jamaican speech in “Outdooring” are written without using Creole. Thus, the skillful mix of language varieties makes Bloom’s poem engaging to both British and Caribbean readers. It should be noted, that this poem was commissioned by the BBC for National Poetry Day.
The use of Creole language by Caribbean immigrants and their families, as Storry and Childs put it, “signal[s] their lack of identity with dominant British culture” (227, 1997). West Indian writers use Creole to represent their land of origin and people who live there. From explanatory remarks and from the context the readers of various ethnic backgrounds get familiar with such Caribbean folklore characters as “jumbies” and “rolling-calves”, they learn names of exotic fruit and can almost hear the speech of people inhabiting West Indies. For UK-based Caribbean readers and writers Creole language in poetry is a reminder of their roots and a way to preserve this unusual and mellifluous language. As James Berry shared in his interview to the Poetry Archive, the use of Creole gives “a special kind of feeling [to him] and [by using Creole he wants] to express the experience of childhood” (Poetryachieve.org).
One more aim of using Creole can be an emphatic one. Word repetition is one of the specific features of Creole and it is used by West Indian poets for expressive and rhythmical purposes. For example, in the “Gobble-Gobble Rap” Berry extensively uses repetition as means of creating a rapping beat and to make certain words more memorable:
Me do a whispa and a big shout
with always that ready mouth about
like even that slurper-burper mouth
which is – a raver-craver, seeker mouth
which is – a singer and kissy-kissy mouth 73
which is a gobble-gobble mouth (142-143, 2004) In conclusion, the use of Creole language in West Indian poetry for children peruses different aims: to put emphasis on the Caribbean culture in the context of the prevailing Britishness, to imitate the speech of people of Caribbean origin, to save Creole language from getting obsolete, to create special rhythmic patterns and to strengthen specific words in the poem.
I put forward a theory that Creole words that vary from Standard English phonetically and graphically do not put major obstacles in understanding West Indian poems for children, however it seems reasonable when authors support their verses by remarks to explain words that are either absent in Standard English or differ from it grammatically. This way West Indian poetry for children becomes accessible and enjoyable for anyone.
74
Conclusion The main objective of the diploma thesis was to analyse and evaluate the selected poetic texts by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valery Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah with the focus on their thematic, genre, form and language peculiarities and to draw conclusions about the place of West Indian poetry for children in the context of modern British poetry. I had anticipated that West Indian literature for children could be considered a part of the mainstream British literature and my expectations were confirmed by the discovered similarities between contemporary traits of British literature and West Indian poetry for children in terms of topics, genres and forms. The specific features of the West Indian poetry for children such as the use of Creole and close connection to poetry performance did not exclude it from the category of British literature but enriched it.
The secondary literature posed the foremost challenge to overcome since there was a lack of sufficient academic literature dealing with the issue of Caribbean poetry for children and modern children’s poetry in Britain. The lack of academic texts on the mentioned topics can be explained by the facts that, firstly, poetry itself is a marginal topic for literary analysis and, secondly, because Black British poetry is a relatively new field of study. Thus, my research relied mostly on academic text dedicated to West Indian literature for adults and on the contemporary articles on children’s literature in the United Kingdom and the United States, where it was profoundly explored.
I started my research with the focus on the term of Black British literature and the ways it is defined by such scholars, poets and writers, as Salman Rushdie, Benedicte Ledent, Fred D'Arguiar, Robert Humpson, Mark Stein and Mahlete-Tsigé Getachew. It appeared that some of them disagreed with the whole concept of Black British literature as it was, while others examined such aspects as race, audience, and authorship. In my research I relied on the point view expressed by Mahlete-Tsigé Getachew, who suggested that black authorship, black readership or black content, taken singly or together, did not provide enough grounds for the general and aesthetic recognition of Black literature, and who expected that the development of non-political and linguistically inventive Black literature would ensure its assimilation into the mainstream literature.
In order to see if the goal of creating expressive and politically independent literature had already been achieved by West Indian children’s writers, I examined the 75 most prominent topics of the Caribbean children’s poetry and the stylistic means that were used to present those topics to the readers. The choice of topics was based on the central themes in West Indian literature for adults that were marked out by David Dabudeen, Nana Wilson-Tagoe, Sandra Cortman and Kwame Dawes. Those themes included anti- imperialism and nationalism, the treatment of race, the theme of childhood, the treatment of woman, the theme of migration, Rastafarianism, Carnival, Calypso, depiction and admiration of the Caribbean nature and cultural heritage.
I discovered that in West Indian literature for children the greatest emphasis was given to the topics dedicated to Caribbean life, that is to its nature, food, weather, folklore and traditions. The children’s poetry by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valery Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah demonstrated the inherited connection to the ingenious African culture as well as the deep love and respectful attitude to nature. The authors fondly painted the Caribbean life that was full of sunlight and the taste of tropical fruit and compared their childhood experience to the foggy and cold United Kingdom. As my analysis revealed, they ingeniously used such means of expression as personification, rhythmic constructions, repetitions, epithets and metaphors to introduce readers to their land of origin. The Caribbean poetry was equally full of authentic folklore characters such as duppies, spider tricksters and of specific Carnival traditions and tall-tales that West Indian authors carefully collected and preserved in their books.
Other topics of West Indian literature for adults that found their reflection in the children’s literature by James Berry, John Agard and Benjamin Zephaniah were the treatment of race, migration, the theme of equality and Rastafarianism.
The problem of racism and migration was approached by the representatives of both generations of Black British authors: by the first migrants who came to rebuilt Britain after the World War II and by those who relocated in the early age or were born in the United Kingdom. The poetry of James Berry of the first generation dealt with such problems as the lack of career and educational opportunities, alienation and unacceptance of the white population. However, with the development of anti-racists movements and considerable success that had been achieved in this sphere, Benjamin Zephaniah of the second generation took the problem of racism outside the UK borders. To cure the historical and newly appearing problems of racial treatment, the Black British writes suggested equality and diversity, respect to authentic cultures and multiculturalism. 76
West Indian poetry showed its ability to be modern and up-to-date when it raised such topics as modern technologies, vegetarianism, environmental protection, creative work and the role of an artist in a society. Thus, Black British writers introduced fairy- tales’ characters into the modern world to add new meanings to the stories that are well known in world literature. However, their view on modern technologies was devoid of blind admiration and captured such problems as depressing influence of the TV news, senior citizen adjustment, gadget dependence and the degradation of real life communication. Unfortunately, the limitations of the thesis format did not allow me to pay attention to all topics but their bright variety offers plenty of potential for further research.
Based on the contemporary academic texts related to children’s literature, I found out that since the middle of the 20th century children’s literature has seen some major changes in its canon as well. Poets and writers not only started to speak on various, even formerly avoided, topics but the infant heroes of children’s books changed from white middle-class kids to children of different ages, social classes or ethnicity. Poetry underwent changes concerning genres, forms, authorship, target audience and upraised attention to folklore and poetry performance. I explored how these contemporary trends were executed in Caribbean poetry for children. I came to the conclusion that the targets audience of West Indian poetry for children saw similar changes as the world literature. Originally, it portrayed only black children and consequently was aimed primarily at black readership but the latest volumes of poetry included characters of different ethnic background and demonstrated multicultural diversity. In regards to the age range of the target audience, I believe that Caribbean children’s poetry can be equally enjoyed by children, teenagers, and adults due to the serious character of its topics.
Apart from thematic and readership diversity, West Indian poetry for children is characterized by the high variety of genres. In the thesis I looked at the genre of parody, poems based on art, themed anthologies, concrete poems and on the graphic design of certain poetic texts. It appeared that most volumes of children’s poetry by Black British authors were published as themed anthologies. I suggested that by selecting such genre as parody John Agard, Grace Nichols and Benjamin Zephaniah associated their poetry with the world literary heritage and gave new life to traditional rhymes. I noticed that poems based on art were devoted only to works by white artists, while the black art stayed
77 out of focus, which, in my opinion, originated from the historical connection of Black British authors to European culture. The analysis of concrete poems and the graphic design revealed that these new ways of demonstrating poetry made it more amusing and easier accessible to the reader. I proposed that West Indian children’s poets did not stay within the boundaries of concrete poems but experimented with various ways of presenting their poems on page and stirring the reader’s imagination.
Due to the fact, that the Black British poetry is strongly, but not always positively, associated with the performance medium, I had to look into the history of performance poetry and its development in modern Britain. Apart of such problems as unacceptance by major publishing houses and low financial output, black performance poetry is sometimes accused of low aesthetic value which stimulated my interest to the analysis of the expressive means in the selected volumes of poetry with the focus on their ability to “work” on page and their connection to the musical aspect of poetry performance. I came to the conclusion that Black British children poets intentionally stuck to the performance traditions of African griots and developed many ways of connecting with the audience and readers. My analysis proved that West Indian poetry for children was rich in various phonetic devices, such as repetitions, alliterations, assonances, and bore resemblance to rap and folk music.
Next issue to analyse was the possible similarities between British nursery and school lore and West Indian poetry for children. The rather brief examination demonstrated many common traits between British folklore and Caribbean poetry, such as the choice of genres, expressive means and rhyming schemes. Based on this discovery I dare to claim that poetry for children manifests its universal nature in terms of stylistic devices and poetic forms, which, in its turn, proves the view point that children’s literature by Black British poets should not be segregated into a special category.
The last matter to tackle was the Creole language that was frequently used in the poems by West Indian authors. It was important to dwell on this issue because when dealing with poetic texts by Black British authors one inevitably came across certain difficulties with understanding the peculiarities of their spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. In my research I presented phonetic, grammar and lexical features of Caribbean Creole and spoke about Creole roots and its social status in the modern British society. After further analysis of the poetic texts by James Berry, John Agard, Grace 78
Nichols, Valery Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah I could conclude that the by mixing Standard English to Creole, the authors broadened their choice of literary devices, created special rhythmic schemes, imitated the speech of Caribbean people, saved Creole from getting obsolete and promoted West Indian heritage. As a non-native speaker, I announce that Creole words that vary from Standard English phonetically and graphically did not put significant challenges in understanding West Indian poems for children. However, supporting rhymes with explanation notes on certain words that either were not present in Standard English or varied from it grammatically, proved to be helpful and made West Indian poetry for children accessible for any reader and, therefore, worthy of wide recognition.
To summarise, I dare to consider that Black British poetry for children has managed to overcome the boundaries of the conventionally perceived Black literature in terms of style, themes, expressive means and forms and can rightfully claim its place in the mainstream British literature. The children’s poetry by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valery Bloom and Benjamin Zephaniah represents different cultures, first of all Caribbean and British, in its astonishing diversity and even brighter unity. The modern literary trend of embracing and celebrating cultural variety adds a particular value to their writings. The promotion of authentic Caribbean culture through poetry has already resulted in the inclusion of many poems by West Indian authors into the poetry collections of such leading publishing houses as The Penguin Group and Macmillan. Now the unique historical experience and cultural heritage of Black British writers, as well as their linguistic skills, are not only recognised by academicians but are also enjoyed by wider public and, especially, by the new generation of Britons who will find it not only amusing but also instructive.
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Appendix
Appendix 1 Phonetic features of Caribbean Creole. Based on Pauline Christie,
Jean-Baptiste (Section 3), Svartvik and Leech (178,187, 2004)
Appendix 2 Parts of speech in Caribbean Creole and Standard English. Based on
Pauline Christie "A Guide to the Language of Caribbean Poetry" Poetryarchive.org. Web.
22 Aug. 2016.
Appendix 3 Syntactical and grammatical features of Caribbean Creole. Based on
Pauline Christie, Svartvik and Leech (187, 2004)
Appendix 4 Black children and adults in illustrations to I Din Do Nuttin' (illustrated by Susanna Gretz), Come on into My Tropical Garden (illustrated by Caroline Binch) and
Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems (illustrated by Michael Charlton).
Appendix 5 Different ethcicities in illustrations to Everybody Got a Gift (illustrated by Rosemary Woods), Whoop and Shout! (illustrated by David Dean) Goldilocks on
CCTV (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura).
Appendix 6 Representation of intercultural unity in the pages of children’s books by Benjamin Zephaniah. Illustrators and photographs are by Prodeepta Das, Sarah
Symonds.
Appendix 7 Illustration by Satoshi Kitamura to the poem “The Bad Hairday Fairy” by John Agard and and a painting by Edvard Munch “The Scream”
( The_Scream.jpg>) Appendix 8 “De Rong Song” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah 87 Appendix 9 “Write a Way” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 10 “Beat It” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 11 “Epic” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 12 Graphic design of Funky Chickens and Talking Turkeys Appendix 13 “Sunnyside Up” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 14 “According to my Mood” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 15 “The Cloning of Red Riding Hoodie” poem by John Agard Appendix 16 “Double Talk” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 17 No Hickory No Dickory No Dock covers by Cynthia Jabar and Penny Dann Appendix 18 Creole glossaries in Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems and in Whoop an’ Shout! by Valery Bloom 88 Appendix 1 Phonetic features of Caribbean Creole.Based on Pauline Christie, Jean-Baptiste (Section 3), Svartvik and Leech (178,187, 2004) Phonetic features of Caribbean Examples Creole th-consonants are replaced by d and De – the, ting – thing t final sound /ŋ/ is replaced by n singing – singin h-consonant is added after a vowel Yuh – you, wahn – want, fah – for, in certain words as nevah – never, lettah – letter, soh – so some sounds of Standard English Ave – have, t’ree – three can be absent two consonants after a vowel are las ain – last blind usually reduced to one consonant Creole has a [y] sound after the Kyar – car, kyan – can't, kyat – cat, consonants [k] and [g] before a center gyarden – garden, gyas – gas vowel [a] consonants are simplified at the end mos’– most, ol’– old of the word 89 Appendix 2 Parts of speech in Caribbean Creole and Standard English.Based on Pauline Christie "A Guide to the Language of Caribbean Poetry" Poetryarchive.org. Web. 22 Aug. 2016. Parts of speech names Parts of speech in Caribbean Creole and Standard English Articles: Definite articles di (often written de) Indefinite articles wan Pronouns.Personal pronouns mi /ma- I; yu/unu- you; (h)im- he; wi- we; dem- they. pronouns he and she have no regular distinction mi (often written me) – my, yu Possessive pronouns (often written yuh) – your, (h)im – his; wi (often written we) – ours; dem – theirs Relative pronouns dat – that; w(h)e – which; hu – who Demonstrative pronouns singular dis (ya), dis (ya) – this; dat (de), dat (de) – that plural: dem (ya), dem (ya) – these; dem (de), dem (de) – those Modal verbs mos – must; kyan – can; coulda/couda – could; shuda/ shoulda – 90 should; wuda/woulda – would; haffi/have fe – have to; maita/mite a – might Prepositions in(n)a – in; out(a ) – out; pan , pon – on; a, af – of; fah , fi /fe – fo’; fi – to(before verb) Conjunctions an – and; ar – or; bot – but; cause/caw – because; do (w ) – although; till – until Adverbs neva – never; deh/dey /dere – there Appendix 3 Syntactical and grammatical features of Caribbean Creole. Based on Pauline Christie, Svartvik and Leech (187, 2004) Syntactical and grammatical Examples features of Caribbean Creole There is no ending of a verb in 3d He love di pikni – He loves the child person singular The auxiliary verb be is omitted Granny nice – Granny is nice ('Granny is', Valerie Bloom) Serial verbs are common Police / Come search mi bag – Police came and searched my bag ('In-a Brixtan Market', James Berry) Adjectives are used instead of She sing real sof’ – She sings really adverbs soft Nouns do not have plural –s two book – two books Apostrophe ‘s showing possession is dat man car – that man’s car not used 91 Verbs usually do not change their Dis man breda bring faiv buk com gi form to indicate tense, passive meaning, mi yeside- This man’s brother gave me number or continuous action five books yestrday A past tense is expressed by the use been walk – walked of special word been and inflection –ed is omitted Da, de, a are the special words used Mi a nyam – I am eating to express progressive or imperfective meaning Words like no, naa in front of the Ai no wahn a ting – I want nothing verb express negation Double negatives are frequent Nobody never talk to him like dat. ‘No one (had) ever talked to him like that.’ (‘Cabal’, Mervyn Morris) Expressive repetitions and One after the other straight straight reduplicative forms are frequently used for ‘One after the other, very straight’ ('Trick emphasis a Duppy', James Berry) Questions are asked without Yu never know him tief? ‘Didn’t revising the word order and without using you know he stole?’ (‘Cabal’, Mervyn the verb do or other auxiliary verbs Morris) Sentence initial ‘Is’/’No’ are regular Is always the same. ‘It’s always the same.’ ('You Ever Notice How?', Edward Baugh) The verb mek (make or cause) is mek I tell yu ‘Let me tell you.’ ('The often used Road of the Dread', Lorna Goodison 92 Appendix 4 Black children and adults in illustrations to I Din Do Nuttin' (illustrated by Susanna Gretz), Come on into My Tropical Garden (illustrated by Caroline Binch) and Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems (illustrated by Michael Charlton). Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems: I Din Do Nuttin': Come on into My Tropical Garden: 93 Appendix 5 Different ethcicities in illustrations to Everybody Got a Gift (illustrated by Rosemary Woods), Whoop and Shout! (illustrated by David Dean), Goldilocks on CCTV (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). 94 Appendix 6 Representation of intercultural unity in the pages of children’s books by Benjamin Zephaniah. Illustrations are by Sarah Symonds and photographs are by Prodeepta Das. 95 Appendix 7 Illustrationby Satoshi Kitamura to the poem “The Bad Hairday Fairy” by John Agardand a painting by Edvard Munch “The Scream” ( The_Scream.jpg>) Appendix 8 “De Rong Song” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah 96 Appendix 9 “Write a Way” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah 97 Appendix 10 “Beat It” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 11 “Epic” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah 98 Appendix 12 Graphic design of Funky Chickens and Talking Turkeys 99 Appendix 13 “Sunnyside Up” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah Appendix 14 “According to my Mood” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah 100 Appendix 15 “The Cloning of Red Riding Hoodie” poem by John Agard Appendix 16 “Double Talk” poem by Benjamin Zephaniah 101 Appendix 17 No Hickory No Dickory No Dock covers by Cynthia Jabar and Penny Dann Appendix 18 Creole glossaries in Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems and Whoop and Shout! by Valery Bloom 102