Look We Have Coming to Dover!

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The list of words and phrases in this stanza goes on for a few lines as the speaker elaborates on their way of being in England.

This device of creating words to convey meaning, for example ‘lash’ and ‘brunt’ used as adjectives, or ‘phlegmed’ and ‘prow’d’ as verbs created from nouns, is known as anthimeria. One can’t help but wonder how this initial impression of England contrasted with that the immigrants might’ve expected.Lines 1-5: “Stowed in the sea to invade / the lash alfresco of a diesel-breeze / ratcheting speed into the tide, with brunt / gobfuls of surf phlegmed by cushy come-and-go / tourists prow’d on the cruisers, lording the ministered waves. While some choices of language and structure may be challenging for students, the variety of techniques enables a whole range of comparisons, and the themes and meaning are still likely to be understood by most students. Learn more about the White Cliffs of Dover—and the ways that immigration (and invasion) have shaped British culture.

It is a hard life they are living as they are stuck between the dark spotlight of night and the hope of the sun. A similar technique is the use of British references and imagery to juxtapose with the non-English words and ideas. As such, this reference can be seen as pointing directly to the idea of immigration and the way that politics, media and society intertwine to react to it. The use of words from a variety of languages and origins is an important way in which the merging of cultures is shown, while the structure can be seen to represent cultural cycles. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.He speaks -- or rather, his characters speak -- in a whole variety of voices: teenage Jaswinder who wishes she was black and chilled, querulous Kabba laying into his son's English teacher ('my boy, vil he tink ebry new/Barrett-home Muslim hav goat blood-party/barbeque? As such, this would help to make the poem even more memorable and help a reader consider the implications and ideas of the poem in todays society. The poet uses words in whatever way seems to convey his meaning, regardless of whether this is ‘correct’, and subtly conveys extra layers of meaning. Lines 21-25: “Imagine my love and I, / our sundry others, Blair’d in the cash / of our beeswax’d cars, our crash clothes, free, / we raise our charged glasses over unparasol’d tables / East, babbling our lingoes, flecked by the chalk of Britannia!