Analysing the two poems of: Island man and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes and how the poet creates conflict
Firstly, we began to read Island Man as a class in lessons. This is written by Grace Nichols and is published in a book titled “Anthology”. The surface meaning of the poem is based on a man who used to live on a Caribbean island and still dreams of this place even now when he lives in London. At a first glace of the poem, it comes across as short and sharp, for example, the first line of the poem consists of the word “Morning”. This may look as though a far from exciting way for a poem to begin, but from this, the author is starting to create an image in the readers head and this is setting the…show more content… Immediately we are informed of when this event happened, nine am in the morning, in San Francisco. The first stanza analyses the garbage truck and the poet is describing the vivid colours he is seeing. The colours being yellow and red often indicate danger!
“A bright yellow garbage truck,
With two garbage men in red plastic blazers”
The poet continues to describe out of curiosity what the bin men are doing;
“Standing on the back stoop,
One on each side hanging on” This could be reflecting of the type of lives the bin men lead, hanging on to every bit of money they can get to support their families. And standing on the back stoop- do people put bin men to the back of what we know as far as ‘classes’ go in our society? As the stanza continues, harsh alliteration is used to reflect negative feeling towards the elegant couple. It’s highlighted by phrases such as “casually coifed” and “short skirt and coloured stockings” All these descriptions are associated with social beauty and acceptance. The beautiful people are described blandly in comparison to the bin men. The suggestion of their job, an architect, this is an ambiguous job and could give the reader more of an idea about the character’s wealth.
The sixteenth line of the poem commences with the words “And the” this continues until the end. This is to emphasise the daily routine of these people, what is described is the window to
