Some Of The Poems In The Anthology Use Non-standard English.? Choose Two Poems And Comment On The Wa Essay, Research Paper

You could comment on the following: · The

kind of language they use. · The

effect it has on the reader. · Why

you think the poet chose to write in this form. · Examples

of humour.Essay: ??????????? My

main thoughts on the essay are to do with why the poet uses the language that

they do, and what effect that it has on us as the readers.? ??????????? I

will be looking at ?Study No. X? because it contains non-standard English which

is fairly easy to understand, and there are also many different interpretations

that can be attributed to the use of certain words.? I will also be looking at ?Wha Fe Call I?? because it contains many words

that are not standard English, and so there is plenty of material to help

answer the question.? Also, there are

several elements of humour in the poem, which provides evidence for another

suggested area to look at. ??????????? I

will not only look at each of the poems individually, but also as a whole,

because that way, they can be compared to each other.? This means that the similarities and differences can be

highlighted, and I can try to find reasons for these.??????????? ?Study

No. X? has lots of examples of non-standard English.? There is also some language which is not even English, such as

?chi ama, crede? and ?infanta! madonna!??

This shows that the poet is breaking away from the traditional ways of

thinking, and questioning our beliefs, because ?chi ama, crede? means ?who

loves, believes?.? The question is ?What

do they believe in?.? Therefore in this

part of the poem, because it is at the very start, then it is setting the scene

for the whole of the rest of the poem.?

Even before we know what the rest of the poem is about, we are set

thinking.? Coupey wants the language to

have a certain effect on the reader.? In

this case, it makes us question the beliefs that we have all been taught, and

search for why we believe in them.?

?infanta!? means ?the eldest daughter of the King of Spain or Portugal,

who usually is not the heir to the throne?.?

Therefore, this, together with ?madonna!?, which means ?the Virgin

Mary?, can be taken as a reference to the gentleness and purity of women, and

extended to mean the nice parts of the world, and love among people.? ??????????? The

poet has obviously used this as a contrast to ?guernica!? and ?hiroshima!?

because these are both great mass slaughterings and acts of violence in

history.? There again, the poet has used

this language to make an effect on us, the reader.? He again wants us to question our beliefs, such as, ?How can

there be this suffering and war when there are these good parts to the world as

well??? It should be noted, however,

that he does not say that war is bad, and we are sometimes led to believe that

it should happen, in the ?cosmos?, or ordered way of things. ??????????? There

are other examples of non-standard English in ?Study No. X?.? For example, where on lines 14 15 and 18,

Coupey says ?)you are a catastrophe…?,?

?)you do not…? and ?(in hell?, he has not used the parentheses

correctly.? Usually, there is a ( at the

start of a line, and it finishes with a ).?

However, this has not been done for a reason.? The initial effect on the reader is one of disbelief or

bewilderment.? However, Coupey intended

them to have a deeper meaning.? Because

the whole poem is about questioning the way that we accept everything that we

have been taught and stick to the rules we learn, he has shown that he has

broken out from the mould and used the brackets in a different way.? He is saying that it may not be wrong, but

just another way of doing something. ??????????? Another

example of non-standard English is ?red wheelbarrows?.? the majority of readers would read this

literally as a wheelbarrow that was red.?

However, this is not a standard English phrase, but it too has a deeper

meaning.? ?Red wheelbarrows? is a poem by William Carlos

Williams, and it explores the origins of language and why we call things by the

names that we do, and also the way in which different people see different

things.? This all links in with the

ideas of Coupey, and so by putting this into the poem, he is trying to say that

it takes great courage to think in an independent way, and question that values

of today?s society.??????????? There

is also a great deal of non-standard English in ?Wha Fe Call I??.? The whole poem is written in a patois, which

is a dialect spoken by the people of Jamaica, developed from all the different

languages spoken by the settlers there, but especially English. ??????????? In

the poem, there are four main ideas which are trying to be expressed.? The first is how confusing language is when

people don?t use it in the same way.?

The patois is used very effectively here, because the poet is used to

meal names such as ?Mi know sey breakfus a de mawnin one?.? Here, Bloom is using patois to show the

reader that in Jamaica, they are used to ?breakfus?, but she also uses standard

English such as ?Mi hear bout one name snack?.?

Here, snack is spelt correctly, whereas breakfast was not.? This shows that in Jamaica, where they do

not use standard English, they do not know about snacks. ??????????? The

second one is an exploration of local variation in language.? For example ?Miss A dung a London ha lunch

12 o?clock?, and ?Den mi go a Cambridge todda day, wi hab dinnah roun? bout

two?.? Here, there is confusion between

names and times of meals not only between countries but also within

counties.? The patois is not as

effective here, but it still shows some things.? For an English reader, it is difficult to read at first, and so

this echoes the confusion which arises over the subject of meals. ??????????? The

third idea is that the poem tries to make fun of people who try to impress

other people.? For example, ?But mi hear

she a talk bout ?Elevenses??.? This,

like the first point shows that elevenses is not something familiar to

Jamaicans because it is not written in patois.?

This helps the reader to understand the difference, and helps the poet

to further illustrate the differences between cultures. ??????????? The

last main idea is about peoples desire to label things in a way that they think

is correct.? Non-standard English is

used here effectively, because it gives the reader a sense of the pointlessness

of naming things differently.? For

example, ?Mi noh tink mi a badda wid no name? says that the poet thinks it is

pointless to bother with different names, and Bloom is trying to explain to the

reader that our mix of cultures has become confusing and pointless. ??????????? There

is also humour in ?Wha Fe Call I??, unlike in ?Study No. X?.? The best example is lines 35-36, ?And dis

when mi tink mi know them all, mi hear bout one name snack?.? This has the effect on the reader that the

poet is on a fruitless attempt to learn all the different meal times and names,

and new ones keep confusing her.? Part

of the reason why we as a reader find it funny is because of the patois.? It makes it sound different, almost silly,

although we can still understand it.?

Also, everybody has a stereotypical image of a confused foreigner, and

this is it.? They are not speaking

proper English, and so when something is confusing, we find it funny. The poet

puts the humour in the poem not only to liven it up, but also for another

reason.? She is trying to get us to

understand that when people get things wrong, such as the time and name of

meals, it, although embarrassing for the offender, can be very funny for all

the other people involved.??????????? There

are two main comparisons to be made between the two poems.? The most obvious one is about the way in

which? people are taught things in a

specific way, and they are led to believe that they and nobody else is

right.? For example, in ?Study No. X?,

Coupey says ?mother well told me unmaternally…?, and in ?Wha Fe Call I??,

Bloom says ?For fram mi come yah mi confuse?.?

In both these case, the reader is led to believe that people are taught

in a specific way, but later in the poems, they question these beliefs.? Therefore, the poems are similar in that

they are both about the questioning of things, especially names. ??????????? The

subject of humour is only raised in ?Wha Fe Call I??, which means that ?Study

No. X? is a more serious poem.? However,

it does not appear so to the reader at first sight, as all the brackets in

different places make the poem look strange.?

Humour is not essential in the poem because it puts across the poet?s

message without it, but in ?Wha Fe Call I?? it suits the patois as to us British,

it looks and sounds funny.??????????? To

conclude, both poems use non-standard English, and the effects on the reader

can be varied, from making them question their own beliefs and teachings like

in ?Study No. X?, to making them laugh and think how trivial the differences in

language even within the same country can be, like in ?Wha Fe Call I??.? The poets have chosen to use the

non-standard English for a number of reasons, from in ?Study No. X? where

Coupey uses it to question the rules of language, to the way in which dialects

confuse us in ?Wha Fe Call I??.? Humour

is present only in ?Wha Fe Call I?? where the sheer stupidity of language

disagreements is made into a joke. ??????????? Above

all, though, both poems are telling the reader to be an individual, and not do

what everybody else does and has told you to do, but go on your own instincts

and do what you feel is right.? You

should not care about anybody else, but break free.? The quote from ?Wha Fe Call I?? sums all this up very well:??????????? ?For

doah mi ?tomach wi glad fe de food, ??????????? I?

coudn care less whey mi call i?.? ???????????