Daljit Nagra’s poem Seem We Have Visiting Dover! is exploring the difficulties confronted by immigrants coming into The uk and thinks the development of ethnicities as they mixture and sometimes battle in a new country. Nagra, who was born in London unfortunately he the son of immigrant parents, frequently investigates the concept of ‘Britishness’ in his works and addresses the themes of immigration, multiculturalism and deficiency of identity in Look We now have Coming to Dover! Nagra’s inclusion of a mention of the Matthew Arnold’s Dover Seashore, a composition which expresses growing stress about a modern world, smoothly betrays the optimism and hope the immigrants feel about approaching someplace so ‘various’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘new’, furthered by the use of a great exclamation draw in the subject, while finding his composition on the world-renowned Dover coast, a common level for against the law immigrants to the UK.
The composition opens with all the word ‘stowed’, immediately bringing out connotations of illegal cargo or luggage into the reader’s mind, contrasting the hopefulness implied inside the title. ‘Stowed’, ‘huddled’, ‘hutched’ and ‘burdened’ suggest hardship and poverty, a abgefahren comparison for the ‘cushy’ travelers. This dehumanises the presenter and his persons, reinforced with animalistic images. The refined zoomorphism through the entire poem is usually expressed in Nagra’s expression choices that imply pests, such as ‘invade’, ‘teemed’ and ‘swarms’, featuring the societal ideas and fears relating to immigration and cultures which can be different or perhaps unfamiliar. Nagra cleverly juxtaposes the ‘Bedford van’, an iconic sign of British culture, with all the horrific circumstances the immigrants face getting ‘hutched’ inside the van, a predicament that the majority of the British public would consider inhumane or perhaps cruel yet it is occurring frequently within their country. Nagra’s poem features ‘Punglish’, an imitation British spoken by simply those whose first vocabulary is Punjabi, and terms from other languages that have been incorporated into the British language. He juxtaposes the obvious and difficult Punjabi words, ‘hoick’, ‘grafting’, ‘lingoes’, along with words of foreign origin such as ‘alfresco’ (Italian) and ‘camouflage’ (French). The reader will not immediately observe these phrases as overseas, demonstrating the linguistic blending of ethnicities and how terminology has evolved. Furthermore, the colloquialisms used give the poem a comical, brighter tone through the use of slang being a formal term, while still conveying the sense of cultures clashing, a key motif throughout the composition.
The loose composition of the poem is particularly interesting as each of the five stanzas progresses coming from short to long collection length, prior to restarting the cycle for stanza and stanza is packed with vocally mimic eachother, half-rhyme, unnecessary repetition and assonance, an array of effects. The specific utilization of five stanzas perhaps references the five oceans on the planet, bodies of water which usually on their rayon hold guarantees of better lives for many foreign nationals. The unconventional line composition may signify the steadfast waves and tides breaking against the white colored cliffs of Dover, or perhaps alternatively the gradual although increasing influx of foreign nationals into English society. The structure can also represent the speaker’s have trouble with foreign ‘languages’, conveying the problem of keeping possibly and standard flow of conversation within a language that is not your very own. However , the poem’s tone remains upbeat and positive suggesting the speaker is definitely making an effort to speak English, a thing that many migrants are accusing of ignoring.
In terms of stylistic alternatives, the grammatical and syntactic inconsistencies strengthen the struggle the presenter has with all the language barrier and successfully adds to the speaker’s ‘Punglish’ story. The composition undergoes a tonal switch in the last stanza, getting off discussing the hardship and poverty suffered by the foreign nationals to one of optimism, picturing a future wherever they’ve earned their method to abundance. This implies the underlying durability of the immigrants as irrespective of their often traumatic ordeals in getting to their desired country, being ‘stowed in the sea’ or ‘hutched in a Bedford van’, along with ‘stabs inside the back’ throughout the duration of their stay, they remain upbeat one day they shall be happy, prosperous and ‘babbling [their] lingoes’ with their people. The poem is honest and user-friendly despite the clumsy language, indicating although the speaker may be struggling to correctly communicate his point verbally in English, he could be capable of empathy and understanding, like a British citizen would be.
Nagras poem ends with regards to a mythical England since symbolised by the white chalk of the Dover cliffs, a beacon of hope and a assure of new your life for the many immigrants that pass all of them on their trip into The uk. The fear and apprehension the migrants truly feel is flawlessly captured through Nagras thoughtful poem and elegant turn of key phrase.
