Look We Have Coming to Dover!

by Daljit Nagra

Taking in its sights Matthew Arnold's "land of dreams", the collection explores the idealism and reality of a multicultural Britain with wit, intelligence and no small sense of mischief. Nagra, whose own parents came to England from the Punjab in the 1950s, conjures a jazzed hybrid language to tell stories of aspiration, assimilation, alienation and love. By turns realist and romantic, these charged and challenging poems never shy from confrontation, but remain, always, touched by a humorous zeal and an appetite for living.

Genres: Poetry, India, Nonfiction, Asia, British Literature

64 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2007

About the author

Daljit Nagra has published four poetry collections with Faber & Faber. He has won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First Collection, the South Bank Show Decibel Award and the Cholmondeley Award. His books have been nominated for the Costa Prize and twice for the T. S. Eliot Prize, and he has been selected as a New Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society. He is the inaugural Poet-in-Residence for Radio 4 & 4 Extra, and presents a weekly programme, Poetry Extra, on Radio 4 Extra. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was elected to its Council, and is a trustee of the Arvon Trust. He has judged many prizes including the Samuel Johnson Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Prize, the David Cohen Prize and the National Poetry Competition. His poems have been published in the New Yorker, Poetry Chicago, LRB, TLS and New Statesman. He has written for the Guardian and Financial Times. He teaches at Brunel University, London.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dialect was a bit too heavy for me in some of these poems about the Sikh experience in Britain. By far my favorite was “In a White Town,” which opens:

She never looked like other boys’ mums.
No one ever looked without looking again
at the pink kameez and balloon’d bottoms,

mustard-oiled trail of hair, brocaded pink
sandals and the smell of curry. That’s why
I’d bin the letters about Parents’ Evenings …

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

I also cannot remember when I read this one but I think I finished it in a Pret ok Daljit is one of the Big Deals I guess that comes of being a two-time TSE nominee (and judge in 2018) -- this is I think certainly his most famous collection & I have fond A-Level memories of the title poem. It seemed stronger in the second half but memory hazes & I was probably also under the influence of sleepiness. I'm also a fan of the Heaney pastiche(?)/reinterpretation(?) Digging which describes shaving to closer approximate a passport photo -- -


He terms it 'Punglish' the Punjab-English blend here and I do find it at times rather splendid

Gourd, grenade-shaped,
okra-green. I prise
each limb of warty flesh,
disembowel each indi-
gestible red-seed memory
of regal pomegranate

[Yusra · Rating 4 out of 5]

felt like a deeply personal monologue of the poet. I loved reading on their perspective and experience in a foreign country and the isolation one feel’s when visiting your birth country.

themes of individualism vs religious duty entwined with the use of dialect, form, and visceral imagery amidst these allegorical poems was very cleverly crafted.

[Oliver Mardon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds me of Zafar Kunial's England's Green in its unique construction of identity within multicultural Britain, with its faced paced and ironical nature making it a very quick read. Some really interesting material and especially in how it is structured.

[Graham Sillars]

I was not a fan of this. Maybe that’s because it is far beyond my life experience or possibly it was just not good. I cannot tell!

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never really understood why Daljit Nagra should have chosen to submit his poems in the late 1990s-early 2000s to various literary magazines under the plainly ridiculous pseudonym "Khan Singh Kumar" - a mashup of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu subcontinental names. As a regular contributor and reviewer for various of those magazines, I drew the not-unreasonable conclusion that, while they were not-bad poems in themselves, the author appeared to be trying a bit too hard to emphasise his or her ethnic minority credentials. In fact I even began to suspect that the pseudonymous author might be a hoaxer trying to exploit the White Liberal Guilt of the magazines' editors, many of whom were funded by the Arts Council, a public body committed to diversity and equality, and so forth.

Daljit Nagra has, to some extent, answered my query in his poem "Booking Khan Singh Kumar", a sharp - if not entirely convincing - deconstruction of the attitudes I suspected had led to his pseudonymousness, identifying the 'gap in the market' that his editors plugged, although failing to address why on earth he felt his real name wasn't enough to attract any editor cynical enough to publish someone with a non-European moniker to make up numbers.

And in fact, he is unfair on himself. His work is rich, dense, complex and sinewy, interweaving influences, metrical schemes, poetic forms, and sharp, contrasting images in the manner of the best Modernist poetry. It engages with its recurrent theme of the conflicts and confluences between an Indian Briton and his two parallel cultures deftly, sensitively, and without political posturing. It operates on a number of levels and in different styles: an elegy, "Sajid Naqvi" is both telling about intercultural confusion and deeply touching.

So, after all these years, my hat's off to Khan Singh Kumar. Even though I don't think he ever needed to exist. Daljit Nagra is, and was, quite enough. A very good collection by a very good poet.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating is always on how I personally enjoyed a book, not on the merits of the book itself. And... I just couldn't get into this: I often couldn't follow what was going on or it wouldn't hold my concentration. I tried reading out loud to make myself focus but I couldn't get either the flow or the sense.

My lack of understanding of the immersive Indian English (? I think) as well as lack of knowledge of the experiences being described, were too alienating (purposefully alienating?) for me to take anything from the poems.

There were a few poems I enjoyed either because of their form or they did invoke emotion, but mostly felt I was too ill-equipped to properly engage. I'm not a poetry reader typically, so this was randomly selected by the title from the library shelf and checked out after reading a few poems. I'm sure I'll get into my groove with this poetry selecting and reading thing soon.

[Simon Pressinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

To laugh or not to laugh -- that is the question. I watched an interview in which Nagra says he is asking the reader to question their reactions to both "foreign" voices speaking poor English and native speakers uttering their inflected language without modifying their voice and risking racial stereotyping. It's a challenge getting into some of the poems with more heavily accented English, negotiating Punjabi words and certain compound nouns in the vernacular. Yes I did laugh, but should I have? Some of it is blatantly funny, but it also prompts you to reflect on the (un)changing nature of language and identity in modern-day Britain. That said, on the whole, really good! My highlights are: 'Yobbos!', 'On the Birth of a Daughter', 'The Furtherance of Mr Bulram's Education', 'Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation, the Catch 22 for "Black" Writers' and 'Singh Song!'

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I run just one ov my daddy's shops
from 9 o'clock to 9 o'clock
and he vunt me not to hav a break
but ven nobody in, I do di lock -

cos up di stairs is my newly bride
vee share in chapatti
vee share in di chutney
after vee hav made luv
like vee rowing through Putney

A brilliant collection of poems, most based on the second and first-generation immigrant perspective, on brief returns to the homeland, on being different. Thoroughly insightful and entertaining.

[Hall's Bookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the irrerverance and the exuberance of Nagra's writing. Juxtaposing different voices, and both indulging in and undermining the stuffy image of poetry - just really, really fun.

[Jon Margetts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nagra’s book is exceptional in its balance of humour and insightful commentary on the Sikh experience of living in Britain during the late 90s/early 00’s. He masterfully inhabits voices of the South-East Asian diaspora to explore fatherhood, love, prejudice, marriage and more. Besides the did duff poem, the vast majority of these are captivating.

The language can be a bit hard to decipher at times, but for me that adds to the collection’s charm and sense of playfulness. It even adds significant emotional clout. For example, the clumsy ‘Punglish’ of the four refrains at the end of Singh Song reinforces the purity of love the speaker feels for his “bride”: the moon is “priceless”, as is she, and the tricky syntax suggests that his love is even greater because he find it difficult to express it but tries to anyway.

There is a universality of feeling, and Nagra’s depictions of love, grief and hope suggest you don’t need to express yourself in strict diction for any feeling to be valid; indeed, sticking to your linguistic roots can actually emphasise your strength of emotion.

[Jeff Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book not so long after it was published and now have promptly read it 15 years later. Besides the challenging, playful, energizing language, what struck me most here was the book's joie de vivre—and even in poems such as “Yobbos!” where racism and other non-joi themes take center stage, there's still a kind of heartening verve that lifts the whole project. (Take note of that exclamation point on the poem title, for example, and how it kind of hobbles the yobbos right from the get-go.) I won't pretend that I could follow all the references, but this was a compelling read nonetheless.

[dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

An academic read.

This was not as fun for me as I would have hoped it would be, mostly because I had to read it and then study it on my own to present it in class. I did not mind, and did have to refer to online analyses that other people made.

Will try to keep it short.

The poems focus on immigration and the way individuals arrive to new countries with so much hope, only to have that hope corrupted and destroyed by the white society. There was a lot of focus on various slang and themes such as hope and cruelty and reality and prayer.

Most likely not something I would recommend to people, at least not outside of academic purposes.

[Russio · Rating 3 out of 5]

The latter half of the collection was more immediate to me and I got more from it. Poems I particularly enjoyed were: In a White Town, Arranged Marriage, Parade's End, Rapinder Slips into Tongues, Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation, the Catch 22 for 'Black' Writers (!), Consummation, Informant, My Father's Dream of Return and the much-anthologised Singh Song!

[Cambridge Spinecrackers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection, full of dialect and alternating structure. Nagra’s expertly captured a reality of multicultural Britain from an Indian perspective.

Themes: migration, work, marriage, language, racism

Favourite poems: The Man Who Would Be English!, Our Town with the Whole of India!, 8, The Furtherance of Mr Bulram’s Education, University, title poem

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never much a fan of eye-dialect poetry but it was cheap. Had a few poems that I thought were poignant or pretty but the rest I didn't really get. A very "ok" collection, doubtful that it will be one I return to much

[Tanvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels a bit like an episode of Goodness Gracious Me at times, but Nagra draws attention to an important minority that have been instrumental in forming the fabric of the UK's culture.

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite poems in this collection are 'Booking Khan Singh Kumar', 'Yobbos', 'Digging' and 'In a White Town'.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

CN: death, racism

This was my first poetry audiobook. It confirmed that I appreciate poetry more on the page where I can reread in a second, than when I have to listen for it.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of poems.

[Hannah Ruth]

I miss my GCSE anthology!

[. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Banger

[yunis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful. i cried when i read In a White Town.

[Juliano · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful meditation on race and isolation in modern Britain.

[verity · Rating 3 out of 5]

uni reading

[Arjun T · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 rounded up. Started off strong but veered a little too avant-garde for my tastes as it progressed.

[50andsomething · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gets into the mind and thoughts of a British Asian.

[Nakarem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with some parts but this was a really good (? Good seems so inadequate but I can't think of a better word...) collection.

Reading the quote of George Orwell before even seeing the acknowledgements and the list of contents made me feel sick. Immediatly. What a hard hitting move to put this quote at the very start of, even before, the collection.

And sidenote; I'm really thankful for the list of words and their explanations at the end of the book, because I lack most of the knowledge to understand a lot of the refferences and I simply don't know a lot of Punjabi terms/names for food etc.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading and enjoying Kei Miller's 'The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion' which won the Forward Prize, it was difficult to enjoy this collection. Miller's collection is about a different culture and is masterfully written. In this collection Nagra repeatedly mentions masala and chappati - a cheapening of his culture to just food in my opinion. The whole thing just seemed to me like a desperate attempt to get into the GCSE anthology under the 'other cultures' section. When I discovered half way through that one of his poems was about this very thing - it all became too much for me.

[Seána Johansson-Keys · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have studied the poem ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover’ as part of my A Level course so I thought I’d read the collection it appears in. However, I was not very impressed by this collection. Most of the poems felt like they were exploring the same themes, written in very similar ways. The way Nagra intertwines Punjabi and English is interesting, although it gets a bit repetitive after a few poems - the same goes with the use of dialect. There were some poems that stood out: ‘Sajid Naqvi’, ‘Journey’, and ‘Singh Song!’, but they only stood out amongst this particular collection which I felt was, overall, mediocre.