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We Brits
Guyanese-born poet, Agard, gives an outsider's inside view of British life in poems which both challenge and cherish their peculiar culture and hallowed institutions.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2007
32 people want to read
About the author
John Agard
115 books37 followersJohn Agard was born in Guyana and emigrated to Britain in 1977. He has worked as an actor and a performer with a jazz group and spent several years as a lecturer for the Commonwealth Institute, travelling all over Britain giving talks, performances and workshops. He has visited literally thousands of schools and enjoys the live contact and the joy of children responding although it can be hard work.
John Agard started writing poems when he was about 16 - some of these early efforts were published in his school magazine. Many of his poems now are composed while looking out of train windows.
"Try the best with what you have right now
If you don't have horse, then ride cow."
It is in his poetry that John Agard makes his greatest contribution to children's literature. Like the best authors, he brings something unique to children's experience - a view of the world tempered by his own childhood, a feeling for the rhythms and cadences of its language, and a sophisticated understanding of the advantages and limitations of several forms of English. That he can make the "standard" forms work superbly is evident from many of his poems for adults. For children, with whom he communicates more directly, the lyrical Guyanese forms serve his purposes to perfection.
Agard is not a literary poet but also a performing poet and has a strong sense of his audience. When he writes for children, he seems to see them sitting at his feet. He is more interested in the ideas and words he is delivering to them than in the creation of complex fictional characters with whom his readers might engage. He lives in Sussex and is married to Grace Nichols, a respected Caribbean poet and co-author of a collection of Caribbean nursery rhymes, NO HICKORY, NO DICKORY, NO DOCK.
John Agard started writing poems when he was about 16 - some of these early efforts were published in his school magazine. Many of his poems now are composed while looking out of train windows.
"Try the best with what you have right now
If you don't have horse, then ride cow."
It is in his poetry that John Agard makes his greatest contribution to children's literature. Like the best authors, he brings something unique to children's experience - a view of the world tempered by his own childhood, a feeling for the rhythms and cadences of its language, and a sophisticated understanding of the advantages and limitations of several forms of English. That he can make the "standard" forms work superbly is evident from many of his poems for adults. For children, with whom he communicates more directly, the lyrical Guyanese forms serve his purposes to perfection.
Agard is not a literary poet but also a performing poet and has a strong sense of his audience. When he writes for children, he seems to see them sitting at his feet. He is more interested in the ideas and words he is delivering to them than in the creation of complex fictional characters with whom his readers might engage. He lives in Sussex and is married to Grace Nichols, a respected Caribbean poet and co-author of a collection of Caribbean nursery rhymes, NO HICKORY, NO DICKORY, NO DOCK.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 18, 2019
"Mr and Mrs Xenophobia
moved
to suburbia
aspired
to euphoria
retired
on a nest egg
of nostalgia
for Rule Britannia.
Mr and Mrs Xenophobia
closer
to their teacups and saucers
than to foreigners
closer
to their china
than to China.
Mr and Mrs Xenophobia
sufferers from amnesia
..."
That was published in 2006. In 2016, Mr and Mrs Xenophobia took their amnesia to the referendum and left the rest of the world praying for oblivion for an hour or two a day as an antidote to the pain they set loose on the world...
Great, old-fashioned British satire from the era when that was a literary skill and a sense of (exaggerated) humour, not a daily real-life competition for hitting rock bottom hardest.
It takes a while to get through Dante's circles of Hell!
moved
to suburbia
aspired
to euphoria
retired
on a nest egg
of nostalgia
for Rule Britannia.
Mr and Mrs Xenophobia
closer
to their teacups and saucers
than to foreigners
closer
to their china
than to China.
Mr and Mrs Xenophobia
sufferers from amnesia
..."
That was published in 2006. In 2016, Mr and Mrs Xenophobia took their amnesia to the referendum and left the rest of the world praying for oblivion for an hour or two a day as an antidote to the pain they set loose on the world...
Great, old-fashioned British satire from the era when that was a literary skill and a sense of (exaggerated) humour, not a daily real-life competition for hitting rock bottom hardest.
It takes a while to get through Dante's circles of Hell!
January 2, 2017
An urban London classic.
April 19, 2015
I have always loved John Agard's poetry and this was no exception. My favourite poems were "Taking your dogma for a walk" and "Reporting from the Front-line of the Great Dictionary Disaster".
Agard blends issues of race, immigration, politics and language into face paced, pointed poems that speak to you from the page and linger in your mind for days.
Well worth a read!
Agard blends issues of race, immigration, politics and language into face paced, pointed poems that speak to you from the page and linger in your mind for days.
Well worth a read!
August 15, 2024
I agree with the description of the book. He mocks racism and the Brits but he knows the culture and can see it's bad and good side. A Poet for the times I think.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews