Post on 22-Dec-2015
transcript
What can you see? What kind of atmosphere is created?
Millions of tourists visit London each year. What would they think if they came here and saw this?
Beginning in a City, 1948 By James Berry
•born in Jamaica in 1924
•Emigrated first to America,
then in 1948 to Britain
•Trained as a telegraphist
working for British Telecom
•His poems use a mixture of
standard English and Creole,
the language of Jamaica.
•Active both as a writer and in
promoting black writing,
especially black poetry.
James Berry
The SS Empire Windrush brought the
first wave of West Indian Immigrants to
Britain.
The story of the SS Empire Windrush is one
of ambition, courage and hope. It was a symbol of the
variety of different communities who have
come to Britain and enriched Britain’s
cultural life.
The ship that gave birth to a
Modern Multicultural Britain
Beginning in a City, 1948
New start
The year James Berry emigrated to Britain.
There are 5 major themes in this poem:
1. immigration2. alienation 3. hardship4. isolation5. new beginnings
Busy, vibrant, a different place to where he was before.
Stirred by restlessness, pushed by history,
I found myself in the centre of Empire.
Those first few hours, with those packed impressions
I never looked at in all these years.
Moved or disturbed
Growing up in Jamaica, Berry felt as much disturbed by his African background as by the European slave-trade and its aftermath in his
childhood.
Inability to remain still or
at rest. Uneasy.
This idea of past events being
important.
London is seen as the capital of
the British Empire which had extended over much of
the globe.
Many initial impressions.
Mind was packed full.
Content
What two factors made the writer come to England?
What does he not look back at after ‘all these years’?
I knew no room. I knew no Londoner.
I searched without knowing.
I dropped off my grip at the ‘left luggage’.
A smart policeman told me a house to try.
Repetition Emphasises a feeling of isolation and being lost without knowing where to go or which way to turn.
Small travelling bag
Not knowing exactly where to go or what he is looking for. It’s
all new to him.
His first tip- to find
accommodation.
Content
How does the writer use How does the writer use languagelanguage to to
suggest his sense of suggest his sense of isolationisolation? ?
In dim-lit streets, war-tired people moved slowly
like dark-coated bears in a snowy region.
I in my Caribbean gear
was a half finished shack in the cold winds.
In November, the town was a frosty field.
I walked fantastic stone streets in a dream.
simile
overwhelmingGood dream? Bad
dream?
metaphor
metaphor
AlliterationImagery
Content
What impression of Britain does Berry create in this stanza?
How is he made to seem out of place?
Identify the simile and the metaphor and comment on what each image
contributes to the poem.
A man on duty took my ten-shilling note
for a bed for four nights.
Inflated with happiness I followed him.
I was left in a close-walled room,
left with a dying shadeless bulb,
a pillowless bed and a smelly army blanket –
all the comfort I had paid for.
50p in modern day
moneyEmphasis
on finances
& the idea of time.
Filled with, consumed by happiness.
Small, trapped,
suffocating, end.
Exposed to the
elements.
Without luxury or comfort
Little money =
little comfort
Content
What is the impact of the adjectives in this stanza?
Curtainless in morning light, I crawled out of bed
onto wooden legs and stiff-armed body,
with a frosty-board face that I patted
With icy water at the lavatory tap.
Repetition emphasises the lack of luxuries.
Slow, painful movements
Pain and discomf
ort
Dealing with the cold:
1. Climate change from what he is used to.
2. Another example of no luxuries.
Attempt to
sootheIf there was no hot water in the lavatory, do you think he would have been able to have a hot
shower?
Content
Which details add to the picture of squalor?
Which details give a sense of physical suffering?
Then I came to fellow-inmates in a crowded room.
A rage of combined smells attacked me,
Clogging my nostrils –
and new charges of other smells merely
Increased the stench. I was alone.
I alone was nauseated and choked in deadly air.
Likens house to a prison
Similar to Wilfred Owen’s description of soldier dying in a gas attack in ‘Dulce et
Decorum Est’.
sick
Suffocating him.
Aggressive nature of smells
and actions
Content
What does the word ‘inmates’ suggest?
How is the sense of smell used here?
I walked without map, without knowledge
From Victoria to Brixton. On Coldharbour Lane
I saw a queue of men – some black –
And stopped. I stood by one man in the queue.
‘Wha happenin brodda? Wha happenin here?’
Train and coach terminus in
London
Area of South London with large Caribbean population
Multi-cultural.
Alliteration emphasising movement
his observations
ContentHow does Berry use repetition here?
What is the effect of using real place names?
The last line introduces direct speech and the Creole dialect. What
impact does this have?
Looking at me he said ‘You mus be a jus-come?
You did hear about Labour Exchange?’ ‘Yes – I hear.’
‘Well, you at it! But, you need a place whey you live.’
He pointed. ‘Go over dere and get a room.’
So, I had begun – begun in London.
Newly arrived immigrant
Old name for the Job centre
Repetition
His beginning in a city- his London journey begins.
Content
How does the tone change in the final stanza?
What were James Berry’s
reasons for writing this
poem?
What do you think he hoped
to portray?
James Berry