1. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to assert racial identity
Starter Task
Read through the poem carefully and jot down any words/terms that you don’t understand in your exercise book

2. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
John Agard
Agard grew up in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana). He loved to listen to cricket commentary on the radio and began making up his own, which led to a love of language. He went on to study English, French and Latin at A Level, writing his first poetry when he was in sixth form, and left school in he taught the languages he had studies and worked in a local library. He was also a sub-editor and feature writer for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle, publishing two books while he was still in Guyana.

3. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
John Agard
His father settled in London and Agard moved to Britain with his partner Grace Nichols (now also a famous poet) in 1977, settling in Ironbridge, Shropshire. He worked for the Commonwealth Institute and the BBC in London.
His awards included the 1997 Paul Hamlyn award for poetry, the Cholmondeley Award in 2004 and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012.
Agard was Poet-in-Residence at the National Maritime Museum in His poem Half-caste has been featured in GCSE anthologies since 2002, meaning that most students (aged 14-16) have studied his work for their GCSE qualification.
He lives in Lewes, East Sussex, with his partner, the Guyanese poet Grace Nichols.

4. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
John Agard
He was born in 1949 to a Guyanese father and Portuguese mother, so he is of mixed race.
When he moved to England he was horrified and very angry at being referred to by the derogatory term ‘half-caste’, so he often targets this subject in his poetry.
He is an actor and playwright as well as a poet and his poetry is generally meant to be performed.

5. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
Make a key showing which colour you are using for what
Task
Listen to Agard reading the poem and highlight the following in different colours:
Any words written with non-standard spelling
Any words that would usually be written with a capital letter
Caribbean dialect words or phrases
Any lines that seem exaggeratedly standard English
Any repeated phrases that lend a caribbean rhythm to the performance
Reflects his own identity and culture
Rejects conventions of traditional English poetry.
As his work is intended for performance, it doesn’t need orthodox spellings, capital letters or punctuation, only line breaks.
Why do you think Agard uses phonetic spelling and Caribbean speech rhythms in this poem?

6. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
Now watch the video of John Agard discussing the poem
Pay attention because you will need to bear what he has said in mind when answering the questions below
Questions
Why does Agard mix standard and non-standard spellings and word usage?
What tone does Agard adopt in this reading?
What is the overall effect of the poem?
Reflects his mixed heritage and accentuates the ‘wholeness’ of his cultural background in rejecting the ‘half-caste’ taunt.
Challenging, aggressive, confrontational, angry, but also humourous, sarcastic, witty, sardonic – the perfect combination for effective satire.
Direct commands, directing the reader as ‘yu’, shocks us into realising the unacceptable implications of words we use without thinking. It asserts a person’s right to be respected as a whole human being and demands that others be more open-minded.

7. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
Imagery
Yu mean when picasso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas
Yu mean when light an shadow mix in de sky is a half-caste weather
Yu mean tchaikovsky sit down at da piano an mix a black key wid a white key is a half-caste symphony
Agard uses these examples as metaphors for mixing colours:
Paint palette
Piano notes
Light/shade
This supports his message that that things that are mixed usually turn out better and this applies to blood and cultures too.

8. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
Imagery
Listening to yu wid de keen half of mih ear
I offer yu half-a-hand
I close half-a-eye
I dream half-a-dream
I half-caste human being cast half-a-shadow
Satirises the insulting idea of a whole person being treated as only a ‘half’.
Uses witty word play to jolt the user of the offensive language out of their prejudiced views.
Challenges them to change, not just their way of speaking but, more importantly, their way of thinking:
“come back tomorrow wid de whole of yu eye an de whole of yu ear an de whole of yu mind”

9. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
Humour
Excuse me standing on one leg I’m half-caste
is a half-caste canvas/
is a half-caste weather/
is a half-caste symphony/
In fact some o dem cloud half-caste till dem overcast so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass
Joke apology is ironic, he means the opposite.
He is making the point that since he is treated as only half a person, he is acting like only half a person.
On your copy of the poem, highlight any puns or jokes the writer makes and annotate them by explaining what the serious wider point is that Agard is trying to make
Task
He jokes that if mixing colours means you are a half-caste, then Picasso painted half-caste canvases, England has half-caste weather and Tchaikovsky composed half-caste symphonies.
Making the point that great art, weather and music come from mixing and this is true of mixing races too.
Half-caste/overcast is a clever pun/play on words, poking fun at changeable English weather, and therefore at the English audience, reminding us he comes from a sunnier/kinder climate

10. Half-caste by John Agard
LO: To understand how Agard uses imagery and humour to to assert racial identity
Task
Write a PEEE paragraph that answers the following question:
How does Agard use imagery and/or humour to get across his message about racial identity?