Unseen Poetry Model Answer

A White Man Considers the Situation

Perhaps it is time to retreat from these well-loved shores.

The swell heaves on the beach, angry clouds pile:

The surf is ominous, storms are coming.

I see I am a tourist in my own land: 

My brutal tenancy is over, they all say, 

The centuries have faded like a dream…

Every day it is harder for the timid to make plans, 

People do not say good morning with the former politeness 

The pavements feel safe only when old men pass.

The grip of power slides away, slides. 

Something is missing in days still filled with pleasure; 

There is emptiness, dreaming in the air. 

Where ruling ends, the ruler cannot stay: 

A diminished mastery is the keenest woe.

The best measure is the use of time, 

My father's father planted once 

A green tree in this quiet garden 

It was to yield ancestral wood 

To grace my grandson's christening chair.

The best measure is the use of time.

I decorate now my dark-skinned love 

With hibiscus for her shining hair 

The petals fade, the sun burns out 

Red hibiscus in her shining hair.

I lie sleepless in the embroidered sheets,

A sprig of khus-khus scents the room. 

The night is dark with cloud, and lonely. 

The black sentries are whispering restless. 

My father heard a hurricane of nightingales 

Once upon a time, once upon a time. 

Now the owl hoots, signalling danger coming 

The moon is half alight, throwing coldness.

There is no way back, no forward way: 

My heart grows clenched with inner grief. 

Almost certainly I will have to go from here. 

The laagers of the world build higher, black and white. 

And no-one is to blame except my brother, me. 

No one is to blame except my brother.

Ian McDonald

Comment on and analyse how the writer’s choice of structure, form and language shape meanings.

In his poem, A White Man Considers the Situation, Ian McDonald explores the division between self and space that can exist amongst minorities, particularly those that have to leave familiar environs, for reasons of circumstance or safety. It is a poem that deftly investigates the impermanence of the physical self in relation to one’s culture, the way we lay symbolic emphasis on our familial pasts and the ways in which we suffer with understanding our identities.

The poem examines the way in which the physical self, our bodies, rely upon the place around us for a sense of connection and safety. The poem opens with repeated references to place: ‘the swell heaves on the beach’, ‘angry clouds’ ‘the surf’ ‘storms’. Opening in such a way allows McDonald to paint a vivid image through his use of language of an idyllic location beset with fraught difficulty. These beaches are not ones of postcard perfection - they are impacted with heavy verbs (heaves) and punctured adjectives (angry). We see that this environment is disturbed. The implication is that this is as a result of the speakers need to ‘retreat’, a verb here that implies a loss of a battle of some description. We are told that these are ‘well-loved shores’. As such, we know that the speaker values this place, feels it important to the self. We can see in some respects the poet using elements of pathetic fallacy to suggest to us as readers that the reason for the suffering of the setting is the suffering of the self. When immediately these opening lines are followed with the description of the speakers experience as a ‘brutal tenancy’, we start to see that there is a sense of the temporary here. Who is the ‘they’ that follows? The ambiguity of the oppressor, directing the speaker that it is time to leave, suggest that this removal is forced or unwanted. This is not the first example of ambiguity in the poem; even the title itself ‘A White Man Considers the Situation’, leaves ample room for interpretation. The situation could be one of many, the white man representative of an entire group. It is here that they key to the poem may lie - the poem is exploring the perspective of the white man being asked to leave his home, a flip on the typical colonial inspired poem that paints the white man as the one asking others, usually people of colour, to leave. As such, we see what happens when those who are typically in positions of authority are suddenly removed from the situations they control, it creates a tension between this individual and the environment that they are in. 

As the poem continues, we see not only negative interactions with space, but with those who occupy the space. We hear that ‘People do not say good morning with the former politeness’. The lack of punctuation at the end of this line creates an awkward cadence, showing how things have begun to fall apart. This is reflected in the ‘pavements’ not feeling ‘safe’. The only time they do feel safe is when ‘old men pass’, and these old men are the ones that used to wander here but seem not to any more. This is not the only reference to some previous occupiers of space. One of the speakers great joy is the ‘father’s father’s ‘green tree’, a physical and metaphorical representation of the roots of the speaker. Only over time can such a thing grow, and this is a true representation of the individuals connection to the space. In fact, it was meant to ‘grace my grandson’s christening chair’, the connection between the spiritual and the physical here being created to further reinforce that, when torn away from this place, the situation shall disintegrate for our speaker. Disintegration occurs not only in terms of familial connections, but also in our romantic ones. There is an erotic overtone in stanza four, as the speaker ‘decorates’ his ‘dark-skinned love’, the overtone of the sexual act clear, but also the sense of ownership clear. Could this be a reason for the anger of those around him? A sense that, this speaker is in some ways taking and not returning. However, the focus on the ‘hair’ implies an intimacy that can only come from true romantic connection. It is not simply a lustful gaze, but desire coupled with connectivity. This could be part of the reason why, in stanza five, we are told that the speaker’s nights are ‘sleepless’ suggests a real sense of suffering in the mind of the speaker who notices, through the use of olfactory imagery, ‘a spring of khus-khus scents the room’. The fact that they have such specific cultural associations suggests that they are well at home here, but sadly the consequence is that the nights become ‘lonely’. Once again, the poet is creating the impression that this person, with the threat (real or imagined) of being removed from their home, is experiencing real suffering. The natural world reflects this further, with the ‘nightingales’ and the ‘owls’ acting almost as omens - the former, from the past, from the time of the ‘father’ the latter, in the narrative present, ‘signalling danger coming’. Overseeing this, the typically impermanent moon made permanent: personified and ‘throwing coldness.’ 

As we move into the final stanza, the repetition of ‘no’ solidifies that sense of defeatism: ‘There is no way back, no forward way’. The speaker is entirely blocked in any direction, unable to move. This feeling of being trapped in the physical space has echoes in the physical body as his ‘heart grows clenched with inner grief’. It’s a deftly delivered line, one that tears away at the metaphor across the poem, preferring instead a candid line of suffering. The focus on the ‘heart’ ties the speaker to the interior of their soul, the verb ‘clenched’ implies a sense of being caught, the abstract noun ‘grief’ solidifying that sense of loss that has existed right across the poem. The inconsistency in terms of experience on the horizon has finally captured our speaker. It’s worth noting here that that poem is structured with stanzas of inconsistent length, right to the very end. Some have six lines, others four, some seven or eight. It could be said that these inconsistent stanza lengths reflect the sense of inconsistency in the speakers life: asked to assimilate, asked to leave. But we could also argue that they reflect a deeper sense of chaos - that in a world where those who call a place home cannot continue to call it home, it speaks volumes to us an entire race as to what it is that we value. If we cannot even solidify our roots, to grow the ‘green trees’, then we are likely set to experience a life that is forever in a state of flux. In the very final line of the poem, the speaker introduces rather a perplexing question to us as a reader, when they remark that: ‘No one is to blame except my brother.’ With the first mention of this familial connection, it is easy to assume that they are in some ways connected by blood - but a better explanation is that this is the collective ‘brother’, as in, all of mankind. The ‘brother’ who is to blame is the man beside you, who may at a moments notice decide that you are no longer welcome. It is this kind of action that results in us questioning our identities - because, where you were previously welcome, you are no longer. If it ends in such a way that you have to ‘Almost certainly…have to go from here’ then arguably it is no longer possible for you to perceive yourself in such a way. 

Overall, this is a complex poem that attempts to unpick the experiences of those asked, whether literally or in an implied way, to leave a place for a given reason. It is a poem of separation, as the speaker discusses the ways in which they feel separate from a land they once held dear. This has implications for their perception of themselves, and who they truly are. ‘The Situation’ referenced in the title of the poem appears to be an situation in which a person is no longer welcome in a place they once held dear. Ultimately, the writer’s choices of structure, form and language serve to create a sense of disconnection and remind us that often we cannot rely on others to define ourselves and that we must seek meaning within ourselves, as that is the only true constant.