There are fifteen poems in the GCSE Power and Conflict anthology.

For your exam, you will be given one poem in full, printed on the page, and you will be asked to compare this poem to another from the anthology.

All of the GCSE English Literature course is closed-book, meaning that you will need to learn at least three lines from each poem.

It is possible to get top marks for this question by making sure that you know the following:

• What the poem is about

• What the poem means

• The methods the poet uses to convey their message

• The links between the ideas of other poems in the anthology

Synopsis

This section includes:

• A general overview of the poem

• A detailed look at the poem line-by-line

• Analysis of the poem, giving John Agard’s intention and message

A General Overview of the Poem

Checking Out Me History explores the nature of identity and how it is tied to education – particularly the History curriculum. The speaker, who appears to be some version of the poet (perhaps a childhood self), describes his experience of a whitewashed version of history as a non-white immigrant in England. The poem explores his frustration and desire to learn about his history, rather than what “dem tell [him]”.

Line-by-Line

Dem tell me

Dem tell me

Wha dem want to tell me 

The poem opens with a double-serving of the refrain that occurs 12 times in the poem: “Dem tell me”, a Caribbean Creole rendering of ‘they tell me’. 

Immediately, the speaker is defined. He is ‘told’ things by an enigmatic “Dem”, meaning that they control the narrative, and he simply takes it. He writes using Nonstandard English, separating himself from whoever “Dem” might be, the first act of rebellion. 

The third line confirms that “dem” are choosing wilfully (“want”) to control the narrative, in an arbitrary way.

Bandage up me eye with me own history

Blind me to me own identity 

The speaker steps up the intensity of his criticisms. His “eye” has been “bandage[d]” (i.e. covered, though the ironic imagery of “bandage” may suggest that “dem” see it as a positive step), and he has been “[b]lind[ed]”. 

Specifically, the focus of the blinding and obscuring is named in the rhyming couplet: “history” and “identity”. The pairing of these two ideas equates them. To the speaker, and likely to Agard, one’s history is synonymous with one’s identity, and so the efforts by “dem” to prevent his access to them is a deep aggression.

Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat

dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat

But Toussaint L’Ouverture

no dem never tell me bout dat

In this stanza, Agard makes reference to several deeply familiar examples of the Eurocentric history he has been ‘told’ by “dem”: the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and the folk legend Dick Whittington of London. 

These are held in stark contrast with the less familiar name: Toussaint L’Ouverture, whom he is “never” told about by his teachers. Unlike the Eurocentric examples, which don’t need explaining, the demonstrative pronoun “dat” (‘that’) when talking about this historical figure leaves the reader confused – what is “dat”? 

This is deliberate. Agard shows that alluding to a historical figure without details only works if you have learned about them already – and nobody learns about Toussaint!

Toussaint

a slave

with vision

lick back

Napoleon

battalion

and first Black

Republic born

Toussaint de thorn

to de French

Toussaint de beacon

of de Haitian Revolution 

This section of the poem, the first of three, explores the allusion to Toussaint L’Ouverture. We learn that Toussaint led the successful slave revolt over French colonial rule (Napoleon) to free Haiti.

The style is more clipped and rhythmic than the preceding stanza about 1066 and Dick Whittington, as well as italicised, perhaps to create a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ style, reflecting the speaker’s own learning in real time. It is a transcendental experience, and stylistically very different from the prosaic references to the white history of other stanzas.

Dem tell me bout de man who discover de balloon

and de cow who jump over de moon

Dem tell me bout de dish ran away with de spoon

but dem never tell me bout Nanny de maroon 

This stanza is an exact replica of the third stanza, again using the refrain “Dem tell me” to reinforce the non-consensual nature of this ‘education’, but this time layering in yet more Eurocentric history and culture: “de man who discover de balloon” (frenchman, Jacques Charles), and the English nursery rhyme “de cow who jump over de moon” – a fairly trivial reference when compared with his contrasting historical reference: “Nanny de maroon”.

Once again, he (and his contemporaries in British or Colonial schools) is “never [told] bout” her. We are about to be schooled.

Nanny

see-far woman

of mountain dream

fire-woman struggle

hopeful stream

to freedom river 

Once again in the stream-of-consciousness style, we join the speaker in learning about Nanny of the Maroons, an escaped slave who helped establish free communities of escaped slaves in the “mountain dream” land of Jamaica. This time, more emotion is weaved into the experience of learning about this historical figure: “dream”, “struggle”, “hopeful”, and “freedom”, paired with natural imagery, “mountain”, “fire”, “stream”, and “river”, underscoring the natural order that comes from opposing oppression.

For the second time in a row, the historical figure chosen is a rebel against European oppressors – a neat analogue to Agard himself in this poem, who is resisting and rejecting the historical force-feeding by “dem”.

Dem tell me bout Lord Nelson and Waterloo

but dem never tell me bout Shaka de great Zulu

Dem tell me bout Columbus and 1492

but what happen to de Caribs and de Arawaks too

Dem tell me bout Florence Nightingale and she lamp

and how Robin Hood used to camp

Dem tell me bout ole King Cole was a merry ole soul

but dem never tell me bout Mary Seacole 

Two Eurocentric history stanzas in a row come next. This is striking, because it disrupts the turn-taking that has come before, between Eurocentric and more global and black history in the previous four stanzas. It is as if there has been a doubling-down in effort by “dem” to impose a litany of Eurocentrism on the speaker and those like him.

The references come thick and fast: the British naval hero, “Lord Nelson”; the Spanish/Italian explorer, “Columbus”; the English nurse, “Florence Nightingale”; British icon (likely apocryphal), “Robin Hood”; and the legend of “ole King Cole” from the English nursery rhyme – the latter being another excellent example of the nonsense culture taught in place of a more diverse history.

Once again, students are “never” told about “Shaka de great Zulu”, resister of European colonisation, about the indigenous Caribbeans, “and de Arawaks too”, who fared badly at the hands of Columbus’ colonising forces, and “Mary Seacole”, a Jamaican-British parallel to the white Florence Nightingale, who is often overlooked in history due to racial prejudice.

In these examples of diverse history, Agard is now trading blows between European and broader historical figures: heroic Columbus, and the people he enslaved, displaced, or killed; and iconic Florence Nightingale, and the forgotten nonwhite equivalent, Mary Seacole.

From Jamaica

she travel far

to the Crimean War

she volunteer to go

and even when de British said no

she still brave the Russian snow

a healing star

among the wounded

a yellow sunrise

to the dying 

In this penultimate stanza, the speaker details the bravery (“a healing star”) of Mary Seacole, paying particular reference to how “de British said no”, to reinforce that she is yet another figure of resistance – not just a nonwhite parallel to Florence Nightingale. She serves two purposes: firstly, to celebrate resistance to British paternalism; and secondly, to exemplify the whitewashing of history when we choose to celebrate only white figures.

Dem tell me

Dem tell me wha dem want to tell me

But now I checking out me own history

I carving out me identity 

In this final stanza, the speaker returns to the first stanza’s assertion, repeating the second and third lines of the poem verbatim, before reflecting on the change that has come over him by the end, signalled by the adverbial “now”.

His new attitude is active, “I checking” and “I carving”, instead of passive, “Dem tell me”, showing the shift in power. The message is very clear: that taking things into his “own” hands has given him new strength. Just as the first stanza equates “history” and “identity”, which this stanza affirms (linking them once more), this final stanza also asserts that education is emancipation. 

By learning his “own history”, he is “carving out [his] identity” and no longer at the mercy of “dem” who educate the way they “want to”.

Writer's Methods

This section aims to support your revision by providing you with concrete and clear examples of methods that John Agard uses. 

Remember: methods support meaning, not the other way round. You will gain more marks focusing your essays on the big ideas of the poems and then supporting these ideas with the methods that the writer uses.

Form

The poem defies many linguistic conventions (such as Standard English spelling, punctuation and grammar), reflecting its provocative and rebellious nature, but nevertheless is organised into ten clear stanzas, with lots of rhyming lines, a deeply rhythmic meter, and the use of a refrain. 

Standard English may not be upheld, but poetic form is the lifeblood of this poem – a clear assertion that poetry does not belong to the oppressors.

Structure

The poem is split into ten distinct stanzas. The main body is bookended by the first stanza and its developed counterpart in stanza 10, depicting the empowerment of the speaker. 

Most of the main body is paired stanzas (three and four, five and six, eight and nine), where the first half of the pair depicts Eurocentric history and the second part the diverse global history of the oppressed. The exception is stanza seven, which has no latter counterpart, perhaps indicating that “what happen to de Caribs and the Arawaks” is not an empowering moment – or perhaps inviting readers to research the devastation for themselves.

Language

The poet wilfully rejects Standard English, with the implicit suggestion that it is another form of oppression and silencing, instead opting for a blend of Caribbean Creole and Standard English. Crucially, this Creole is not ‘bad English’, but instead has consistency of grammar and rules of its own: “dem” consistently being a subject pronoun and “she” consistently being a possessive determiner, not to mention the consistency of the nonstandard spellings such as “de” (the) and “bout” (about).

Whilst most of the diction is direct and allows its content to stand for itself, there are moments of emotive language too – like “a yellow sunrise / to the dying”, and the rhetorical question: “what happen to de Caribs and de Arawaks[?]”.

Context

At MyEdSpace, we use this analogy to discuss context – ketchup, salt and chips.

If you ordered a portion of chips, and asked for salt, you wouldn’t then dump the salt into the corner of your chips and start dipping each individual chip into the salt. 

When you put salt on your chips, you sprinkle it over, sparingly, so as to give a good coverage of salt across the chips as a whole. Context is just like salt on chips. 

Context is not ketchup – because it would be appropriate to squeeze ketchup into the corner of your plate and dip each chip in (and in fact, that is advised).

So when you’re including contextual information in your essays, sprinkle it across the essay, just like you sprinkle salt on your chips.

Let’s link the context to the key ideas and themes of the poem.

Autobiographical Elements

John Agard capitalised on his mixed heritage (Afro-Guyanese and Portuguese) and his immigrant status in Britain in his poetry, opting for a blend of Caribbean Creole and Standard English in his poetry – poetry which deals with issues of identity and racism (this poem was published alongside ‘Half-Caste’ – a stirring confrontation to racist opinions regarding value in colour – in the 2005 collection, ‘Half-Caste and Other Poems’).

White History

The poem was written against a backdrop of centuries of Eurocentric History teaching (and black erasure) in British schools and in countries of the British Empire, like Guyana.

Comparison

You are required to write an essay in your exam that is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two poems from the Power & Conflict anthology. Therefore, it is very important to revise the poems in pairs and to enter the exam with an idea of what poem you will choose to compare once you know what the named poem is.

'Checking Out Me History' and 'London'

Both of these poems are written from the perspectives of British inhabitants reflecting on oppression in its various forms on what lies before them. Both poems criticise the power structures that cause suffering. However, Checking Out Me History focuses on oppression expressed in History curriculums and academic discourse, whilst London focuses on oppression in more overt ways, such as war, religion, and sovereignty.

Similarities:

Both poems directly criticise grand power structures.

Evidence and Analysis

Agard’s poem does not refrain from declarative statements of blame, such as “Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me” and “dem never tell me bout dat”, as well as making explicit the effects of oppression on young learners with emotive assertions: “[b]lind me to me own identity”.

Blake’s poem is clear about the source of the oppression, using capitalisation to make proper nouns of the “Church” and the “Palace”, synecdochic of the Church of England and the royal family, respectively. He is also clear about its impacts: three times using the noun “cry” from different victims.

Difference:

The poets focus on different manifestations of oppression.

Evidence and Analysis

John Agard’s focus throughout his poem is on oppression in educational contexts, whereas Blake’s focus throughout his is on oppression in physical contexts.

In Agard’s poem, the nature of oppression is consistently linguistic. This can be seen in the overwhelming repetition of the verb “tell” (18 times), whose force comes from its implications – a lack of consent, a lack of dialogue – and the explicit reference, at start and end of poem, to the subject of “history”, meaning that this oppression is about discourse, not physical violence.

Contrastingly, in Blake’s poem, the nature of oppression is more palpable and violent. We can see this in the reference to “blood [running] down [...] walls”, indicating – though metaphorically – that actual blood (of “hapless Soldiers”) has been spilled in the name of the oppressors: the “Palace” in this sense (i.e. the monarchs who sent troops to crush revolution in 18th-Century America, France, and at home).