Comparisons: Poetry and Regular Rhyming Pattern Essay

Submitted By sullymo
Words: 365
Pages: 2

“Checking out me history” is all about the writer wanting to learn about his past. Instead, he is being taught all about the history of white people. He keeps reciting facts that he has learnt. Some of the facts most English children would have learnt whilst they are in school, and some of the facts he has been taught outside of school, probably by his parents.

The poem seems like it is a rant to the schooling system and the politics of the country. This may be why there is no punctuation in this poem. It is a way to rebel against the teachers. At school the teachers are always telling you to check your spelling and punctuation, and he is disagreeing with the way and things he is being taught. Having no punctuation suits the informality of the whole poem and it adds to the song-like form of it. The short lines in the poem make it seem quite powerful, although also quite childlike. The rhyme in “checking out me history” holds the rhythm together. It seems like the poem is meant to be told, or sung, rather than to be read. The rhyme in some verses has a regular rhyming pattern, where as the verses ion italics (verse four, six and nine) have no rhyming patter. These are the facts that he has learnt so it seems right that the rhyming in these are different. The poet often repeats the phrase “dem tell me”. This emphasises the point about him being taught things that he does not want to learn, because it seems like he cannot be bothered to write proper English. When