On the 22nd January, year 11 embarked on a school trip to Birmingham Town Hall, to see a selection of 7 poets perform and explain some of their most famous poems, including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Year 11 also hoped to gain guidance from one of AQAs chief examiners regarding how to form responses to GCSE English literature questions more effectively.
At 9am on Tuesday morning, year 11, along with all the English staff, left Handsworth and promptly arrived in Birmingham City Centre. The long walk in the cold to the venue was more than worth it. Upon entering we were greeted by an introduction from Tony Childs accompanied by a subtle hum of excitement from all the other schools attending. The crowd broke into applause once the first poet, Imtiaz Dharker stepped on stage.
Pakistan born, Imtiaz, read aloud her poem “Tissue” which, she explained, is a comment on the fragility and impermanence of man and how the smallest details of our lives are what truly define us. She also read aloud two further poems before taking questions and exiting the stage.
Next onto the stage was Grace Nichols, a Guyana born poet, whose talent had even earned her a Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Her poetry was very unique, as it coalesced both Standard English with Creole (the dialect of English spoken in Guyana) – all her poetry was rhythmically complex and engaging, particular her “cat rap”, a poem dedicated to her daughter Catherine. Grace gave a warm message about how we can be whatever we want, before departing and announcing the next poet’s name.
Judging solely from the roar of applause that filled the auditorium, the next poet was clearly the favourite. John Agard greeted the audience with an enthusiastic, toothy grin, cheerfully reciting his most well-known poem “Checkin’ out me history”, a comment on the erasure and separation of black history from the education system, which I’m sure resonated with many in the audience. He then gave a long speech upon the significance of poetry and language, finishing with another one of his most well-known poems, “Half Caste”, a comment by Agard on the usage of the term half caste to describe mixed raced people. The poem and subject matter were clearly extremely personal to John, as you could hear the emotion in each and every syllable he spoke. The audience were left in a silent awe and all were thoroughly disappointed when Agard left the stage, but thoroughly excited for lunchtime nonetheless.
After a half an hour break the presentation continued with a talk from a chief examiner about the best ways to analyse poetry in order to secure top marks and a presentation from Gillian Clarke and poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. All the poems they recited were about their lives in the past and carried a somewhat melancholy tone. Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, “Before you were mine”, was about her mother’s life, before she was her mother and was especially sombre. They took many questions and provided a lot of insight in to the nature of creative writing, along with the precise feelings conveyed in their works. After leaving the stage, we were all allowed another short break to stretch our legs, before being seated, once again in wide-eyed excitement.
The audience became a sea of clapping hands and cheers, as Simon Armitage (another favourite I presume) walked out on stage. Simon gave a long speech into the nature of inspiration and creativity, before reciting his poem “Remains”, a poem he had written about a soldier suffering from PTSD after killing a looter in the Gulf War in 1991. The poem discusses some of the harsh, but scarcely talked about realities of war and the effect combat can have on soldiers long after they have left the battlefield. Armitage introduced the next poet, Daljit Nagra, before leaving the stage, we were all disappointed to watch him leave and to see the end of the day rapidly approaching.
Daljit was one of the more light hearted poets. His poem “Singh Song” was a favourite among many in the audience, following a day in the life of a newlywed Indian boy, running a corner-shop with his bride in England. It was a happy and romantic poem and it looked at ideas about love from an unconventional angle, light heartedly telling the story of a happy young couple, making a living in a strange foreign land, something I’m sure many of our parents or grandparents did at some point in their lives. The chief examiner concluded the day by wishing us farewell and good luck on all our exams. We left the venue much the same as we entered, but a little wiser and a lot more hopeful for our English literature GCSE.
The day was thoroughly enjoyable and I would love to go to something similar again (hint!). Thank you to all of the English staff for organising it.
Jay Keenan
