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Essay about Comparing Hurrican Hits England and Not my Business

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Comparing Hurrican Hits England and Not my Business

The two poems I am to compare are Grace Nichols “Hurricane Hits
England” a poem that shows that the whole world is one world and how a storm reminds a Caribbean woman of home. The author obviously misses her home country and feels it in the storm which she wrote about, the violence of the storm is harsh and causes some damage. The second poem, with which I will be comparing “Hurricane...” is Niyi Osundare’s
“Not my Business”. This poem describes the violent and horrific nature in which the Nigerian Government treated those people who disagreed with the state. It describes the pain and suffering they forced upon these people and how the pain and suffering is then brought to the …show more content…

The hurricanes that sometimes strike England as destructive storms really do bring the Caribbean, and the weather and climate, to Britain - they retrace the poet's journey from the west, and recall her own origins.

The wind travels across the sea to find her new home and remind her of her old home. The wind is referred to as a “howling ship.” This encourages the notion that it has travelled to find her. The word
“howling” is onomatopoeia and adds to the atmospheric depth of the phrase and really makes the storm seem dark and mysterious.

The poem begins in the third person but changes in the second stanza to a first-person view as the poet speaks of herself, and addresses the tropical winds, this tells you of how violent the storm becomes with words, . The speaker here could be anyone who has made this journey, but Grace Nichols is probably speaking for herself in the poem. The poem is written mostly as free verse - there is no rhyme scheme; stanzas vary in length, as do the lines, though the first line of the poem is a perfect pentameter.

The phrase,

“Its gathering rage,” personifies the storm and really shows her homelands fury, through the fury of the storm.

The phrase,

“Like some dark ancestral spectre.” is a metaphor suggesting that she is being haunted by her ancestors from her home country, through the storm. It also tells of how, if she isn’t being haunted, she must have a longing to be there

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