Clashes and Collisions

The poem is written in 1st person, presenting a conflict motivated by raw emotion. The voice speaks directly to the target through the use of the 2nd person. In the poem there is a one sided tirade directed towards racists and ignorance: 'explain yuself'. This time the 2nd person could be the reader, this adds a sense of victimisation from the perspective and the poet and readers. 

Agard uses imagery to portray objects and important people seem like they are also half a person, such as; 'picasso' and 'england weather'. Agard has also spelt these words with no capital letter which emphasizes his point, and saying 'why should they be allowed to be a full person when he is not'. 

In the poem 'Catrin', Gillian Clark describes the physical and mental struggles in a relationship between a mother and daugher. The poem is split into two stanzas, the first representing a memory of the childs birth and the second presenting the ongoing conflict and the battle for independance that her daughter is seeking.

Throughout the poem, a dominant writing technique that is used by Clark is metaphors. There is a clear lexical of metaphors representing the theme of 'birth' such as the phrases; 'old rope' which portrays the image of a umbilical cord, 'white room' which suggests a hospital, and 'our struggle to become seperate' which also suggests that it was a hard birth. In the second stanza, the metaphor/oxymoron 'neither won nor lost the battle' suggest that even though she's got her child born she now has the ongoing struggle of raising the child and has to live through the conflicts that may uprise.

The poem is written in 1st person, presenting a conflict motivated by raw emotion. Both voices speak directly to their target through the use of second person. In Catrin, the persona is addressing her daughter ; 'I can remember you' . The use of the pronoun 'you'  makes the audience feel like we are listening in to a private and intimate conversation. The tone is therefore personal and intense. Even though there is only 1 voice, the language implies a dialogue and we understand the 'struggle' the mother and daughter are experiencing.