checking out me history vs London comparison

Theme: power of humans 

Both poems convey ideas of how humankind’s greed of power affects lives of many people 

Language- COMH (similarity)

• the education system in Guyana (where he grew up) ‘bandaged up me [his] eye” & he became seemingly “blind”

• Verbs “blind” / “bandage” in the extended metaphor >> gruesome image of torture w connotations of helplessness & uncertainty seen thru verb “blind” ; it’s as if  physical torment would’ve been better than hiding him from his “own identity”, 

• which has actually happened w the British colonising/controlling his homeland

• Agard evokes a deep sense of sorrow/grief from reader as of the strong grip that the British had on Agard’s understanding of himself 

Language- London (similarity)

• An immoral government is seen through the “mind-forged manacles” attached onto every citizen of Blake’s society 

• Just as Agard is restrained from his identity, ppl in ‘London’ are Lund as lifeless/helpless prisoners to the monarchy & “blackening church” which was meant to help at the time but instead it used its power for selfish reasons 

• “Manacles”- intertextual reference to  the works of Jean-jacques Rousseau who once said “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”.

• Thus, though the “manacles” of identity in Agard’s poem are serious, the physical/emotional suffering of the proletariat in ‘London’ is much more grave & potent effect of humankind’s corrupting power 

Both poets effectively show a struggle against those in power but in ‘checking out me history” there’s an attempt to join both the powerful & powerless together whilst in “london”, the weak continues to get weaker

Structure- Checking out me history (difference)

• Agard builds a rhyme pattern…