Half-Caste

JOHN AGARD – POET - PLAYWRIGHT

 •'The diversity of
About thehere
cultures poetis
very exciting'.

I think humour can be very powerful. Humour breaks

down boundaries, it topples our self-importance, it
connects people

• John Agard came to England from Guyana in 1977.

• Like many people from the Caribbean, he is mixed race - his
mother is Portuguese, but born in Guyana and his father is
black.
• One of the things he enjoys about living in England is the wide
range of people he meets:
• He doesn't like the view of racial origins, which is implied in the
word 'half-caste', still used by many people to describe people
of mixed race.
• The term now is considered rude and insulting.
 John Agard - Half Caste
Poem opens
apologetically or Opening stanza is a joke
belligerently?

Excuse me
standing on one leg
I’m half-caste.

Speaker stands on one leg because he Using the word caste as if it is

is only half made/half a person cast i.e. made
Starter

Excuse me
standing on one leg
I’m half-caste

Explain yuself
wha yu mean
when you say half-caste
yu mean when picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas/

In pairs, answer these questions:

 What does this poem seem to be about?
 What tone/ mood is suggested by these lines?
 What dialect of English do you think this is?
• ...NOW LOOK AT THE REST OF THE
POEM
• The speaker asks if Picasso mixing red
and green is a half-caste canvas.

There are two other comparisons

offered as explanations as to what
being ‘half-caste’ means.
 What are they?

 What do you notice about these

comparisons? 
 What does the speaker appear to
think about the label and title -
‘Half-caste’?
What does the term HALF-CASTE
suggest?

HALF CASTE

• Used as in colour; the ‘cast’ of

• Less than whole something
• Less important • Indian term for social class, the lowest
of which is considered ‘untouchable’
• Not properly
formed • Cast, made or formed
 Repeated ideas
Here are some of the repeated words in the poem:
dream dream explain explain explain explain
eye eye half half half half-a half-a half-a half-a
half-caste half-caste half-caste half-caste half-caste half-caste half-caste
half-caste half-caste halh-caste i i i i i i i i’m i’m i’m keen keen
key key mean mean mean mean mean mean mean
mix mix mix say say say
weather weather wha wha wha wha
when when when when when when when when when
whole whole you you you you’ll
yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu yu
yuself yuself yuself yuself

 What do you notice?

‘Explain yuself’ appears four times. Why? Is it aggressive or not?

Tone
Give the following key lines a score from 0-10
indicating the tone or mood.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Very negative - - - - Neutral -----Very positive
Angry? Detached? Excited? Confrontational?
Energetic? Defeated? Sarcastic?

LINE SCORE
A Excuse me standing on one leg
B Explain yuself wha yu mean
C England weather nearly always half-caste
D Ah listening to yu wid de keen half of mih eye
E But yu must come back tomorrow
F An I will tell yu de other half of my story
 • WORDS- EXTENDED METAPHOR
• Throughout the poem, a picture is built up
of half a person, which the writer clearly
thinks is being implied by calling people
‘half-caste’.

1. on one leg
2. listening with the keen* half of your ear
3. looking with the keen* half of your eye
4. I offer you half a hand
5. when I sleep at night I close half an eye
6. when I dream, I dream half a dream
7. When moon begin to glow... I cast...half a shadow
 The poem uses the following techniques
Do you understand them?

• Repetition • Repeat to reinforce an

idea or image

• Non-standard English • English that doesn’t follow

the normal ‘rules’
• Non-standard, dialect form
• Patois/Creole language
of a language
• Important pictures and
• Key ideas/images
thoughts
 Explain yuself
5 wha yu mean first stanza
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when Picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas/
10 explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
15 is a half-caste weather/
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste
in fact some o dem cloud
20 half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem don’t want de sun pass
ah rass/
Tone is more demanding and blunt than the
Written in his dialect (patois) with
non-standard punctuation
emphasising the fact that the
speaker stands outside of society
Agard ridicules the notion of Half-caste by
applying it to art and, notably, the British
Weather
explain yuself
Agard puns the wha yu mean
words half-caste 25 when yu say half-caste
and overcast for yu mean tchaikovsky
humour sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
30 is a half-caste symphony/
 Explain yuself
The poet reprises
wha yu mean
his earlier joke/pun
Ah listening to yu wid de keen
on a mixed race
half of mih ear The poet is
person being half 35 Ah looking at yu wid de keen asking/telling you to
formed: the “half-
half of mih eye be more open minded
caste” uses only
an when I’m introduced to yu and thoughtful both in
half of ear and eye,
I’m sure you’ll understand terms of your attitudes
and offers half a
why I offer yu half-a-hand and the way you
hand to shake,
40 an when I sleep at night speak
leading to the
I close half-a-eye
absurdities of
consequently when I dream
dreaming half a
I dream half-a-dream
dream and casting
an when moon begin to glow
half a shadow. 45 I half-caste human being
cast half-a-shadow
but yu must come back tomorrow
Once again the wid de whole of yu eye
poet uses humour an de whole of yu ear
and absurdity to 50 an de whole of yu mind.
emphasise his view
of the term an I will tell yu Final pun on the word half, like
de other half a joke, the poem ends with a
of my story. punchline
The type of English the writer uses:
– The first three lines are standard English;
perhaps this is to make sure that he is
listened to, as he feels that his own accent
and dialect may make people judge him. The
rest of the poem is in Afro-Caribbean dialect
which helps him to reinforce his pride in his
own identity and cultural background. It is
also perfect for a performance poem.
 Structure
• The layout for Half Caste- John Agard is a performance
piece as it was written to be read out loud with tone. The
poem is made up of three stanzas of different lengths. He
also writes in short sentences and no punctuation. This
makes it easier to see the non-standard English.

• In the first half of the poem, he shows how ridiculous the

term “half caste” is by asking the listener to explain what
he/she means. In the second half of the poem, he extends
the irony by describing himself as only having half a body
and then tells the listener to go away and think about what
he has said.
 Question
Explain how Agard uses language and form
to put forward his views about injustice in
“Half-Caste”
 Model answer
Explain how Agard uses language to put forward his views
about injustice in “Half-Caste”

• In the poem Agard uses a range of vocabulary to

explain how he feels about the term Half-Caste.
Repetition of “Explain yuself” ensures that the reader is
aware that Agard is demanding a response. It can be
suggested that the speaker feels that the term “Half-
Caste” is offensive because it has associations of
rejection. He uses humour/PUN with the description of
“standing on one leg” to ridicule the notion of a person
being half a person. Furthermore, it can be argued that
Agard uses Creole language to present the idea that
he is proud of his heritage. The tone of the poem
clearly presents Agard’s feelings of injustice relating to
the racist term of Half-Caste and it can be argued that
he finds this term insulting.
 Plenary
Why did Agard write the poem?

"This imposition of half, half, half on a person's total

human complexity implies that some sort of 'purity' has
been subverted. A child of mixed race is a tangible,
loving expression of human beings from different
cultural backgrounds getting together - that should be
seen not as something threatening, but as something
enriching..."