Grace Nichols, ‘The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping’

Shopping in London winter
is a real drag for the fat black woman
going from store to store
in search of accommodating clothes
and de weather so cold
Look at the frozen thin mannequins
fixing her with grin
and de pretty face salesgals
exchanging slimming glances
thinking she don’t notice
Lord is aggravating
Nothing soft and bright and billowing
to flow like breezy sunlight
when she walking
The fat black woman curses in Swahili/Yoruba
and nation language under her breathing
all this journeying and journeying
The fat black woman could only conclude
that when it come to fashion
the choice is lean
Nothing much beyond size 14

Analysis:

It seems like that our poet is using her sarcastic sense of humour to complain about the difficulties in finding clothes of her size in cold winter in London.  However, it is clear that London does not sell clothes of her size although she is a British.  Moreover, sales girls are making fun of her appearance. 

Language:

Nichols’ language is colloquial which sounds like a daily conversation.  It is also dramatic and jaunty which is close to Stevie Smith’s ‘the jungle husband’.  She deliberately typed ‘de’ instead ‘the’, labelled her identity (diction).

Techniques:

Rhyming: the frequent use of whispering, sibilant words like ‘sh’, ‘s’ created an unpleasant atmosphere and produced a reflectively regretful tone that almost masks the anger.

Also, the repeated use of ‘ing’, ‘in’, ‘b’ effectively conveyed her mind state.  Angry but she is trying to put it under the control.  Negative feelings come from prejudice and discrimination in terms of sizes, cold weather and pretty face salesgals’ slimming glances but she is still trying to ignore and stay positive.

Repetition:

Fat black woman appeared 3 times in this poem.  Her image is impressive, as I would like to think that she represents black women in the UK.

'Store to store’ is responding to ‘journeying to journeying’, effectively delivering the sad truth is that she lives in London but it does not sell clothes of her size.  In a cold winter, she must have worn a lot in order to keep warm but as stores don’t have her size, her clothes may look outdated and perhaps shabby.  The reality made her feel sick, exhausted and tired.

Journeying to journeying may offer a double meaning which renders the fact that racial prejudice and discrimination has existed in London for a long time, and ridiculously, this journey has no end. 

Her conclusion is polite and sarcastic, open to multiple interpretations.  Of course, poet just chose fashion as a window to articulate discrimination but it is not limited to fashion…

Landlord's reputation in London

In London, real estate agents are working for sellers and landlords !  No one works for you as a buyer or tenant !!  You can hardly obtain the reputation of your landlord until it is too late...

For such an unforgettable and unpleasant experience, here it is:  http://www.chard.co.uk/tolet/Roberts%20Court,%20Barkston%20Gardens/SW5/beds-1/property.vtx?propertyid=E0C7EC58-F481-47BB-9F9F-6A70560E399E

Stevie Smith - 'The Jungle Husband'

Dearest Evelyn, I often think of you
Out with the guns in the jungle stew
Yesterday I hittapotamus
I put the measurements down for you but they got lost in the fuss
It’s not a good thing to drink out here
You know, I’ve practically given it up dear.
Tomorrow I am going alone a long way
Into the jungle. It is all grey
But green on top
Only sometimes when a tree has fallen
The sun comes down plop, it is quite appalling.
You never want to go in a jungle pool
In the hot sun, it would be the act of a fool
Because it’s always full of anacondas, Evelyn, not looking ill-fed
I’ll say. So no more now, from your loving husband Wilfred.

Analysis: The poem was written in a letter form, the tone of the poem is quite jaunty.  It retains the same rhyming scheme (aabb) but not consistently and each stanza has a rhyming couplet at the end of lines, except line 10 & 11 which has a half rhyming and line 9 top is responding plop in the middle of line 11. 

Those irregular rhyming couplets may intend to reveal different states of this husband’s mind.  When I looked at it closer, I found that plain words were used to describe his thoughts for his wife which are in contrast to imagery descriptive words of his adventure in the jungle.  He could be a husband of male chauvinism. 

'Hittapotamus' and ‘practically’ are interesting words here, which might tell us that this husband is alcoholic and has yet given up.  

Fallen/appalling is a half rhyming which could reflect on his mind and world are collapsed. 

 

From pool/fool and ill-fed/Wilfred: the message could be that he has been escaping from his family responsibilities, he has nothing to offer but he still wanted his wife to love him.

Prague 2011

This is how I see Prague - must be different in your eyes and memories... What a beautiful city with mysterious power in mediaeval times... however, not that much to see inside and beyond these buildings ...

2011 Has Come to us...

For a happier New Year, we should listen to the core messages of all these great religions, above all the Confucian golden rule that we should never do to others what we would not like to be done to us. What religion should teach us is not how to hate, but – to borrow again from Confucius – how to develop societies that look after and welcome the poor, the stranger and the oppressed.

Those of us who think that science and religion dwell in different domains, and who recall that Socrates argued that science did not teach you about morality or meaning, find that our case is undermined by the literalists and fundamentalists in every religion.

A Good Year for God, by Lord Chris Patten 23 Dec 2010