FLAG-John Agard

FLAG-John Agard

1. Tone/Purpose

   • Flag is growing in dominance
   • Pessimistic
   • Protest poem
   • Soft sounding verbs for questions about flag- harsh, negative tone for explanation/ answer
   • Simple flow- childlike
   • Shows how goverment uses flags as propaganda
   • Harsh
   • Firm
   • Bitter
     • Patriotism provides us with an excuse to accept the barbarism our goverments are carrying out
   • Agard is trying to raise awareness of how much a pice of cloth has over our consience

2. Language

   • Repitition
     • ''Just''- drums it into readers mind about how little the importance the flag actually holds
   • Verbs indicate where they are
   • ''Whats' that''
     • Start of 4 stanzas
   • "It's just a piece of cloth"
     • Agard simplifies it's importance
   • "guts"
     • ambiguous
     • alliteration
     • literal
     • figuritive
   • "Possess"
     • We want to own flag but the flag owns us
     • ambiguous
   • Agard personifies flag
   • "Relent"
     • Flag is intimidating towards other countries as it seeks the world for more power and resources

3. Form and Structure

   • Strict structure
     • Long line, short, long
       • Like a flag
   • Rise and fall in internation in last stanza
   • call and response questioning
   • Slant rhyme
   • 1st line in each stanza begins with a question
     • Engages readers mind, gradually increasing impact to what comes in last stanza
   • 'aba' structure
   • Terecet structure~ looks like 3 stripes on a a flag

4. Mmm I know!

   • Mood and Method
     • Belligerent (hostile & aggressive)~childlike tone found in questions followed by a candid reply/ answer
   • Message and Minutiae
     • A flag is a cloak of deciet for immorality and brutality under the guise of patriotism
       • "That will outlive the blood you bleed", "That brings a nation to its knees", "Then blind your conscience to the end"
         • ~ You are no longer in charge of your conscience; your ordered to fulfil/ complete tasks
   • Mind (imagery)
     • use of onomatopia creates vivid imagery making flag appear as if it is alive
       • "Fluttering in a breeze", "Unfurling from a pole", "rising over a tent", "flying across a field", "possess such a cloth"

5. Context and Themes

   • John Agard
     • born 1949
     • Grew up in British Guyana~ conflicting lifesyle
   • Progression of war
   • Steriotypical elemnts of war
   • Allusion of power in flags
   • Presented as convo. between child and adult
   • Naive questioner