Tone

Try reading the poem aloud. What sort of tone should it be read in?

• Angrily, as a warning to everyone who uses the term 'half-caste'?
• Apologetically? The poem seems to start with an apology: 'Excuse me...' Think about why that might be.
• With humour?
• Pleadingly, as he tries to make people understand?

Select a short quotation (or quotations) to justify your choice.

Finally, what idea is the poet seeking to get across in this poem? Why did he write it? John Agard himself said of this 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..."

John Agard

Now try a Test Bite