poetry comparison with Emigree and checking out me history. what would u give it /30

A conflict over the persona's own individual identity is explored in both poems 'The Emigree' and 'Checking Out Me History'. There is a sense of melancholy in Rumens and Agard's reflections on the past as if they are longing for something different and understanding their disparity in life.

In his view, Agard longs for a different understanding of history, and he knows that history taught in schools is whitewashed and fails to reflect the great Black people who deserve a place in history books, but are omitted in favor of a more colonial perspective. Even though Rumens feels a sense of cultural belonging and wants to return to the place of her childhood, there is a barrier to doing so. She says in the first person, "I have no passport, there's no way back at all.". Similarly, 'Checking Out Me History' could be an example of what we are taught or not taught, while 'The Emigrant' might be an example of the physical barrier of not being able to return. The poet reinforces this longing for something different by using the verb "branded," which implies something being burned into your skin, something permanent and non-removable, indicating that when the poet uses this phrase, she is experiencing an "impression of sunlight" that has become ingrained in her psyche and that she cannot escape, or indeed does not wish to escape. Almost like Agard, she pines for this feeling of belonging in a country where she does not belong anymore, and at the beginning, he repeats the refrain “Dem tell me” with a sense of cynicism because he wants to know not just what he is told, but all about his “own history” that he has not been told about. It is reinforced by the metaphorical use of "bandage up me eye" and the use of colloquial language that Agard has not received any significant information. As opposed to the nursery rhymes he was taught, his longing seems to be for the truth about what happened to his people.

Black British poet Agard has stated in an interview that he enjoys encouraging people to think about interracial connections, as evidenced by his challenging what he has been taught about white history and black history. Agard mentions the Battle of Hastings "Dem tell me about 1066 and all dat" with a sense of melancholy. Everyone who has been through the British education system knows what happened in Medieval England, so the connotation of "all dat" seems to be it does not require further explanation. The melancholic tone increases in “But Toussaint L'Ouverture no dem never tell me about dat” particularly as the enjambment continues to Agard telling the story of Toussaint in italics, demonstrating how he was left out of history books and that his story needs embellishment compared to “1066”, which contains very little information but tells a very significant historical narrative. The “dem” pronoun appears to be a collective pronoun for all those who have written history or taught history or it may be a systemic failure to ensure black people are informed about their own history. We have third party information about her homeland in 'The Emigree' which she dismisses as "at war" and "sick with tyrants" to show she still feels melancholy about the experience. Rumens said the poem is about the conflict between imagination and convention, which suggests that the power of imagination is more powerful than adhering to society's rules in this poem. The persona seems to be reflecting on her current situation with extreme nostalgia throughout the poem.

As well as creating narratives about the past and the imagination used to explore what was or what might have been, Rumens and Agard both tell tales of displacement (Agard from his own history, Rumens from an imaginative flight of fancy). Their respective messages about identity and the conflict that is inherent in owning one's own identity are important, however. There is a melancholy and reflective quality to Rumen's poem, and the message appears to be to embrace your imagination, while Agard is more grounded and appears to emphasize the need to know concrete facts about yourself. In this way the poems explore a conflict over identity in complex and different ways, showing that identity is very individual.