This is an online test we had to make for our language class here is the task.
I chose the poem Who’s who to analyze.
I used to think nurses
Were women,
I used to think police
Were men,
I used to think poets
Were boring,
Until I became one of them.
The poem is about what he used to think, that the society was settled by stereotypes but when he became a poet he understood he was wrong.
In my opinion the message is that there should be no stereotypes because although you think that nurses are only woman, there are men who are nurses, not only men are police, there are police woman and not all poets are boring until you understand them, he understood them when he began being a poet.
Literary devices:
Repetition “I used to think”
Irony “I used to think poets were boring until I became one of them”
ME: Where were you born?
BZ: I was born in Britain but I really feel I’m Jamaican.
ME: What would you say it is your occupation?
BZ: I would say I’m a poet, a playwright and an author.
ME: It is well known that you are dyslexic. Do you think that changes in your works?
BZ: Well not really, if you understand the message of what I write, my job is done
ME: In what do you influence your poems?
BZ: I have a lot of poems and I would say that my poetry is influenced in by the music and poetry of Jamaica
ME: Which would you say it’s your best work?
BZ: Well, really all the works are good I my opinion and for the general public, it depends on each person.
ME: You told me you were born in England so I suppose you root for a football team
BZ: Yes of course, Aston Villa is the best team in the world I would love to have the time to go to all the matches
ME: Never had we heard such a strange story of someone rejecting an OBE title
BZ: I think it should not exist because it reminds me of slavery
ME: Had you ever been married?
BZ: Yes for 12 years with my now ex-wife Amina until we got divorced in 2001
ME: It is possible that you are a vegan
BZ: Yes, I started being a vegan when I read poems about «shimmering fish floating in an underwater paradise, and birds flying free in the clear blue sky».
ME: You were included in The Times list of Britain’s top 50 post-war writers in 2008, how do you feel about it?
BZ: i feel proud of myself because someone chose me as the top 50 post war writers so if my works got to at least one person, my job is done.
