1. Poetry Across Time: Character and voice
Key
Language: connotation, imagery, metaphor, simile
Structure and form: stanzas, type, patterns, contrast, juxtaposition
Poetic methods: alliteration, caesura, assonance, rhythm, rhyme
Character and voice: who is speaking and to whom? Tone of voice
Links: comparisons to other speakers, methods and themes
Exclamation mark is
Use of pun immediately indicative of a naïve
establishes a playful enthusiasm from the
tone against some fairly speaker.
serious subject matter.
Singh Song! Presentation and
Immediate introduction interpretation of
of dialect, challenging racial stereotypes.
expectations/
I run just one ov my daddy’s shops
conventions of poetry. from 9 o’clock to 9 o’clock
and he vunt me not to hav a break Investigation of our
but ven nobody in, I do di lock – public and private lives
Loose use of playful
rhythm and half-rhyme
cos up di stairs is my newly bride Juxtaposition of
to heighten sense of vee share in chapatti traditional Indian and
exuberance. vee share in di cutney English imagery.
after vee hav made luv
Irregular stanza lengths like vee rowing through Putney –
and shapes suggest a
hybrid of cultural Ven I return vid my pinnie untied Exterior voice denoted
influences.
di shoppers always point and cry: typographically with
Hey Singh, ver yoo bin? italics to give a sense
of interruption.
Yor lemons are limes
your bananas are plantain,
Repetition suggests
dis dirty little floor need a little bit of mop Semantic logic
a society where
‘Indian’ is conflated in di worst Indian shop behind
with ‘bad’. on di whole Indian road – speaker’s
linguistic
errors – wrong
Above my head high heel tap di ground
words are
Dark humour used to as my vife on di web is playing wid di mouse linked.
broach the bleak topic of ven she netting two cat on her Sikh lover site
extra-marital prostitution
(ridiculous and tragic).
she book dem for di meat at di cheese ov her price –
my bride
Triple-refrain creates the
she effing at my mum sense of a building
in all di colours of Punjabi image of an increasingly
den stumble like a drunk surprising nature of this
wife.

2. making fun at my daddy
Sense of speaker being
my bride the most
passive/emasculated
tiny eyes ov a gun figure in the household.
and di tummy ov a teddy
my bride
she have a red crew cut
and she wear a Tartan sari
a donkey jacket and some pumps
on di squeak ov di girls dat are pinching my sweeties
–
Whilst sex is a
Title is ‘Singh song!’- commodity/product for
Ven I return from di tickle ov my bride
songs require a sale to the wife, for the
chorus/refrain. The di shoppers always point and cry: speaker is brigs great
chorus of the Hey Singh, ver yoo bin? pleasure – Theme
speaker’s life is abuse Di milk is out ov date gender roles.
from customers which and di bread is always stale,
interrupt his otherwise
blissful existence.
di tings yoo hav on offer yoo hav never got in stock
in di worst Indian shop
on di whole Indian road – Allusion to the love song
(the lyric continues
‘that’s when my love
Late in di midnight hour comes shining through’).
ven yoo shoppers are wrap up quiet
ven di precinct is concrete cool
Bathos created by vee cum down whispering stairs Wilful dialectic use of
subverting an and sit on my silver stool, grammar – crates naïve and,
otherwise romantic at times, pathetic character.
image with corner
from behind the chocolate bars
shop imagery. vee stare past di half-price window signs
at di beaches ov di UK in di brightey moon – In his wife’s
eyes he is
Repetition of ‘each fundamentally
from di stool each night she say, always a
night’ gives impression
How much do yoo charge for dat moon baby? shopkeeper.
of mandatory to what
may once have been a
spontaneous/ romantic from di stool each night she say,
exchange. How much does that come to baby?
Ending without a full-stop
from di stool each night she say,
leads us to see the situation
Is priceless baby – as ongoing/unresolved.
Interpretations of the poem:
 At surface level it can be seen as a commentary on the immigrant
experience in Britain and the hostility and isolation that is felt from
the 'indigenous' population.
 There is also an element to which we might think it a comment on
whether love requires a certain amount of ignorance or self
deception concerning the man's relationship with his wife.