2. Daljit Nagra
• Indian parents who migrated to England in the
1960s just before he was born.
• Born in Sheffield in 1966 and brought up there
and in London.
• Poetry explores the challenging experiences of
first and second generation Asians in Britain and
presents a modern Britain.
• Often uses the language of ‘Punglish’ – Indian
English influenced by the Punjab – to mix cultures
and languages.
• Poetry is often humorous.
3. Research
• Very hard to understand and analyse.
• Sort of dialogue with the poem ‘Dover Beach’
written 100 years earlier by Matthew Arnold.
– About the beauty of Dover beach but the withdrawal
of religion from England and the descent into conflict
and disorder he thinks must follow.
• Nagra’s poem also dramatizes a withdrawal, as
one idea of England is replaced with another.
• A lot of information, experience, narrative and
feeling all packed into this poem – very carefully
webbed and hard to pick apart.
4. The poem (initial thoughts)
• About immigrants coming to Britain (Indians) –
reflecting and celebrating it.
• Erratic rhyme scheme and odd rhythm, plus
confusing mix of words could mirror the
experience of the immigrants in a land where
traditions and customs are very important –
strange and confusing to them.
• Very complex, intimidating poem – very difficult
language.
• Language reflects the dialect and vocabulary of a
multi-racial language.
5. Title
• “Look We Have Coming to Dover”
– Mimics the way Indians speak
• humorous but with an underlying tone expressing how
mean it is to laugh at their accents and the possible
conflict they had to face by people doing so.
• Metaphor for how the Indians had to face the racism
and conflict.
– “have” – to own or posses – the own Dover, could
be the immigrants feeling excited at first as they
see land, their new home that they can call theirs
shining with hope.
6. First Stanza
• “So various, so beautiful, so new”
– as if these are the aspects the poem will comment on.
– Not just the environment but also the difference in people, the beauty of
variety and the freshness.
• “stowed in the sea” – imagery of the immigrants hidden away in their
boats.
• “invade”
– Could represent how the immigrants feel as they are coming into this new
country.
– Or how the British viewed them coming in – invading upon jobs, society and
culture.
• Disgusting introduction into Britain – their first experience, they obviously
dislike the coast.
– “alfresco lash of diesel-breeze” – powerful whip
– “gobfuls of surf” – huge, dangerous and scary to the immigrants in their boats
• “lording” the tourists feeling powerful and as if they own the place
contrasting to the hiding, scared immigrants who are there to stay.
7. Second Stanza
• “seagull and shoal life vexin their blarnies”
– Emphasises the dislike of the coast
– Could also be symbolising the words being thrown at them by
the British people – upsetting them.
• Very strong imagery of the immigrants “huddled” against
the “yobbish rain” passing the “scummed cliffs”
– Creates a very unwelcoming, unfamiliar and violent
environment of which these “huddled” immigrants have to
endure.
• “escape, hutched in a Bedford van” – very uncomfortable
but their escape from the coast they find so horrible.
– “Bedford van” – how specific it is makes the poem much more
personal and as if someone is telling you, live, their own
experiences and impressions.
8. Third Stanza
• “seasons or years we reap inland”
– Time goes on and they move away from the coast and the horrible
first impressions
– “reap” – pull in – they begin to pull in their dreams, hopes and plans of
creating a better life for themselves.
• “unclocked by the national eye or stab in the back”
– Not really noticed by the country and the people
– Not betrayed, picked on or celebrated, just being for the moment as
they figure things out.
• “whistling asthma of parks”
– Negative connotations – as if the country is however still causing
difficulties for them.
• Both “burdened” and “ennobled”
– Have weight upon their backs as they try to make a life in this new
place but they feel powerful and royal with the opportunity that they
have to chase a dream.
9. Fourth Stanza
• “swarms of us” – makes a comparison to insects who come in in
swarms.
• “grafting” – joining together of two bits of a plant
– They are joining together – making plans, building up
• “in the black in shot of the moon’s spotlight”
– Still hiding in the shadows with the light from the moon but getting
ready to come out.
• “banking on the miracle of sun – span its rainbow”
– Waiting patiently as they know one day soon the sun will come out
and it will all be worth it.
– Taking a shot in the dark hoping it will lead them to the sun
• “passport us to life”
– Could represent them coming here – the passport allowing them to
travel to Britain and begin a new life.
– Or could represent them waiting to get their British
passports/residencies to fully begin to live here and become part of
society.
• “hoick ourselves, bare-faced for the clear”
– Only then can they lift themselves up out of the shadows and hiding
and present themselves as true citizens and part of England and truly
10. Fifth Stanza
• Here there comes a shift and a leap in time
• “imagine” – asking the reader to imagine this, hardly believing it is actually true.
• “blair’d in the cash of our beeswax’s cars”
– They have money therefore have found jobs
– Have created a life for themselves as time passed
• “my love and I”
– Met someone – possibly started a family – created a proper life in the country.
• “,free,”- the caesura before and after the word makes it stand out
– They are finally free of the bad life that they came from, free from hiding and they are open
and happy.
• “raise our charged glasses” – celebrating
• “unparasol’d tables”
– Either become used to the weather – showing how they’ve adapted and accepting life here.
– Or the sun has literally and metaphorically come out
• “East” – they’re looking East from Dover – towards home
• “babbling our lingoes”
– As they have done throughout the poem
– “babbling” – happy, excited connotations
• “flecked by the chalk of Britannia!”
– They’ve been influenced in culture and in language by English – why their lingo now has
English words too
– They raise their glasses in celebration to Britannia.
