Look We Have Coming to Dover!

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In the first stanza of this piece, the speaker begins by presenting the English shore from the perspective of an immigrant. The violent language in these lines implies that they are illegal immigrants searching for a new life in England. They have traveled in the most basic way possible, perhaps “Stowed” aboard a small ship. This word also speaks to the secrecy and illegality of the operation, as does the word “invade.” It is scary, employed by the speaker to show how those in England would view the immigrants coming to their country. As if they are there to do personal harm or take something from the residents. Another link to ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is that the poem shares a very similar rhyme scheme. All stanzas have an initial ABAB pattern, with the first three then continuing to CDEDCE and the last two to CDECDE. It is important to note that while Turnbull uses the same rhyme structure as Keats, the inclusion in each stanza of the poem is slightly different. Whereas Keats uses a Miltonic sestet (with the first and fifth stanzas ending in CDEDCE, the second stanza CDECED, and third and fourth stanzas CDECDE), Turnbull instead uses a more simple pattern with the first three stanzas matching, followed by the last two stanzas matching. Readers who are aware of this difference may interpret it as a representation of the changes in society over time, and this different rhythm used to show how a metaphorical‘rhythm of society’ may have developed. Alternatively, readers who are not aware of these changes and would consider the poem more at face value would likely understand this relatively complex rhyme scheme as showing the complex and diverse society of today.

The speaker and his traveling companions make it to land and it begins to storm. The thunder is said to “unbaldder” on the newcomers and the speaker describes the rain as “yobbish.” It is important to take note of the words used in ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover!’which are characteristically English in nature. These people make their escape from the shore in a Bedford van. It is white, indistinguishable from other similar vehicles and likely the perfect on land camouflage. Stanza ThreeThere is also frequent use of commas and hyphens throughout the poem, which may represent the idea of diversity and change within society due to the frequent use of these different types of punctuation. Some readers could also interpret this as continuing the idea of foreign languages and speech, with these pauses representing the thinking and consideration for new words when a non-native speaker is using another language. However, as these pieces of punctuation are generally used to join sentences and words together (in comparison to full breaks with caesura, such as full stops and exclamation marks), it could be seen that this is demonstrating how different cultures and people bring society closer together. Poetic Techniques

What questions could the poem be interpreted as asking a reader, and what impact could this have on their interpretation of the poem? Similarly, the contrast of the ideas present in the semantic field against ideas of “pensioners and parents” can be seen as creating a sense of inter-generational and inter-class contrast, emphasising the transition between these different elements of society. This can be interpreted as generating a consideration for perspective, which is an idea that is explored further in the final stanza of the poem as a more considerate tone is developed. Important Lines While there is variety within stanzas regarding line length, there is a very even structure across the poem with five stanzas of five lines. One interpretation of the specific use of five could be as a reference to the ‘five oceans’ of the world, which have all proved vital to traditional movement and travel over the centuries. Alternatively it could be seen as further representation of cycles, perhaps arguing that changes in immigration are natural changes which should be expected. The title is ungrammatical, Nagra teasing his own people for their incorrect English with gentle humour. In another poem Singh Song the humour is sustained throughout, while here the mood is more sombre. Before beginning this piece it is important to take note of the epigraph that begins the piece. It is a short quote from Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach.’It reads, “So various, so beautiful, so new…” There is nothing “beautiful” about the speaker’s description of the Dover shore in the first stanzas of the text. Analysis of Look We Have Coming to Dover! Stanza One

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The informal adjective “pumped” helps to emphasise the semantic field of the poem and further link to the youthful aspects being described. The use of “ecstasy” is interesting because it acts as a ‘gateway’ between the old words and language and modern language, switching between meaning happiness or a type of recreational drug. This is a great demonstration of the varying semantic fields and different juxtapositions in ‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’. Blumsom, Amy (8 October 2015). "Daljit Nagra becomes first poet in residence for Radio 4". The Telegraph.