4. “Island Man” – Grace Nichols
Morning muffling muffling
and island man wakes up his crumpled pillow waves
To the sound of blue surf island man heaves himself
In his head
The steady breaking and wombing Another London day.
Wild seabirds
And fishermen pushing out to sea
The sun surfacing defiantly
From the east
Of his small emerald island
He always comes back
Groggily groggily
Comes back to sands
Of a grey metallic soar
to surge of wheels
To dull North Circular roar
Island man
5. Caribbean London
First
impressions
Lush
Fertile
Oppressive
polluted
Positive
words
Negative
words
6. Morning
muffling muffling
and island man wakes up
his crumpled pillow waves
To the sound of blue surf
island man heaves himself
In his head
The steady breaking and wombing
Another London day.
Wild seabirds
And fishermen pushing out to sea
The sun surfacing defiantly
From the east
Of his small emerald island
He always comes back
Groggily
groggily
Comes back to sands
Of a grey metallic soar
to surge of
wheels
To dull North Circular roar
1. What colours are associated with his
‘island’? What colours are associated
with London?
2. The Island Man is dreaming and wakes
up. What has he dreaming about.?
What did he imagine the sound of
London traffic was?
3. How has enjambment been used in
stanza 1?
4. The poem has an unusual setting out
where the lines look as though they are
pulling the ‘Island Man’ apart. Why does
he feel ‘torn’?
5. Womb is where a baby develops. What
is the symbolism of this word being
used? What do you associate with the
word? Which place is it associated with?
6. Find an example of alliteration in the
poem.
7. Find an example of personification.
7. “Island Man” is a poem written by______________________. It is
about a man who wakes up from a dream bout ___________________.
His home is made to sound beautiful by the use of ________________ and
language like ____________. Also, to make it sound peaceful, Grace Nichols
uses onomatopoeia such as _________________. She also uses ________ like
the “sun surfacing’ to draw attention to _____ During the
poem, the man wakes up. This is shown using onomatopoeia
“_____________________________”.There is also repetition to show
just how tired the speaker is. When the man wakes, it is made to
seem a dream and the reality is that he has woken in
______________________. This is a very ____________________
kind of place. Darker shades of “_______________________ are
used to make the city seem dark and dismal. It is also noisy, we know
this because the North Circular “_________________”. The man is
made to seem very unhappy about waking in London as he
“____________________” himself out of bed.
8. The alliteration “___1_________________”
makes the poem sound ______2________.
The ‘s’ sounds sound like the
________3_________ lapping the shore.
The onomatopoeia that is used is
“______4______________” makes the
man sound really ________5_______and slow
to show the man isn’t enthusiastic about his
day in London. This is also an example
of repetition to show how
____________6_____________ the
Island Man is.
tired
waves
peaceful
tired
groggily groggily
sun surfacing
Level 5c and below
Copy out and fill in
Level 5b and above.
Come up with your
own PEE statements
about how the poet
uses language
9. Writing (AFS):
Imagine that you
are “Island Man”.
Write a diary entry
describing how
you feel about
emigrating to
London from your
home in the
Caribbean. Let’s
hear some.
