1. Flag
John Agard
John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in Guyana (a British colony at
the time), on the coast of north-east South America. Guyana gained
independence from the UK in 1966, the year before Agard moved to
London. He is a poet, playwright and children’s author, who often
writes about issues of identity and racial conflict. He is well known
for his eccentric and lively poetry readings, his poems benefitting
greatly from being performed by their author. He likes to perform
his poems, and believes humour is an effective way of challenging
people's opinions.
In this poem, Agard
questions why people
are so patriotic. The
flag is a symbol of
allegiance to one’s
country and he
wonders why it has
such power over the
decisions people make.
In 1916 the British government felt it
necessary to introduce military
enlistment, because reliance on men
to join up voluntarily could not keep
pace with the ever-increasing
casualties of the First World War.
Those who had a ‘conscientious
objection to bearing arms’ were
freed from military service, but they
had to plead their reasons in a
tribunal and life was made very
difficult for these mens who were
either against war in general
(pacifists), or did not believe the
government of Germany to be their
enemy, or would not fight for
religious reasons.
The poem is about the power of
a national flag. It's presented as
a conversation between a naive
questioner and a more sceptical
responder. One character asks
questions about the flag, and the
other character responds,
explaining that the flag has the
power to make people fight wars
and die.
You should compare
this poem with other
poems about the same
themes: causes of
conflict: 'The Yellow
Palm’
: patriotism:
'Charge of the Light
Brigade’
, 'next to of
course god america i’
.

2. Flag
What’s that fluttering in a breeze?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that brings a nation to its knees.
What’s that unfurling from a pole?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that makes the guts of men grow bold.
What’s that rising over a tent?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that dares the coward to relent.
What’s that flying across a field?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that will outlive the blood you bleed.
How can I possess such a cloth?
Just ask for a flag, my friend.
Then blind your conscience to the end.

3. What’s that fluttering in a breeze?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that brings a nation to its knees.
What’s that unfurling from a pole?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that makes the guts of men grow bold.
Flags are highly symbolic objects.
However, here Agard juxtaposes
his simple description of a flag as
a 'piece of cloth' with the
powerful symbolism of a flag. In
other words, ‘it's just a piece of
cloth’ but has the power to bring
‘a nation to its knees’.
The poem has five three-line stanzas of equal
shape — the shorter middle line and two longer
lines giving the appearance of flags ‘fluttering in a
breeze’. The first and last lines rhyme in verses 1
and 3, and half-rhyme with long vowel sounds ‘o’
(ll. 4, 6) and ‘ee’ (ll. 10, 12) in verses 2 and 4.
Each stanza begins with a question and goes on to give
the poet’s answer. There’s no sense at any time that
somebody else is asking the question. The format
allows Agard to put his opinions across in a stronger
way. The sustained letter ‘f’ — ‘fluttering’ (l. 1),
‘unfurling’ (l. 4), ‘flying’ (l. 10) — gives the impression of
a flag’s movements.
This line can be interpreted in different ways:
literally to kneel before a flag would mean to
show respect, to worship what the flag
represents. But the expression ‘to bring to its
knees’ means to force someone into
submission or cause someone to beg for
mercy.
The word ‘guts’ has two
main connotations. The
first suggests injuries of
war and the other
suggests bravery. Both
of these connotations
suggest the flag can
evoke emotions that
can cause conflct.

4. What’s that rising over a tent?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that dares the coward to relent.
What’s that flying across a field?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that will outlive the blood you bleed.
In this stanza the flag is 'rising' over
a tent, but what kind of tent? The
image certainly suggests a campaign
tent although peculiarly it is a
somewhat old fashioned image. In
this instance the flag personifies
courage and antagonism, daring the
coward to relent, but relent to
what? To fight? To surrender? Again
this image connotes conflict.
The speaker is
presenting the flag as a
dangerous object and
one that changes the
way people think and
see. The word ‘relent’
means to run away and
therefore this stanza
suggests the flag is a
powerful symbol that
can inspire men to fight
despite their natural
fear.
Here the flag is flying across
a field which carries a
colonial connotation as if the
field is being claimed on
behalf of someone. The field
could be a battlefield or even
the green pastures of a rural
and agricultural nation. what
is important is that the
speaker offers something of
a guarded warning in saying
that the flag with outlive
'you'.
The word ‘outlive’
suggests some
personification of the
flag indicating it doesn’t
care how many people
will die, the symbol will
exist for longer than any
soldier’s life.
Alliteration of the letter ‘b’ further
emphasises Agard’s anger and highlights
the violence and reality of war.

5. How can I possess such a cloth?
Just ask for a flag, my friend.
Then blind your conscience to the end.
Then the rhyming pattern changes in the last verse, where
‘cloth’ (previously at the end of the second line in each
verse) sits at the end of the first line, leaving the last two
lines as a rhyming couplet. The last two lines sum up the
poet’s feelings about patriotism. The strong rhyming
couplet at the end emphasises Agard’s dislike of
patriotism, when there is the conviction that one’s own
country is superior to all others and therefore must
always be in the right.
Agard feels that ‘blind patriotism’ can make people
do what they would personally believe to be morally
wrong. Instead of letting their conscience guide
them, they support their country and its government
at all times.
The last stanza stands out from the
rest of the poem. Note how the tone
of the poem has changed from direct
questioning to a more open,
philosophical tone - 'how can I possess
such a cloth'? During the course of the
poem the speaker has warned how this
simple piece of cloth possess a power
and symbolism of its own.
When the second speaker asks how they can
possess such power the speaker warns that
should you want to possess such power you
must 'bind your conscience to the end.' Your
conscience is your sense of justice, fair play
and right and wrong, so to 'bind' or handcuff
your conscience is to prevent it from
working.

6. How can I possess such a cloth?
Just ask for a flag, my friend.
Then blind your conscience to the end.
Then the rhyming pattern changes in the last verse, where
‘cloth’ (previously at the end of the second line in each
verse) sits at the end of the first line, leaving the last two
lines as a rhyming couplet. The last two lines sum up the
poet’s feelings about patriotism. The strong rhyming
couplet at the end emphasises Agard’s dislike of
patriotism, when there is the conviction that one’s own
country is superior to all others and therefore must
always be in the right.
Agard feels that ‘blind patriotism’ can make people
do what they would personally believe to be morally
wrong. Instead of letting their conscience guide
them, they support their country and its government
at all times.
The last stanza stands out from the
rest of the poem. Note how the tone
of the poem has changed from direct
questioning to a more open,
philosophical tone - 'how can I possess
such a cloth'? During the course of the
poem the speaker has warned how this
simple piece of cloth possess a power
and symbolism of its own.
When the second speaker asks how they can
possess such power the speaker warns that
should you want to possess such power you
must 'bind your conscience to the end.' Your
conscience is your sense of justice, fair play
and right and wrong, so to 'bind' or handcuff
your conscience is to prevent it from
working.