Hurricane Hits England

Grace Nichols

Learning Intentions

Key Teaching Points To read the poem To consider how the

poem presents feelings about emigration

To make comparisons with ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’

Key TermsMetaphorExclamationContradiction

Grace NicholsGrace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950, where she grew up. She worked there as a journalist and reporter, before coming to Britain in 1977 and has since published three books of poems for adult readers. Her first, i is a long memoried woman (Karnac House, London, 1983), won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize. The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984) and Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989) are published by Virago, who also brought out her first adult novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986) which is set in Guyana.

She says of Poetry Jump Up:

"As a poet, whenever I come across a poem that I love, there's a desire to share it. The book stems from a desire to give fresh voices an exposure. A number of anthologies ... seem to be recycling, largely, the same old poems; so I like looking at other sources, such as voices from oral traditions, from Caribbean, Asian, African and North American Indian cultures."

Grace Nichols lives near Brighton with the poet John Agard and their daughter Kalera.

When a hurricane hit Southern England in 1987 she was near the coast.

Now read the poem

In pairs: try to find and list words that suggest the violence and destructive power of the hurricane.

“rage . . . havoc . . .trees falling. . . shaking the foundations . . .”

Now try to find words that suggest a more positive attitude to the effects of the hurricane.

“reassuring. . . cousin. . . sweet mystery. . .talk to me”

There seems to be a contradiction here: how can a hurricane be reassuring?

Where does the poet:

1. Use metaphor?

2. Shift the focus to being more personal?

3. Speak to the hurricane directly?

4. Speak to West African gods?

5. Show emotion?

6. Why and how is the Carribean linked with West Africa?

How has the experience of the hurricane affected the speaker?

How has she been feeling about being away from the Carribean?

How does the hurricane affect her feelings about this?

Look at the next sheet and say how the hurricane has affected her feelings from what is said there.

How the hurricane affects the speaker’s feelings?

It took a hurricane to bring her closer to the landscape.

Tell me why. . . ?What is the meaning. . .?The blinding illuminationO why is my heart unchained?Come to break the frozen lake in meNow copy the following chart and

complete it for homework

Comparing ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Presents’

Presents Hurricane

CONTENT

STRUCTURE

LANGUAGE

STYLE

IDEAS

ENDINGS

CONCLUSIONRead the last line of the poem again.What new understanding does the speaker have about

her place in the world?How has the hurricane helped bring this about?The hurricane helps her overcome her

feelings of alienation that were caused by her relocation from the Carribean to England. The fact the England could share the Carribean experience of being struck by a hurricane makes her realise the world is one place, the ‘the earth is the earth’.