Unrelated Incidents

By Tom Leonard

Link to GCSE Bitesize video on slide three

About the Poet

• Leonard is a proud Scot who challenges social hierarchy and stereotyping in this poem

• Although his passport identifies him as a British citizen, Tom Leonard sees himself as thoroughly Scottish

• Almost all of his poetry is written in his own Glaswegian dialect.

• His aim has always been to make poetry using 'my own ordinary working-class West of Scotland speech, that is still poetry'.

• He says he is interested in 'the political nature of voice in British culture'.

This poem is written in a Scottish accent.

Why do you think Leonard doesn’t use capital letters?

A “BBC accent” is received pronunciation – no accent. BBC news readers used to speak without accents.

What effect does the phonetic spelling have on you?

Does accent really affect if you believe things?

Who can’t talk right? Those without an accent? Or those with?

Why end with “belt up”? What affect will it have on the reader?

Laid out to look like an auto-cue. What is

this and why?

Click on poem image for video link

this is thi

six a clock

news thi

man said n

thi reason

a talk wia

BBC accent

iz coz yi

widny wahnt

mi ti talk

aboot thi

trooth wia

voice lik

wanna yoo

5

10

Poem is written phonetically to force the reader to use a Glaswegian accent.

Could also be to make it more difficult to understand which links to the main focus of the poem

No punctuation or capital letters because this is poem that is meant to be spoken

No end-stopping which reinforces the notion that this is an auto-cue and is meant to be spoken

scruff. if

a toktaboot

thi trooth

lik wanna yoo

scruff yi

widny thingk

it wuz troo.

jist wanna yoo

scruff tokn.

thirza right

way ti spell

ana right way

to tok it. this

is me tokn yir

Truth (“trooth”) is a recurring idea in this poem

Ironic as the speaker is talking like “wanna yoo scruff” whilst explaining why he doesn’t

Leonard claims that we wouldn’t trust someone with a regional accent (in this case, working-class Glaswegian) to give us the news.

Would we?

What are the prejudices we have for different accents?

Clearly the poet feels some connection with working class Glaswegian society as it’s written in the first person

right way a

spellin. this

is ma trooth.

yooz doant no

thi trooth

yirsellz cawz

yi canny talk

right. this is

the six a clock

nyooz. belt up

Truth is the recurring message of this poem. In what way?

We trust RP or ‘BBC’ accents

We mistrust regional accents

Does RP also give neutrality? A Fairness that doesn’t favour anyone?

Accents can alienate people through difficulty in understanding

Who is it that “canny talk right”?

“belt up” meaning shut up is a humorous end to a poem which is focused entirely on the way we speak and the effect this has on us

Answer the following in full sentences

• Should it be seen as serious and almost angry or humorous? Could it be both?

• In what way does the poet suggest that speech is connected to attitude and behaviour?

• How can speaking in certain ways give you a form of power or authority?

• Do you think that the poet truly believes what he is saying? Do you agree?

• This poem was written in 1975, are the points it makes still valid today? Where else do we come across accents and RP and what effect do they have?

Writing responses to poetry

In this poem, the man on the 6 o'clock news says the reason he has to talk in a BBC accent is because otherwise people would think he was making it all up. They'd think it was just some tramp in off the street. This shows that people are prejudiced against people who come from Scotland, because they say things like 'widny'. If I was Scottish I'd think that was unfair. It shouldn't matter what accent you talk in. There's a boy in our class whose from Liverpool and people used to tease him about it but now he's just accepted like anyone else.

• Candidate is starting to think about the sort of issues the poem raises, and is

making connections • The weakness is that this paragraph is about general prejudices - the poem is

more specifically about power and authority • Slightly hazy focus on the actual poem

• Suggests D/E grade candidate?

Writing responses to poetryTom Leonard writes his poem in a Scottish accent because that's how he talks, it's part of his identity. But even if you live in Scotland the news you watch is broadcast from London, and spoken in someone's else's voice. The view that there is a 'right' way to talk the English language is arrogant - who has the right to decide what counts as 'proper' English? The BBC accent also goes along with an English way of looking at things, which means that the Scots point of view gets ignored. That's why Scotland voted for devolution. If you come from Glasgow, like Tom Leonard, then it must seem like someone else's ideas are being imposed on you, that you are being told to 'belt up'.

•good general conclusion, clearly expressed •focuses on issue of language and power

•blends personal ideas with understanding of the poet's argument •suggests an A/B grade candidate?