PLASTIC Poetry Notes – GCSE English Literature Past and Present: Poetry Anthology – Love and Relationships – Singh Song P.21

Poetic devices and their effects – form

(ballad, sonnet, free verse, dramatic monologue),

alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia,

Rhyme of ‘clock’ and ‘lock’ The regularity of his work is stressed, but it then builds a mystery as to why the speaker is locking the shop

The alliteration of ‘high heel’ Mirrors the noise of the high heels on the ground and stresses how different his wife is to normal Sikh brides

Alliteration of ‘concrete-cool’ Suggests the movement from day to night as the heat slowly dissipates – moving to a calmer atmosphere

Language and its effects – what sort of words

are in the poem? Violent, loving, colloquial, archaic,

semantic fields, diction, religious, romantic language

Language of togetherness: vee share Sense of both of them as equals in the relationship

Semantic field of cat/mouse Ironically flips the notion of who is catching who and puns on mouse to mean computer mouse. Shows that someone seemingly small and insignificant can do big things

Playful language of ‘meat and cheese’ Continues the metaphor of cat and mouse – puns on meet/meat – suggests the wife doesn’t care about them – just the money she is making. She is a hard-nosed business woman. Strong and independent in contrast to the speaker

Alternative interpretations – Can quotations

be read in two ways for different meanings?

Eyes ov a gun Suggests she is dangerous or could suggest she knows exactly what she wants to target in life

Like vee rowing through Putney Shows their love is leisurely but could also suggest how British they feel, given how stereotypically British this activity is.

Yor lemons are limes Outwardly he appears to be one way, but in actuality he is something completely different

Structure and its effects – tonal shifts, pace, Enjambment in the first stanza Constantly spilling over line after line – suggests

the never-ending nature of his job – the pressure

PLASTIC Poetry Notes – GCSE English Literature Past and Present: Poetry Anthology – Love and Relationships – Singh Song P.21

caesura, what rhyme stresses, beginning, middle, end,

repetition, dialogue and where it happens, enjambment

that the culture puts itself underRhyme of ‘chutney’ and ‘Putney’ Stresses how the lovers fall between two cultures

– British and AsianVoice of the customers repeated Juxtaposes his fiercely idiosyncratic wife and his

lack of care – they demand certain expectations that he is happy to ignore.

Tone and its effects – talking about moods

which are evoked and where, narrative voice

‘is half di cost of yoo baby’ Playful and romantic – stresses the sense of love he has for his wife as she is more important than the moon

‘di shoppers always point and cry’ Accusatory – they are angry at how he is betraying his hard-working culture

‘vee cum down whispering stairs’ Sense of quiet and calm in the evening when they can finally enjoy one another’s company properly

Imagery and its effects - metaphor, simile,

personification, visual sense

‘Red crew cut’ Signifies she is perhaps dangerous (red is often a warning colour) – the fact she has her hair cut so close shows how daring and different she is (punkish)

‘Di tummy ov a teddy’ Suggests beneath her feisty exterior she is soft, gentle and brings him solace

‘di brightey moon’ Pun on Blighty, meaning British – sense of romance and sense of how much they have integrated into the British way of life. Also has a sense of romance

Context – authorial, social and historical His poems relate to the experience of Indians born in the UK (especially Indian Sikhs), and often employ language that imitates the English spoken by Indian immigrants whose first language is Punjabi, which some have termed "Punglish".[ He has described attempts to represent his community’s experiences in English as 'overheating'. The name 'Singh' comes from a Sanskrit word meaning 'lion' and it is an essential part of the name of any Sikh male. However, he is clearly in between two cultures – ‘my identity is in flux’ he once commented, and ‘Britishness’ is also a central theme in his work. Nagra says of his poetry that he tends to use traditionally ‘English’ poetic forms, but ‘what’s speaking on the page is quite brown. I like the idea of this splurge of…darkness. The voice in this poem is more of a celebration of this distinctive speech, than a simple stereotype.‘Singh Song!’ is, like many of his monologues, concerned with the themes of racism, belonging,

PLASTIC Poetry Notes – GCSE English Literature Past and Present: Poetry Anthology – Love and Relationships – Singh Song P.21

alienation and assimilation, but in some ways it is also a romantic urban love poem. Nagra’s humorous verse plots the passionate sensuality of the shopkeeper and his wife against the ‘concrete-cool’ precinct setting, where they ‘stare past di half-price window signs’ and look at the moon.