Look We Have Coming to Dover! - Daljit Nagra

Overview

• dramatic monologue spoken by a new immigrant to England, it portrays a group of immigrants' first years in the country—from their dangerous arrival, to their under-the-table jobs, to their wistful hopes for the future.

• The speaker highlights the struggles of immigrant life: the lack of official documentation, the difficulty of finding work and housing, and the threat of violence and deportation.

• But the poem's sparky, inventive language suggests that immigration is a revitalizing force, offering immigrants' adoptive countries fresh energy and fresh perspectives

Themes

• hardship

• immigration

• journeys

• identity and belonging

• culture and society

Form and Structure

• dramatic monologue

• consistent structure of five stanzas with five lines each, often creating an imagery of waves or, via enjambment, the relentless, flowing nature of migration. 

Rhyme and Meter

• Half rhyme - shows how the speaker is trying to speak the language, which is something that often people accuse immigrants of not doing

• free verse = reflecting the broken, evolving, and sometimes chaotic nature of the speakers' language and new life

Title

• The title is grammatically incorrect, setting the context for a speaker for whom English is a second language.

• The mention of Dover, one of the key entry points into the UK for immigrants, legal and illegal, provides a further clue as to the narrative voice.

• Dover is also a deeply resonant English location, its famous white cliffs, a cultural shorthand for the country history as an island power.