look we have coming to dover

key themes

The poem centres on the experience and anxieties of immigration, using Dover — historically England’s gateway — as a symbol of both promise and hostility. Nagra draws on Stanley Cohen’s concept of the folk devil, presenting immigrants as figures demonised by the host culture, feared and othered despite their humanity and hope. The ungrammatical title performs this double movement immediately — it mimics non-native English speech with gentle humour, positioning the reader inside the immigrant perspective, but this lightness does not last; the poem grows increasingly sombre as English hostility and the precariousness of the immigrants’ position becomes clear. The contemporary relevance is central to Nagra’s project — immigration is not a historical abstraction but an urgent, lived reality, and the poem refuses to let its English reader remain a comfortable outsider to that experience.

structure

The five uniform stanzas of five lines each are formally significant — their identical structure creates a visual regularity that, turned sideways, resembles waves, evoking the sea crossing, the white cliffs of Dover, and the cyclical patterns of migration, life, and death. The free verse and enjambed lines reinforce this fluidity, the lines rolling forward without pause just as the waves carry the immigrants toward an uncertain shore. The absence of a regular rhyme scheme is also meaningful — it resists the neat, settled quality of traditional English verse forms, formally enacting the instability and unbelonging the immigrants experience upon arrival

language

vernacular writing — Nagra deliberately renders the poem in non-standard, accented English that reflects the speech patterns of first-generation immigrants. This is a politically charged choice; rather than translating the immigrant experience into polished Standard English, Nagra insists the reader encounter it on the speaker’s own linguistic terms. It creates intimacy and immediacy, pulling the reader inside a perspective they might otherwise view from the outside, and it reclaims vernacular speech as a valid literary register rather than a marker of deficiency.

critical lense

A post-colonial reading frames the poem as a direct confrontation with England’s imperial legacy. Dover, as the entry point to Britain, carries the weight of a nation that once colonised vast portions of the world — and Nagra exposes the bitter irony that the descendants of those colonised peoples are now met with hostility at its shores. Edward Said’s concept of othering is central here; the folk devil language Nagra borrows from Cohen mirrors the colonial tendency to construct non-Western peoples as threatening, unknowable, and inferior in order to justify exclusion. The immigrants in the poem are rendered as outsiders despite the fact that Britain’s economic and cultural wealth was historically built on the labour and resources extracted from their home nations — the poem quietly implicates this history without stating it directly. The vernacular English of the title further complicates the post-colonial dynamic; language was one of colonialism’s primary tools of domination, and Nagra’s use of non-standard English refuses to assimilate into that tradition, instead asserting that the immigrant voice has as much claim to English as any native speaker. The poem ultimately argues that immigration is not an intrusion upon British identity but a consequence of Empire — one that Britain has never fully reckoned with.

epigraph : "So various, so beautiful, so new..." - Matthew Arnold, 'Dover Beach'

Quote taken from Matthew Arnold's glorified, ideal view of England: "which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams"/"hath neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain" - Arnold's poem is read as a metaphor for the loss of faith in a changing word focussing on scientific discovery - and the need for love when faced with such bleak prospects. Nagra's immigrant narrator has a vision like this of England - "so beautiful, so new" but the reality is more like the truth that Arnold writes about.

‘threat’ immigration poses that is in reality advancing

Stanza 1: "Stowed in the sea to invade the lash alfresco of a diesel-breeze ratcheting speed into the tide, with brunt gobfuls of surf phlegmed by cushy come-and-go tourists prow'd on the cruisers, lording the ministered waves."

Nagra presents England viewed through the eyes of illegal immigrants. They are "stowed" in the sea, a word that suggests objects being put in place for transportation. "invade" is an emotive word - suggesting that the indigenous population regard the newcomers as a threat. The discriminatory language recalls the language of politicians in England against the immigrants. The lines slowly increasing on each stanza could suggest building and decreasing moments of tension the immigrant's feel - safety at one moment, fear the next. "alfresco lash of a diesel-breeze" - the compound-noun 'diesel breeze' succinctly illustrates that this 'breeze' is not fresh and relaxing but strong-smelling and uncomfortable. "lash" - onomatopeic word that touches the immigrants like a whip - perhaps evoking memories of slavery. The poet's description of "gobfuls" of surf "phlegmed" is unattractive, repulsive - with guttural sounds - mimicking the frightening noise of the ocean. It is very different to Arnold's picture of the "calm" sea and the moon that "lies fair". The immigrants' travelling conditions are in contrast to the tourists on their cruise ships. The tourists are described as "lording" the ministered waves - acting as if they are in control of nature and/or more important than the immigrants. "ministered waves" - ministered is not a word - Nagra could be personifying the waves to be 'ministers' - as they appear to show contempt for the immigrants like politicians themselves. "Prow'd" and "phlegmed" are nouns formed from verbs - anthimeria. "prow'd" is a homophone, appropriate for the luxury cruise travellers - appearing to think they are in control of the sea. "invade" could also be slightly ironic, as it is Britain (in history) that usually does the 'invading' of places.

Stanza 2: "Seagull and shoal life vexing their blarnies upon our huddled camouflage past the vast crumble of scummed cliffs, scramming on mulch as thunder unbladders yobbish rain and wind on our escape, hutched in a Bedford van."

Seagull and shoal life" are "vexing their blarnies" - vexing means causing annoyance/frustrating but it also could relate to 'flexing', suggesting the seagulls and sea-life are flouting their freedom to travel in front of the immigrant's faces, who suffer a harrowing journey. "huddled camouflage" describes the immigrant's who are trying escape attention, perhaps ironic as it is usually animals who try to camoflage themselves. "crumble of scummed cliffs" - this is a dreary, dirty image of the cliffs of Dover, with emphasis on the 'c' sound, as if mirroring the crunching/crumbling sound of the stone, it greatly contrasts Arnold's image of the cliffs as "glimmering", perhaps illustrating how the cliffs are actually destroyed (pathetic fallacy) or that Christian values and standards of generosity and hospitality in England have fallen apart, as the country becomes more and more averse to immigration. The poet uses pathetic fallacy - the ferocious storm mirroring the fear and turmoil of the immigrants about whether they will be able to find safety. However, the storm could also simply illustrate, as storms are common in the English Channel, the terrifying and dangerous conditions immigrants must travel in, in inadequate transportation. Nagra describes how thunder "unbladders" - unbladders is an uncomfortable neologism, personifying the thunder and disgustingly suggesting it is urinating on the immigrants in contempt. "yobbish rain and wind" - yobbish suggest rudeness and aggression from young people, the personification of the storm at sea mirroring the aggression the immigrants are going to face on land. "escape" is an unusual word, as the people are immigrating into England rather then emigrating, perhaps foreshadowing that it would be better to escape the suffering they are about to endure once they arrive.

Stanza 4: "Swarms of us, grafting in the black within shot of the moon's spotlight, banking on the miracle of us - span its rainbow, passport us to life. Only then can it be human to hoick ourselves, bare-faced for the clear."

"Swarms" is dehumanising, suggesting insects or pest-like creatures. It could also refer to David Cameron when he said "swarms of people coming across the Mediterranean". However, this is immediately contrasted with "grafting" suggesting hard-working people. Nagra seems to suggest that even though a lot of people are travelling into the country, this is a good thing for it. "the black within shot of the moon's spotlight" - 'spotlight' refers to the idiom "to be in the spotlight" (getting a lot of public attention), suggesting the immigrants are trying to avoid media coverage. Additionally, since it is "black" that is "within shot of the moon's spotlight" could be a rude comment (relating to politicians' views) that the immigrants are changing or 'dirtying' white England. "banking" could be taken literally to suggest the immigrants are saving money or figuratively to suggest they are relying on the "miracle of sun - span its rainbow, passport us to life." "passport us to life" refers to how desperately illegal immigrants want some form of legal status (like a passport), and it's proof of nationality, linked to images of freedom and happiness "miracle", "rainbow" . "Passport us to life" could also be an idiom, as people refer to "passport to power". "hoick ourselves" - hoick suggests an action requiring much physical effort, emphasised by the plosive 'k' at the end of the word, illustrating the effort the immigrants need to do to get "bare-faced for the clear" - this means open/brazen, they aspire to live openly and happily - not "huddled" or in "camouflage" - then they can think themselves as humans.

Stanza 5: "Imagine my love and I, our sundry others, Blair'd in the cash of our beeswax'd cars, our crash clothes, free, we raise our charged glasses over unparasol'd tables East, babbling our lingoes, flecked by the chalk of Britannia!"

the final stanza stars emphatically with the word "Imagine" - a suggestion of the immigrant's hope for their movement - suggesting they might have not in reality achieved this. The poem changes voice from the plural to the personal first person "I", illustrating that this part is a personal daydream or fantasy, again suggesting it could not be real. "Blair'd in the cash" is a comedic use of anthimeria, as the proper noun 'Blair' becomes a verb, relating to the Prime minister Tony Blair. "blair'd in the cash" - suggests a middle-class lifestyle, emphasised by the image of raising "charged glasses" (charged because they have been able to pay for their drinks). "beeswax'd cars" is another comedic image that suggests wealth. "our crash clothes, free" could refer to escaping economic crises. "unparasol'd tables" greatly contrasts the fierce storm of earlier in the poem, perhaps suggesting (in this fantasy) that even the weather of Britain has stopped being so violent towards the immigrants and accepted them. "babbling our lingoes" suggests that (in this daydream) even if the speaker does want to become wealthy in this new country, they still want to retain some of their own culture - "babbling" could refer to the Tower of Babel from the Bible where all the languages of the world became confused. "flecked by the chalk of Britannia!" - the image of the whiteness of chalk harks back to Arnold's poem of the "gleaming" image of the white cliffs of Dover - the idealised image of England, emphasised as it is called "Britannia!" a more beautiful, elegant and embellished name than Britain and feminised/personified to bring to mind images Britannia in the Victorian era - represented as a beautiful woman.