Explore the poem

The title of this poem is one that many of us would need to do a little bit of research on to work out. Maimonides was a famous Jewish thinker in Medieval times. ‘Discourse’ just means to communicate with words, or to discuss something. The speaker is praising ‘the one’ who makes things happen in the world. You might believe in a god or you might not, like the ‘atheist’ in the final line. ‘The one’ in this poem has ‘a hundred’ names, which might refer to the way different religions think about the idea of a god. Thinking about all of this gives important background to the poem, which can give some background meaning if you speak the poem out loud. The poem begins ‘glory be’ which suggests praise and happiness, and then there is repetition of ‘the one’ at the beginning of each line – try really emphasising these two words when you speak the poem. Can you see a pattern of sound in the last line of most lines? There is one main rhyme – how does that link to the title of the poem?

About John Agard

Born in Guyana, John Agard emigrated to England in 1977. A poet, playwright and short‑story writer who has written many books for both adults and children, he is an exuberant, flamboyant performer of his poetry, known for his interest in social justice and his humorous, compassionate poems.

Agard writes about issues of identity, language, colonialism and history, often employing a language that fuses English with Caribbean Creole; in tjis way he makes himself a champion of multiculturalism.

In 2012 he was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry.