Explore the poem

Agard’s poems often enact cultural hybridity through his ‘mashing up’ of languages, particularly standard English with Caribbean creole. In this poem, however, the hybridity is formal, rather than linguistic. So, we have a dramatic monologue in the form of a sonnet in which Agard ventriloquizes the voice of Touissant L’Ouverture. L’Ouverture was the leader of the first successful slave-led rebellion. In 1791 slaves in Haiti revolted against their French colonial masters and, with some help from the British, defeated Napoleon’s forces, eventually securing independence from France in 1804.

In 1802 the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote a poem celebrating L’Ouverture, suggesting that his example of a noble struggle for justice would inspire future generations. Agard’s poem makes reference to a number of famous images from Wordsworth’s poems, such as daffodils and Westminster Bridge (from ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’). The poem is built on a series of contrasts between the lives of the two poets. Unlike Wordsworth, for instance, L’Ouverture ‘never walked on Westminster Bridge’.

Underneath these superficial differences, Agard suggests, is a deeper brotherhood between L’Ouverture and Wordsworth. Any reader of ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ will recognize how fitting Agard’s choice of metaphor is: ‘When human beings share a common garment.’

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.