What can you see? What kind of atmosphere is created?

Millions of tourists visit London each year. What would they think if they came here and saw this?

Beginning in a City, 1948 By James Berry

•born in Jamaica in 1924

•Emigrated first to America,

then in 1948 to Britain

•Trained as a telegraphist

working for British Telecom

•His poems use a mixture of

standard English and Creole,

the language of Jamaica.

•Active both as a writer and in

promoting black writing,

especially black poetry.

James Berry

The SS Empire Windrush brought the

first wave of West Indian Immigrants to

Britain.

The story of the SS Empire Windrush is one

of ambition, courage and hope. It was a symbol of the

variety of different communities who have

come to Britain and enriched Britain’s

cultural life.

The ship that gave birth to a

Modern Multicultural Britain

Beginning in a City, 1948

New start

The year James Berry emigrated to Britain.

There are 5 major themes in this poem:

1. immigration2. alienation 3. hardship4. isolation5. new beginnings

Busy, vibrant, a different place to where he was before.

Stirred by restlessness, pushed by history,

I found myself in the centre of Empire.

Those first few hours, with those packed impressions

I never looked at in all these years.

Moved or disturbed

Growing up in Jamaica, Berry felt as much disturbed by his African background as by the European slave-trade and its aftermath in his

childhood.

Inability to remain still or

at rest. Uneasy.

This idea of past events being

important.

London is seen as the capital of

the British Empire which had extended over much of

the globe.

Many initial impressions.

Mind was packed full.

Content

What two factors made the writer come to England?

What does he not look back at after ‘all these years’?

I knew no room. I knew no Londoner.

I searched without knowing.

I dropped off my grip at the ‘left luggage’.

A smart policeman told me a house to try.

Repetition Emphasises a feeling of isolation and being lost without knowing where to go or which way to turn.

Small travelling bag

Not knowing exactly where to go or what he is looking for. It’s

all new to him.

His first tip- to find

accommodation.

Content

How does the writer use How does the writer use languagelanguage to to

suggest his sense of suggest his sense of isolationisolation? ?

In dim-lit streets, war-tired people moved slowly

like dark-coated bears in a snowy region.

I in my Caribbean gear

was a half finished shack in the cold winds.

In November, the town was a frosty field.

I walked fantastic stone streets in a dream.

simile

overwhelmingGood dream? Bad

dream?

metaphor

metaphor

AlliterationImagery

Content

What impression of Britain does Berry create in this stanza?

How is he made to seem out of place?

Identify the simile and the metaphor and comment on what each image

contributes to the poem.

A man on duty took my ten-shilling note

for a bed for four nights.

Inflated with happiness I followed him.

I was left in a close-walled room,

left with a dying shadeless bulb,

a pillowless bed and a smelly army blanket –

all the comfort I had paid for.

50p in modern day

moneyEmphasis

on finances

& the idea of time.

Filled with, consumed by happiness.

Small, trapped,

suffocating, end.

Exposed to the

elements.

Without luxury or comfort

Little money =

little comfort

Content

What is the impact of the adjectives in this stanza?

Curtainless in morning light, I crawled out of bed

onto wooden legs and stiff-armed body,

with a frosty-board face that I patted

With icy water at the lavatory tap.

Repetition emphasises the lack of luxuries.

Slow, painful movements

Pain and discomf

ort

Dealing with the cold:

1. Climate change from what he is used to.

2. Another example of no luxuries.

Attempt to

sootheIf there was no hot water in the lavatory, do you think he would have been able to have a hot

shower?

Content

Which details add to the picture of squalor?

Which details give a sense of physical suffering?

Then I came to fellow-inmates in a crowded room.

A rage of combined smells attacked me,

Clogging my nostrils –

and new charges of other smells merely

Increased the stench. I was alone.

I alone was nauseated and choked in deadly air.

Likens house to a prison

Similar to Wilfred Owen’s description of soldier dying in a gas attack in ‘Dulce et

Decorum Est’.

sick

Suffocating him.

Aggressive nature of smells

and actions

Content

What does the word ‘inmates’ suggest?

How is the sense of smell used here?

I walked without map, without knowledge

From Victoria to Brixton. On Coldharbour Lane

I saw a queue of men – some black –

And stopped. I stood by one man in the queue.

‘Wha happenin brodda? Wha happenin here?’

Train and coach terminus in

London

Area of South London with large Caribbean population

Multi-cultural.

Alliteration emphasising movement

his observations

ContentHow does Berry use repetition here?

What is the effect of using real place names?

The last line introduces direct speech and the Creole dialect. What

impact does this have?

Looking at me he said ‘You mus be a jus-come?

You did hear about Labour Exchange?’ ‘Yes – I hear.’

‘Well, you at it! But, you need a place whey you live.’

He pointed. ‘Go over dere and get a room.’

So, I had begun – begun in London.

Newly arrived immigrant

Old name for the Job centre

Repetition

His beginning in a city- his London journey begins.

Content

How does the tone change in the final stanza?

What were James Berry’s

reasons for writing this

poem?

What do you think he hoped

to portray?

James Berry