1.9 - Homing
Context
Social and historical context
- In 20th-century Britain, there was significant social pressure to adopt 'Received Pronunciation' (RP), the accent associated with prestige and education.
- Regional accents, particularly those from industrial areas like the Black Country, were often looked down upon as a sign of a lower social class.
- Elocution lessons, designed to teach RP, were common for those seeking social mobility, often involving harsh teaching methods.
- This context explains the mother's shame and the violent imagery of "the teacher's ruler across your legs".
Biographical context
- Liz Berry is a poet from the Black Country, a region in the West Midlands of England known for its industrial heritage and distinctive dialect.
- Her poetry frequently celebrates this unique local language and culture, challenging the idea that it is inferior.
- Berry's work gives a voice to a community and a way of speaking that has often been marginalised or ignored in literature.
Poet's perspective
- Berry presents a defiant and loving perspective on regional identity, seeing dialect as a powerful and precious link to heritage.
- The poem argues that losing one's accent is a profound and painful loss of connection to family, place, and history.
- It acts as a critique of a society that values conformity over the rich diversity of regional voices.
Overview
Homing in a nutshell
- What literally happens in the poem: The speaker describes how her mother was forced to suppress her regional accent. After her mother's death, the speaker expresses a powerful desire to reclaim this lost voice, seeing it as a vital part of her heritage.
- Context and significance: Liz Berry writes about the social prejudice against regional accents in 20th-century Britain. The poem celebrates the Black Country dialect, framing it not as something to be ashamed of, but as a beautiful and strong link to identity and home.
- Key techniques and approach: Berry uses a central metaphor [symbolic comparison] of the accent as an object locked "in a box", powerful industrial imagery, and a direct, personal tone to explore themes of identity, loss, and reclamation.
Lines 1-5
"For years you kept your accent
in a box beneath the bed,
the lock rusted shut by hours of elocution
how now brown cow
the teacher's ruler across your legs."
Translation
The speaker directly addresses her mother, describing how she hid her regional accent for a long time. This suppression was enforced through elocution lessons, which involved repetitive, meaningless phrases ("how now brown cow") and the threat of physical punishment.
Berry's intention
Berry establishes the central metaphor of the poem: the accent as a physical object, "kept...in a box". This makes the abstract idea of suppressing a voice feel like a concrete act of imprisonment, highlighting its cruelty. The violent image of the "ruler" shows that this was not a gentle process but a forceful removal of identity.
Lines 6-10
"We heard it escape sometimes,
a guttural uh on the phone to your sister,
saft or blart to a taxi driver
unpacking your bags from his boot.
I loved its thick drawl, g's that rang."
Translation
The speaker recalls moments when her mother's true accent would slip out, especially in casual situations or when talking to family. The speaker expresses her own deep admiration for the authentic sound of this voice, finding it strong and beautiful.
Berry's intention
This stanza creates a clear juxtaposition [contrasting elements placed together] between the mother's shame and the speaker's admiration. By listing dialect words like "saft" (soft or foolish) and "blart" (to cry or sob), Berry gives value and reality to the hidden language. The speaker's love for the accent's "thick drawl" directly challenges the social prejudice that tried to erase it.
Lines 11-20
"Clearing your house, the only thing
I wanted was that box, jemmied open
to let years of lost words spill out –
bibble, fittle, tay, wum,
vowels ferrous as nails, consonants
you could lick the coal from.
I wanted to swallow them all: the pits,
railways, factories thunking and clanging
the night shift, the red brick
back-to-back you were born in."
Translation
After the mother has passed away, the speaker's one desire is to find and break open the metaphorical box containing the lost accent. She lists more dialect words and uses industrial imagery to describe their sounds, connecting them to the landscape of the Black Country where her mother grew up.
Berry's intention
Berry powerfully links language to place and heritage. The simile [comparison using 'like' or 'as'] "vowels ferrous as nails" and the image of consonants you could "lick the coal from" redefine the accent. It is not inferior, but strong and raw, forged by the industrial history of its home. The speaker's desire to "swallow them all" shows a deep yearning to internalise this lost part of her identity.
Lines 21-25
"I wanted to forge your voice
in my mouth, a blacksmith's furnace;
shout it from the roofs,
send your words, like pigeons,
fluttering for home."
Translation
The speaker ends with a determined wish to make her mother's voice her own, strengthening it like a blacksmith forges metal. She wants to celebrate this voice loudly and, using the simile of homing pigeons, set the words free to return to where they belong.
Berry's intention
The poem concludes with a powerful statement of reclamation. The industrial metaphor of the "blacksmith's furnace" suggests a creative, powerful act of remaking. The final image of "pigeons, / fluttering for home" contrasts with the opening image of the "box", transforming the suppressed accent from a symbol of shame into a symbol of freedom and authentic identity.
Writer's methods
Analysing form, structure, and language together is crucial for understanding how a poet conveys their message. In Homing, Berry combines a regular form with free-flowing structural and language features to explore the conflict between social confinement and natural identity.
Form
The poem is written in free verse with five regular quatrains (four-line stanzas), creating a tension between freedom and control.
| Theme | Evidence | Poet's intention |
|---|---|---|
| Social class and prejudice | The poem is written in five quatrains but has no regular rhyme scheme. | The regularity of the stanza length can represent the rigid control of elocution lessons. However, the lack of rhyme (free verse) reflects the natural, authentic sound of the dialect that the speaker wishes to set free. |
| Identity and heritage | The consistent stanza length provides a controlled frame for the speaker's emotional and passionate desires. | Berry uses this form to contain the powerful emotions of loss and longing, making the final image of release ("fluttering for home") even more impactful when it breaks from this restraint. |
Structure
Berry structures the poem as a journey from the past to the present, and from confinement to liberation.
| Theme | Evidence | Poet's intention |
|---|---|---|
| Memory and loss | There is a clear structural contrast between the opening image of confinement ("a box beneath the bed") and the final image of freedom ("pigeons, / fluttering for home"). | This framing device shows the poem's core purpose: moving from a state of suppression to one of liberation. It creates a satisfying and hopeful resolution, suggesting that lost heritage can be reclaimed. |
| Family relationships | The poem shifts its use of personal pronouns, moving from "you" in stanza one, to "We", and then a dominant "I" for the rest of the poem. | This pronoun shift shows the inheritance of the issue. The speaker takes on the personal responsibility of reclaiming the voice her mother was forced to give up, continuing the family's story. |
| Language and communication | Enjambment [line runs to next] is used to create a sense of flowing speech, such as "to let years of lost words spill out – / bibble, fittle, tay, wum,". | The way the line runs on without a pause mimics the unstoppable, emotional release of the forgotten words. This makes the act of reclaiming the dialect feel like a physical, tangible event. |
Language
The poem's language is rich with metaphor and sensory imagery, contrasting the harshness of suppression with the beauty of the dialect.
| Theme | Evidence | Poet's intention |
|---|---|---|
| Social class and prejudice | The central metaphor of the accent being kept "in a box beneath the bed," with a "lock rusted shut". | Berry uses this metaphor to make the abstract concept of linguistic prejudice feel concrete and cruel. The "rusted" lock suggests this confinement has been long-term and damaging. |
| Identity and heritage | The poem uses a semantic field [group of words linked by theme] of industry, with words like "ferrous", "nails", "coal", "pits", "factories", and "blacksmith's furnace". | This industrial imagery links the accent directly to the strength and identity of a working-class community. It reclaims the voice as something powerful and authentic, not "common" or "ugly". |
| Language and communication | The final simile compares the released words to "pigeons, / fluttering for home." | This offers a concluding image of hope and natural restoration. Homing pigeons were part of working-class culture, making the image a culturally relevant symbol of returning to one's roots. |
What to compare it to
Effective comparison involves exploring how two poets handle similar themes or ideas using different methods to achieve their purpose. Rather than just listing similarities, focus on how and why their approaches create different effects for the reader.
Suggested comparisons
- Homing and Name Journeys - Both poems explore how language is a vital part of identity that is suppressed by a dominant culture, leading to a sense of loss and a desire for reclamation.
- Homing and 13 - Both poems feature an authority figure (a teacher, a police officer) who uses their power to diminish or silence a person's identity, though with very different consequences.
Homing and Name Journeys
Comparison in a nutshell
Both poems explore the painful suppression of linguistic identity by a dominant culture. While Berry focuses on regional class prejudice within England, Mundair explores the challenges of migration and retaining cultural heritage in a new country.
Similarities
Point
Both poets present language and speech as central to their personal and cultural identity, which has been devalued by a dominant, external culture.
Evidence and explanation
| Homing | Name Journeys |
|---|---|
| The mother's accent is "kept... in a box", a metaphor that shows her voice has been treated as a shameful object to be hidden away from English society. | Similarly, the speaker's Punjabi name becomes a "stumble" that fills English mouths "with a discordant rhyme", suggesting it is seen as awkward and alien by the dominant culture. |
| The speaker desires to reclaim the dialect, which is described as being intrinsically linked to the "red brick / back-to-back" homes of her industrial heritage. | Likewise, the speaker in Name Journeys feels her heritage has been "dislodged as milk teeth fell / and hit infertile English soil", linking her language directly to her origins and the difficulty of replanting it. |
Differences
Point
While both poems link language to place, Berry uses industrial imagery to root her mother's voice in a specific English region, whereas Mundair uses mythological allusions to connect her name to a vast, ancient cultural history.
Evidence and explanation
| Homing | Name Journeys |
|---|---|
| Berry's imagery is of "coal", "pits", and a "blacksmith's furnace". This creates a sense of a strong, tough, working-class identity forged in industrial England. | In contrast, Mundair alludes to figures from Hindu mythology like "Sita" and "Draupadi". This connects her name to a deep spiritual and cultural history that is misunderstood in her new home. |
| This focus on industrial heritage highlights a conflict based on social class within one country. | Conversely, the allusions to an ancient, non-English culture highlight a conflict based on migration, race, and post-colonial experience. |
Endings comparison
Point
Homing concludes with a message of hopeful, active reclamation, whereas Name Journeys ends on a note of unresolved loss and alienation.
Evidence and explanation
| Homing | Name Journeys |
|---|---|
| The poem ends with the powerful, active desire to "shout it from the roofs" and "send your words... fluttering for home." The final image is one of liberation and restoration. | In contrast, Name Journeys ends with the speaker's voice being a "mystery / in the Anglo Echo chamber - / void of history and memory." The ending conveys a sense of being lost and unheard, with no clear path to reclamation. |
Homing and 13
Comparison in a nutshell
Both poems explore how authority figures can suppress or misjudge an individual's identity. However, Homing deals with the slow erasure of cultural identity through education, while 13 portrays an immediate, life-threatening danger from racial prejudice.
Similarities
Point
Both poems feature an encounter with an authority figure whose power is used to diminish the identity of an individual.
Evidence and explanation
| Homing | 13 |
|---|---|
| The authority figure is the "teacher", whose power is symbolised by "the... ruler across your legs". This represents the institutional power of the education system to enforce conformity and punish difference. | Similarly, the authority figures are police officers, whose power is shown through physical intimidation ("patted on the shoulder") and the terrifying metaphor that they "cast lots for your organs". |
| In both poems, this assertion of authority is linked to language. The teacher enforces "elocution", replacing a regional accent with RP. | Likewise, the police officer's words mislabel the boy ("You fit / the description of a man?"), and the boy's own attempt to speak ("Don't you remember me?") is ignored. |
Differences
Point
The consequences of the encounter with authority are vastly different. In Homing, the result is a long-term loss of voice and heritage, whereas in 13, it is an immediate threat of violence and death.
Evidence and explanation
| Homing | 13 |
|---|---|
| The conflict in Homing is a past trauma ("For years you kept..."), leading to a gradual, painful loss of cultural identity. The threat is emotional and psychological. | In contrast, the conflict in 13 is a terrifying present-tense event ("you are cornered"). The threat is physical and immediate, rooted in racial profiling that could lead to death. |
| Berry's poem is shaped by the context of social class prejudice, which sought to "correct" and reshape a regional identity. | Femi's poem, however, is shaped by the context of systemic racism, which seeks to erase and destroy a Black identity, viewing it as inherently criminal. |
Endings comparison
Point
Homing ends with a powerful feeling of hope and the potential for reclamation, while 13 concludes with a feeling of inescapable dread and impending doom.
Evidence and explanation
| Homing | 13 |
|---|---|
| The final lines of Homing describe a future action of liberation, to "send your words, like pigeons, / fluttering for home." This creates a hopeful, uplifting tone. | Conversely, the end of 13 reveals a terrifying new understanding: the boy is not a "supernova" (a bright star) but a "dying star / on the verge of becoming black holes." This final image creates a bleak and frightening tone. |