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Unrelated Incidents by Tom Leonard
The Context Of The Poem=======================
Tom Leonard was born in Glasgow in 1944, where he has continued tolive ever since. He studied English and Scottish Literature at theUniversity Of Glasgow. His first publication was “Six Glasgow Poems”written while at university in 1967. His collection of twenty-yearswork, intimate voices, shared the Saltier Scottish book of the yearaward in 1984. All though his passport identifies him as a BritishCitizen, Tom Leonard sense of his own cultural identity is thoroughlyScottish. Almost Leonard’s poetry is written in his Glasgow dialect.His aim has always working class “West of Scotland speech that isstill poetry”.
My focus on “The voice: in my work Leonard has written, two buyproducts over the years. An involvement in performance “Sound poetry”and an increasingly explicit awareness of the political nature ofvoice in British culture.
“Unrelated Incidents” is a set of six poems each of which looks atsome aspect of the way we use language it was written in 1976.
Vocabulary
Widney wahnt – Wouldn’t want
Wanna you scruff – One of your scruffs
Widny thingk – Wouldn’t think
Tokn – Talking
Yooz doant no – You don’t know
Yirsellz – Yourself
Canny – Can’t
What Is The Poem About
1. The poem seems to be spoken by BBC news reader
2. He/she explains why the BBC thinks it is important to read the BBCnews in a BBC accent. No one will take the news seriously if its readwith voice like/wanna u/scruff. It is not that simple though.
3. He/she speaks here in the accent of an ordinary speaker just thekind of voice the newsreader is rejecting.
4. A newsreader would never really reveal his/her prejudices directlyto the viewer in this way. So what the newsreader says in this poemperhaps need to be seen, as unspoken message of the way the news isrepresented.