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This is a poem about asserting your identity against others who would ‘bring you down’. John Agard was born in Guyana in 1949, with a Caribbean father and a Portuguese mother (he is of mixed race). In 1977, he moved to Britain, where he became angry with people who referred to him as ‘half-caste’. Realising that most people who say this do so without thinking about what it really means, he tells off people who use this term without thinking.

The poem’s content starts by sarcastically ‘apologising’ for being half-caste – ‘Excuse me standing on one leg I’m half-caste’. He is not really apologising. This is satire – although the poem starts by apologising for being half-caste, Agard MEANS exactly the opposite.
The next section of the poem argues that mixing colours in art, weather and symphonies does not make a half-thing When he says: ‘Yu mean when Picasso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas’, he is arguing that mixing colours is a GOOD......

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Approximate Word Count: 876
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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