Search results
The best Island Man study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
- Summary
- Language, Imagery, and Contrast
- Analysis of Island Man
The poem begins with the speaker giving a stream-of-consciousnessdepiction of an island and what it is like to wake up there. Everything is calm, the birds and waves are the only sounds one can hear. There are men pushing out their boats to fish, and the sun is defiant in its entry into the sky. In the third stanza, there is a transition, the man i...
The language within ‘Island Man’ is also interesting. It flows seamlessly from thought to thought. In fact, there is no punctuation in the poem at all. This allows the reader to take their time, or move quickly from line to line. Nichols has not structured it one way or the other. This style of writing is known as stream of consciousness; titled th...
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘Island Man,’ the speaker begins with the single word, “Morning.” It has its own line, giving the reader time to imagine what this means. It is especially important in the life of the island man who is welcomed back into wakefulness by the sounds of the island itself. There is the “blue surf” and the way it breaks on the shore. The metronomic regularity of this natural occurrence is extremely peaceful. So much so that Nichols uses the word “wombing” to describe it. Imag...
Stanza Two
The calm images of the island continue into the second stanza. Here, the speaker describes the sound of the “wild seabirds”. These two words are also contained in their own line, again leaving space for a reader to sit with the image, and the sounds one associates with it. Nichols goes on to speak a few words on the “fisherman pushing out to sea”. These men are going about their jobs in a matter-of-fact way. They are working with the earth to make a living, within a settingthat is infinitely...
Stanza Three
The third stanza serves as a bridge between the first half of the poem and the second. The man who woke so peacefully on the island has to go back to the west, “from the east.” In ‘Island Man’the east is associated with all the peaceful images of stanzas one and two. The West is very different. He enters back into this world “groggily groggily”. He is in a stupor, dragged low by the life he has to go back to.
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
Morning / And Island man wakes up / To the sound of blue surf / In his head / The steady breaking and wombing / Wild seabirds / And fisherman pulling out to sea / The sun surfacing.
With great effort, the island man gets himself up for "another London day." Analysis. The poem follows the morning events of an “island man,” which is the title of the poem. The phrase and title "Island Man" encapsulates the complex dual identity at the heart of poem. Grace Nichols is from Guyana, which is a South American country whose ...
Oct 18, 2023 · Grace Nichols and "Island Man". "Island Man" is a short poem that focuses on the cultural identity of a Caribbean man who wakes up in present-day London but who dreams about his native island. Through astute use of imagery and metaphor, the poem juxtaposes the two environments within the mind of the third-person speaker.
Oct 27, 2022 · Morning And Island man wakes up To the sound of blue surf In his head The steady breaking and wombing Wild seabirds And fisherman pulling out to sea The sun surfacing ...
Poem analysis of Grace Nichols’ Island Man through the review of literary techniques, poem structure, themes, and the proper usage of quotes.
