[Music] this is one of the more straightforward points on the c6 syllabus really nothing too complicated is happening here still let's go line by line and make sure we have a complete understanding of the poem [Music] welcome back to between the lines as usual we'll start by reading the poem test match savannah park proudly wearing the rosette of my skin i strut into sabina england boycotting excitement bravely something badly amiss cricket not the game they played lords the crowd whoever saw a crowd at a cricket match are caged vociferous partisans quick to take offense england 68 for none at lunch what sort of batting that man them can't play cricket again props them should i borrow lawrence rule and on it goes the wicked slow as the batting and the crowd restless hey white why or your brother's name does send with sleep sir me pmoney's watch this foolishness cha so i try to explain in my hampshire draw about the conditions in kent about sticky wickets and muggy days and the monsoon season in manchester but failed to convince even myself the crowds allowed lord business drives me out skulking behind a tarnished rosette somewhat afraid now but unable quite to conceal a blushing nationality [Music] so to summarize what is happening here we see a cricket match happening at sabayana park between england and the west indies for those who don't know or care about cricket test cricket is basically the highest standard the highest league of cricket that exists sabana park stadium is located in jamaica and is the only place in the country where test cricket is played anyhow the speaker here is an englishman a white man and he is here in jamaica watching the qriket match supporting his english team of course immediately the poem is juxtaposing two cultures that are very much connected historically we see england we see jamaica in a sense jamaica here may represent west indies in general we also see a radical juxtaposition with the white man and the english team on one hand and the west indian particularly the jamaican spectators alongside the west indian team on the other hand we have studied several poems that deal with race so far particularly black versus white but this poem is a little different for one instead of the black people being the ones at a disadvantage the ones under the oppression as we usually see it is this white man who is feeling out of place embarrassed ashamed so this poem is giving us a flip side to the racial tensions that other poems explore however be careful not to over analyze the racial aspect of the poem as nationality is as important a theme as race here it is not just black versus white but also england versus jamaica or england versus the west indies anyway what's literally happening at the point of course a cricket match we see that the english team is playing a very boring match they're not exciting the crowd and they're not as thrilling to watch as other teams particularly the west indian team the english team are the ones batting now so it's up to them to make the match exciting but instead of playing a wild exciting game that makes the crowd scream and pulsate at the edge of their seats they're playing a very safe game they're not going all out with the batting the game is slow and uninteresting and that makes the crowd restless uneasy displeased a west indian spectator perhaps a jamaican considering the dialect he uses confronts the main speaker the white man asking why the english team is so lame the white man at this is embarrassed and cannot find a good answer he too realizes that the team isn't really doing a great job the englishman who had walked into the stadium all high and mighty ended up walking out ashamed wanting even to hide his whiteness in shame all right that's the summary now let's go line by line and look at the diction and devices and see how other themes might shine through this point we already understand the title it presents the setting the context of the poem it is almost like a newspaper headline it lets us know what we're getting into there's a test match happening at sabana park let's head down to stanza one in the first two lines we are met with a tone of arrogance the speaker in line one proudly wears the rosette of his skin as he struts into sabine this white man is entering the stadium feeling quite proud a rosette is an imitation rose that is typically worn as some kind of badge of honor people who are important or accomplished might be given a rosette this man's rosette is his white skin his whiteness and so we have a metaphor as his race is compared towards it he's very much aware and very much pleased with his white privilege it's not so much that his team is better than the west indian team but that his skin is better than the west indian skin i could go into the long history between england and the west indies but we all know even without looking into history that white privilege is a thing and that black people are often discriminated against and seen as less than just because of our race in line two the speaker is said to strut which again connors an air of superiority pride strutting is that proud stiff upward walk one that might remind you of a peacock that walks with its tail erected and spread out this man struts into sabina like he owns the place by the next line of the stanza we see that the speaker's pompous behavior isn't matched by his team's performance england boycotting excitement bravely the boycott means to abstain from using or buying or doing a certain thing usually as a form of protest it's often used in the sense of businesses and organizations but i'll soon explain why this word is brought into the world of sports anyway england boycotting excitement is a sarcastic way of saying they're not playing an exciting game the speaker still calls the team brave this description is ironic or sarcastic as in reality the english team are cowardly they aren't brave enough to play a riskier more thrilling game they are playing it too safe and the game is no fun to watch so the speaker is just denying the truth and trying to feel good about his team in line four here the speaker admits very clearly that something is off something is badly amiss he might be saying his team isn't doing as well as they usually do he might also be saying that the crowd here in jamaica is not responding as positively to the game as he would have expected in any case he realizes that something is going wrong i think the speaker here is experiencing a kind of culture shock it's his first time seeing a west indian crowd a people that are seeking not just a technically good game but an exciting game a wild game a memorable game maybe back in england the spectators have different expectations and this ties somewhat into some cultural differences between the west indies and england or at the very least some stereotypes west indians are often seen as loud charismatic over-friendly people who just like to party and enjoy life english people are painted to be very much reserved and collected they drink tea study hard cross their legs smoke pipes this white man as he struts into sabana park is thrown into a different world one that neither he nor his team fit into back to the word boycott earlier i mentioned that this word stands out it is used deliberately to capture a pun and to make an illusion jeff boycott is an english cricketer one of the cricketers who were performing poorly apparently you know who else is an english cricketer dennis amis so these two words are used to make a skillful joke about two english cricketers who might have performed particularly poorly on to stanza 2 cricket not the game they play at lords the speaker realizes unmistakably that there's a significant difference between the cricket played here in the west indies and the cricket played back in england lords alludes to lord's cricket ground in london where the speaker might have watched cricket matches before also a lord interestingly means a master a man in a high position so it could be a pun that also means that the speaker sees england as the land of lords the land of great men cricket not the game they play at lords this is a critical line the speaker is having an epiphany it's like he's saying the cricket played here at sarbana is the real cricket what have i been watching my whole life look at that one word sentence cricket he's saying these people know what cricket is or what cricket should be he realizes that compared to what goes on at sabina what happens at lords is a disgrace the flamboyance and showmanship of the west indian cricketers contrast with the dull listless playing style of the english furthermore the expressiveness of the west indian spectators contrasts with how prim proper and quiet the english spectators or lords would typically be you know what makes this line even more significant the fact that englishmen actually invented cricket so this game that this white man's people invented has now been transformed into something much greater by the west indians in essence the english are literally being beaten at their own game then he takes note of the crowd he might be gazing about the loud and numerous spectators amazed he reflects the rhetorical question on the fact that he has never actually seen a crowd this big at a cricket match he surprised that cricket is such a big deal here look at how he describes the crowd caged vociferous partisans quick to take offense vociferous means loud boisterous noisy a partisan is an ardent supporter of some kind of political party in this case we have a bit of a metaphor as the west indies are said to support their team as militantly as seriously as partisans support their political party basically the man is seeing how loyal the west indians are to their team how fierce their support is for their team they love their team so much that they quickly take offense if anything happens to their players out on the pitch or if anyone tries to trashtalk their team they're ready to curse and fight for their team the speaker has never seen such a passion for cricket back home later we will see that quick to take offense is a little ironic as in the end it is the speaker who takes offense when his team plays poorly and when the west indians mock and jeer him he takes offense to the extent that he leaves the match early you'll see when we get there why is the crowd said to be caged the cage must refer to the iron railings or bars that run around the stadium the crowd look as if they would just stampede down under the cricket grounds had it not been for the railings this is how loud and boisterous they are by the way saying the crowd is caged can be seen as a metaphor that compares to people to wild animals usually it is beasts that are kept in cages by now you must have seen that the speaker's tone has changed first he was proud and condescending now there's a tone of bewilderment and a kind of admiration the speaker is seeing for the first time how cricket is enjoyed at sabina park the passion and excitement that the west indians have are missing from the games back in england there's also a tone of self-consciousness in security in the next stanza we get a look at the scoreboard england 68 for none at lunch so at lunch time the score is pretty low england has made 68 runs and have lost zero wickets the low numbers indicate that the batsmen aren't playing a thrilling game they've just made 68 runs so far the jamaican speaker then comes in what's that about in that man rhetorically he asks the englishman what kind of batting his team is going on with the tone of the jamaican here is one of frustration and disapproval one of disappointment the jamaican well i think he's jamaican continues they can't play cricket again so apparently england used to be a good team but now they can't play a good game and the jamaican goes further still prof them so he's saying kind of jokingly the english team would have done a better job had they borrowed the jamaican batsman lawrence rowe who was an incredible batsman so here we have an illusion as another real-life cricketer is mentioned the jamaican is sarcastic in these lines and is mocking the unimpressive play of the english team note the shift in language as the speaker changes we started off with the englishman speaking in standard english he even used his impressive words like strzok and busty for us now we have the jamaican creole coming in to create a contrast everything about the original speaker his team his race now even his standard english have become a mockery the next two lines as we reach stanza 4 are narrated by the original speaker the white man he becomes increasingly anxious and embarrassed as the game continues in a slow boring manner the wickets are slow because the english batsmen are so defensive and careful that no wickets are being lost but also they're not making many runs and so the game is grindingly sluggish almost to a halt the crowd is becoming even more restless then we have some more banter from our jamaican friend he's talking directly to the white man saying that his brothers who are the english batsmen are sending the spectators to sleep with their unexciting play style he used his article question which comes last with more sarcasm a white boy all your brother's name does send you sleep so then another rhetorical question comes in like a punch pmimonius watch this foolishness the jamaican is saying that coming to the stadium was a waste of money as the match is just too boring he ends with the very jamaican cha which is an interjection of exasperation let's see the englishman's response in the next stanza so i try to explain in my hampshire draw about the conditions in kent about sticky wickets and muggy days and the monsoon season in manchester but failed to convince even myself the hampshire drawl in the first line refers to the speaker's accent he's from hampshire england when it comes to speech a drawl is usually a slow drawn-out kind of accent so just as the english cricketers are slow in their betting the english man's speech seems to be dull and unexciting compared to the jamaican dialect what is he saying in his hampshire draw in trying to explain away why the english team is playing such a horrible game he talks about the conditions in kent which is in england he talks about sticky wickets and monkey days muggy means hot humid wet and sticky gives us the same image so he's saying my team is only playing badly because back home in england the weather is much different we're not used to this tropical weather we're used to much wetter weather and that is affecting the batsmen sticky wicket refers to when the cricket pitch becomes wet due to rain this wetness causes the ball to bounce unpredictably and could cause batsmen to become more nervous more careful and therefore play a less exciting game so he's saying we are used to playing like this because back home the weather forces us to play like this but there's a nice little pun here a sticky wicket idiomatically means a difficult or unpredictable situation so even though the cricket pitch isn't wet the speaker himself is facing a sticky wicket because he is being heavily criticized and mocked by the west indians around him and he's very embarrassed the speaker even talks about the monsoon season in manchester which is in england but the funny thing is there is no monsoon season in england the monsoon season which is a time of incessant heavy rain is faced by south asia india and some parts of south america i guess the speaker assumes that the jamaicans the west indians around him don't know enough about england and about the world to pick up on his lie basically he thinks we're not sensible enough to understand that he's actually not making sense anyhow by the time we get to the last line of the stanza we see that neither the jamaicans nor the speaker himself is convinced meaning all this talk about wet weather and monsoon did not have any effect on the frustrated mocking crowd on the caribbean people who are in a heated and caustic conversation with him he himself is unconvinced which means he knows that weather has nothing to do with how badly the englishmen are playing look what happens in the last stanza the englishman says that the crowd's loud abusing drives him out let's pause there and pay close attention to the diction notice that for the first time the englishman is using truncated or contracted english first his english was premand proper now he says abusing instead of abusing his english is now broken just as his english pride has been broken in the battle of west indies and england we have been having a secondary battle of english and caribbean dialect now even the englishman is using broken english which shows that he has given up he can no longer defend or be proud of the english team it's as if he wants to walk out of his skin and switch sides he says that the crowd is abusing him this is because of the jeering and we can imagine the cursing that the west indian spectators carry on with they're lashing out not just against the english team but on him an englishman who in a sense represents that team look at the word drive such a forceful word to drive someone out of somewhere is to chase them out briskly like they're some kind of animal first the west indians were compared to animals now the englishman is compared to an animal the tables have turned we can now feel sorry for the english man he is being driven out of savannah park not quite by the crowd but more by his shame his embarrassment his disappointment in the english team we see in the next line that he is skulking which means he's trying to hide himself trying to evade interaction he doesn't want to talk to the west indian spectators around him he wants to disappear and again we see the metaphor of the rosette but this time the rosette is tarnished it is soiled ruined his whiteness his englishness is no longer something he wears as a batch of honor but is now a dirty garment he wears shamefully clearly he is now ashamed of his whiteness his englishness his affiliation with the english cricket team he says in the next line that he is afraid wait is he afraid or is the rosette afraid well it doesn't matter to be afraid means to be unravelled torn up scattered messed up we can imagine that the rosette which was once beautiful which is his race his nationality is now dirty and messy in the same light he is afraid he's in a state of embarrassment in the last two lines we see that despite his effort he cannot conceal he cannot hide his nationality why can't he hide it because being white isn't something he can hide not when you're in a crowd full of black people he wishes he could take off his whiteness and just blend in but he cannot the blushing here speaks to his embarrassment someone blushes and turns red in the cheeks when they're embarrassed it is easier to see a white one blushing than a black man blushing even if we blush it might not be so noticeable but this man's whiteness makes the redness of the blushing very conspicuous what a change the speaker has undergone he strutted into the stadium all high and mighty and now he's driven out with his tail between his legs in this poem the theme of race and racial pride are explored as well as nationality and national pride patriotism in fact but in the poem unlike in most of us we looked at we see where the whiteness the white privilege ends up backfiring and turning into a colossal embarrassment we see the theme of contrasting cultures as we explore the differences between how english people and how west indians speak and behave particularly in the context of watching a qriket match another thing do you think the black people in the poem were being racist toward the white man look at how they talk to him look at how they abuse him and even call him white boy is this racist in fact can black people be racist definitely let me know your thoughts on that one in the comments another theme we see in the poem is how sports in this case cricket is used as an equalizer a leveler among races meaning whether or not you think your race is superior to mine in the outside world whether or not i am racially prejudiced in the outside world in the game of cricket it's all about the skills of the players your risk gives you no advantage no disadvantage all races are equal on the cricket pitch in another video where i deal with all the themes explored in all of the seasick points i'll go more deeply into the themes of this point until then that's it for test match savannah park thank you for joining us in between the lines you