Poetry: Interpretive Essay Poem title: The Carpenter’s Compliant
The Carpenter In the poem “The Carpenter’s Compliant,” by a Jamaican poet Edward Baugh shows us the deep sentiment that the poor expresses. The Carpenter is in a bar complaining about who his friend’s, who died recently, son choose to build the coffin. Instead of him he chooses to let the big shot Mr. Belnavis to build the coffin. Through the use of colloquial language, irony, diction and alliteration in the poem, Baugh expresses within the simple heart there is purity of feeling, caring and generosity as reflected in the Carpenter. This poem does not have any great structure. The poem does not have any kind of rhyme scheme. The poem brings the moment the carpenter was complaining in the bar. In the first stanza of the poem the Carpenter show he wants honesty and pride. His “friend” (l. 2) recently die and his son “wants a nice job for the coffin” (l. 5). The Carpenter also says that he is not well recognized by his friend’s son even though he builds “the house that him live in” (l. 3). Notice the poet try to make the poem vivid. In line four the Carpenter refers to his friend’s son by “that mawga-foot bwoy” (l. 4). This creates an image in the readers mind to visualize the situation and the way the people speak. In the second stanza of the poem the Carpenter speaks of “Mister Belnavis” (l. 6), the “big belly crook” (l. 7). Listen to the colloquial language used in line seven, “who don’t know him arse from a chisel” (l. 7); this is the way they speak in Jamaica. Recognize the irony in this same stanza that states, “because him make big-shot coffin, fi-him coffin must be better than mine” (l. 8). It is just that Mister Belnavis make coffins for people with high class of living and the son wants him to make the coffin. Take a look at the last line in the stanza where it says, “Bwoy it hot