.png)
Contextual background
James Berry was born on September 28, 1924, in rural Jamaica, growing up in a family reliant on subsistence farming and the sea. He emigrated to England in 1948 on a ship called SS Orbita. He was invited, along with many other West Indians, to join the depleted postwar labour force in Britain, becoming part of what is now known as the “Windrush generation”. He continued, however, to draw literary inspiration from his early exposure to Jamaican folklore, language and traditions.
Berry’s poetry explores the complexities of the immigrant experience, addressing themes such as colonialism, discrimination, and the search for belonging. In 1981, he would become the first West Indian poet to win the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition.
Introduction to the poem
Written in 1955, ‘On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria’ is one of Berry’s earlier poems and conveys the sense of displacement or cultural dislocation that many West Indian migrants must have felt, as they confronted the ethnic and cultural homogeneity of post-war Britain. Depicting a brief conversation between the black Jamaican speaker and the white Quaker, the poem provides a fleeting glimpse into the growing pains of multicultural Britain.
Key thematic features
Discovery and newness: The setting of the poem – on a moving train – seems significant, and immediately places us within an atmosphere of movement and discovery. Ironically, however, the “native” is not really discovering, except through the lens of her own ignorance: “Which part of Africa is Jamaica? she said.”
Nostalgia: There is a brief, unelaborated and “inexplicable” memory of “empty city streets lit dimly/in a day’s first hours” and the speaker’s “father’s big banana field”. This memory might be a simple expression of nostalgia or longing for home, brought on by an alienating conversation, or the reference to his “father’s big banana field” may more subtly evoke an industry that enabled the Jamaican people to break free from their country’s colonial legacy. Liberated from the slave sugar plantation society and economy of the nineteenth century, ex-slaves and their descendants had worked to secure an independent existence through the acquisition of land and the banana trade. In this way, the poem may summon up a whole network of cultural references and meaning.
Communication or miscommunication: The poem captures the miscommunications and confusion of the host society, as it tries (but fails) to grasp the plurality and hidden dimensions of the world. Most damningly, the Quaker seems unaware of the European legacy of repression and subjection that brought black Africans to the West Indies in the 17th century. As Louis MacNeice said, “World is crazier and more of it than we think,/Incorrigibly plural.” The speaker good-humouredly multiplies the woman’s confusion further, with a grammatically and semantically meaningless statement : “Where Ireland is near Lapland I said.”
Forgiveness and harmony: The woman’s ignorance seems to be forgiven as the speaker acknowledges her sincerity and seems moved by her beauty: “So sincere she was beautiful/as people sat down around us.” This final image, of people gathered together on the train, all bound for the same destination, strikes an optimistic note, suggesting harmony and understanding.
Key stylistic features
Simple, unaffected writing style: The writing is simple and unaffected (“Nice day. Nice day I agreed.”), emphasising the simplicity and unaffectedness of the interchange. It also brings special emphasis to that “inexplicable” image at the heart of the poem: the contrast of the empty city streets and the big banana field.
Irony: There is a vein of irony running through the poem: the Quaker makes a well-intended attempt to reach across racial divides, speaking “a poem loudly/for racial brotherhood”. However, one might wonder how worthwhile such a poem could be, given her ignorance of the culture and origins of her new compatriots.
Striking imagery: The poem contains several striking images, whose purpose is more to suggest and evoke a network of meanings, than to denote one single stable meaning. “Snow falls elsewhere” is a potent but obscure image, with its implications of woe, death and darkness, and possibly refers to the failure of Jamaica’s post-colonial democracy – with its failure to address long-standing economic stagnation, poverty and violence. The poem’s central image – “empty city streets lit dimly/in a day’s first hours” and the “big banana field” – stand out for their resistance to straightforward interpretation.
Comments