Checking Out Me History

John Agard's Checking Out Me History (published in 2007) is a protest poem about education and identity. The speaker looks back on the history he was taught at school in a British colonial system and realises it left out the people who mattered most to who he is.

He was taught European kings, battles and nursery rhymes, but not the black and Caribbean figures central to his own heritage. The poem argues that this was a deliberate act of cultural erasure: by controlling what history is taught, the coloniser controlled how the speaker saw himself.

The title itself is a statement of intent. "Checking out" his own history means going to find it for himself, since the education system refused to give it to him.

The speaker responds by reclaiming that lost history. He celebrates figures the curriculum ignored and declares that he will "carve out" his own identity from what he discovers.

Agard splits the poem into two contrasting kinds of stanza, and this division is the key to its meaning.

• The stanzas about European history are short and use a bouncing, nursery-rhyme rhythm (mixing real history with rhymes like "Dick Whittington and he cat"). This trivialises that history and mocks the way it was drummed in by rote.
• The stanzas about black heroes are set apart, often italicised, with a freer, more flowing rhythm and rich imagery. They are given dignity and space, in contrast to the sing-song European material.

The alternating structure creates a juxtaposition (contrasting ideas placed side by side) between the imposed history and the reclaimed one. The poem's shape literally separates what the speaker was told from what he had to find for himself.

The two forms are a visual and rhythmic argument: the poem does not just say that black history was sidelined, it shows it by giving those figures their own distinct, respectful stanzas.

The most distinctive feature of the poem is its non-standard phonetic spelling, based on Caribbean Creole. Agard writes lines such as "Dem tell me" and "wha dem want to tell me", spelling words as they sound in his own voice.

This choice is central to the poem's meaning:

• It asserts his own cultural voice against "standard" English, which he links to the power of the coloniser.
• It reflects the oral tradition of Caribbean storytelling, giving the poem a spoken, chant-like quality.
• The refusal to write in standard English is itself an act of resistance: the form of the poem rebels against the education that tried to shape him.

Agard also uses vivid light imagery to celebrate the black heroes. Where the European figures are treated dismissively, the reclaimed figures glow. He praises them using metaphors of light and fire, casting them as beacons the speaker can navigate by.

The repeated phrase "Dem tell me" builds a rhythmic, accusing refrain, hammering home how history was done to him rather than shared with him.

Agard names real historical figures the speaker was denied, and celebrating them is the poem's positive counter-move.

Figure	Who they were	Why Agard includes them
Toussaint L'Ouverture	Led the successful Haitian revolution against slavery and French rule	A black leader who defeated an empire, erased from the speaker's schooling
Nanny de Maroon	A leader of escaped enslaved people (Maroons) in Jamaica	A woman of resistance and courage, absent from the curriculum
Mary Seacole	A Jamaican-British nurse in the Crimean War, overshadowed by Florence Nightingale	Shows how black achievement was written out in favour of a white figure

By setting these figures against nursery-rhyme trivia, Agard exposes the imbalance in what counts as "history". He is not rejecting all British history; he is protesting that his own history was cut out of it.

The poem ends with the speaker resolving to define himself. He will "check out" and reclaim his identity, no longer accepting the version handed to him.

Checking Out Me History develops themes that link it to the Power and Conflict cluster, though its "conflict" is cultural rather than military.

• The power of education to shape identity. Whoever controls the curriculum controls how people see themselves.
• Cultural erasure and reclamation. Black history was left out, and the speaker fights to recover it.
• Identity and self-definition. The speaker insists on carving out his own identity rather than accepting an imposed one.

For context (AO3), John Agard was born in Guyana (then British Guiana) in the Caribbean and moved to Britain in 1977. He grew up under a colonial education system that centred European history, and his work often challenges racism and celebrates Caribbean culture and language. The poem draws directly on that experience.

More widely, the poem responds to Britain's colonial past and to ongoing debates about whose history is taught in schools, making it a poem about power, voice and belonging as much as about the past.

For this in-copyright poem, learn short embedded phrases and the analysis behind them.

Quotation	What to say about it
"Dem tell me" (repeated)	The Creole refrain asserts the speaker's voice and frames history as something done to him, building an accusing rhythm.
"Dem tell me wha dem want to tell me"	Exposes how those in power selected what history he was allowed to learn, controlling his sense of self.
"Toussaint / a slave / with vision"	Celebrates a black revolutionary leader, reclaiming a figure the curriculum ignored.
"Mary Seacole" set against "Florence Nightingale"	Highlights how black achievement was overshadowed by a white figure in the standard version of history.
"carving out me identity"	The active verb "carving" shows the speaker taking control, shaping his own identity from reclaimed history.

Link each quotation to the poem's argument about power: who controls history, and what it does to identity. That is where the strongest analysis lies.

1. Treating the non-standard spelling as a mistake

The Creole spelling is a deliberate, meaningful choice, not an error. Explain that it asserts the speaker's voice and resists the "standard" English of the coloniser.

2. Missing the contrast between the two forms

The poem's power comes from setting nursery-rhyme European history against dignified stanzas about black heroes. Analyse both forms and the juxtaposition between them.

3. Saying the poem rejects all British history

The speaker protests that his own history was left out, not that European history is worthless. Show you understand the imbalance he is attacking.

4. Copying long stretches of the poem

The poem is in copyright, and long quotation earns no analysis marks. Embed short phrases and analyse the effect.

5. Forgetting to compare in Section B

The anthology question is comparative. This poem pairs well with The Émigrée (identity, belonging, cultural loss) on the theme of who holds power over a person's sense of self. Structure the answer around shared and contrasting ideas.