Checking Out Me History is the anthology's poem about identity and power working together, and it is unlike anything else on the list. Agard writes in phonetic Caribbean dialect, so the spelling looks strange on the page. Do not treat that as an error to tidy up in your head. The way it is written is a huge part of what it means.
The heart of the poem is a contest over whose history gets taught. Agard was given Dick Whittington and 1066 and Lord Nelson, and denied Toussaint L'Ouverture, Nanny of the Maroons and Mary Seacole. The poem exposes that gap and then fills it, and a strong answer tracks both halves: the anger at what was hidden and the pride in reclaiming it.
This page covers what happens, the two contrasting forms Agard runs side by side, the language and dialect, the context of colonial education, and the quotes to learn. Then comparison poems and common mistakes. The poem is in copyright, so I quote short lines only and point you to your anthology for the full text.
What happens in Checking Out Me History
The speaker lists the history he was taught at school in Britain: "1066 and all dat", Dick Whittington and his cat, Lord Nelson, Robin Hood, a mix of real events and nursery-rhyme myth, all of it European. Then he sets against it the history he was never taught, the Black and Caribbean heroes who were left out.
Agard alternates between the two. The imposed British history comes in bouncing, rhyming lines, almost mocking in their sing-song. In between, in separate italicised sections, he introduces the reclaimed figures: Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the Haitian revolution; Nanny of the Maroons, who fought colonial forces in Jamaica; and Mary Seacole, the Jamaican-British nurse of the Crimean War. He accuses that education of blinding him to his own identity, and ends by declaring that he is now taking control of his own story. Because the poem is in copyright, I quote only short lines here. Use your AQA anthology for the whole text.
Form and structure
Two forms fighting each other
The poem runs two different styles side by side. The British history comes in short, rhyming, sing-song lines that make it sound trivial, like a nursery rhyme you learned without thinking. The reclaimed Black heroes appear in separate stanzas, often italicised, with a freer shape and reverent, glowing imagery. Setting a mocking form against a dignified one is Agard's central technique, and it does his argument for him before you analyse a single word.
Dialect as resistance
Agard writes phonetically: "Dem tell me", "wha dem want to tell me". This is not carelessness, it is a deliberate refusal of standard English, the language of the coloniser and the classroom. By spelling the poem the way Caribbean English sounds, Agard asserts an oral identity and takes control of the page. The form of the words is itself an act of reclaiming.
Repetition and the drumbeat of grievance
"Dem tell me / Dem tell me" hammers away at the start, building the sense of a version of history drummed into him against his will. The repetition works like a protest chant, insistent and rhythmic, and it sets up the turn when the speaker finally starts telling his own history instead of being told.
Language and imagery
Blindness and bandages
The strongest image is the idea of being blinded to your own past. Agard writes that they "Bandage up me eye with me own history / Blind me to me own identity". Making a false education into a physical blindfold is a powerful metaphor: it suggests real harm, an injury done to the self, not just gaps in a syllabus. His identity was there all along, covered up.
Light imagery for the reclaimed heroes
When Agard describes the Black heroes he switches to imagery of light and vision. Mary Seacole is "a healing star / among the wounded", Nanny of the Maroons is a "see-far woman". Against the blindness of his schooling, these figures are sources of sight and light. The contrast in imagery, dark bandage against bright star, carries the whole emotional shift of the poem.
The dismissive nursery rhyme
"Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat / dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat" lumps a real historical date together with a children's story, as if they carry equal weight. The bouncy internal rhyme makes British history sound childish and unserious. Agard is not saying this history is false, he is saying it was handed to him as the only history, which is the problem.
Key quotes from Checking Out Me History
“Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me”
Where: the opening, repeatedYour key quote for imposed history. "Dem" (them) versus the speaker sets up the power struggle immediately. The repetition sounds like a chant of grievance. Argue that Agard presents history as something done to him, controlled by others.
“Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat / dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat”
Where: the British history linesReal history and nursery myth given equal billing. The sing-song rhyme trivialises the curriculum. Use it to argue Agard mocks not the facts but the fact that this was presented as the whole story.
“Bandage up me eye with me own history / Blind me to me own identity”
Where: the central metaphorThe blindness metaphor. A colonial education is turned into a physical blindfold that hid the speaker's own past from him. Argue that Agard frames the erasure as real harm to identity, not a neutral gap.
“a healing star among the wounded”
Where: on Mary SeacoleLight imagery for a reclaimed Black hero, the Jamaican-British nurse of the Crimean War. "Star" and "healing" set her against the blindness of his schooling. Good for the contrast in imagery between imposed and reclaimed history.
“see-far woman”
Where: on Nanny of the MaroonsNanny, who led resistance to colonial forces in Jamaica, is given the gift of vision the speaker was denied. "See-far" makes her a figure of insight and leadership. Use it for the theme of reclaiming powerful ancestors.
“But now I checking out me own history / I carving out me identity”
Where: the closing linesThe resolution. The speaker takes active control: "checking out" and "carving out" are deliberate, self-directed verbs. Argue that the poem ends in empowerment, moving from being told to telling, from blindness to sight.
Context
John Agard was born in Guyana in 1949 and moved to Britain in 1977. This poem grows directly out of his experience of a British colonial education that centred European history and largely ignored the Black and Caribbean past. The figures he reclaims were real and important: Toussaint L'Ouverture led the only successful slave revolution in history, Nanny of the Maroons fought British colonial forces in Jamaica, and Mary Seacole nursed soldiers in the Crimean War, though she was long overshadowed by Florence Nightingale.
The phonetic dialect is central to the context. Standard English was the language of the coloniser and the classroom, so writing in Caribbean English is a political act, a way of asserting an identity the education system tried to overwrite. Agard is also a performance poet, which is why the poem has such a strong spoken rhythm. For the exam, the key point is that this is a poem about the power of who controls history, and about reclaiming an identity that a colonial system tried to erase.
Themes in Checking Out Me History
The central theme is identity, and specifically how identity is shaped or damaged by the history you are taught. Bound up with it is power: the power of a colonial system to decide whose past counts, and the speaker's push to take that power back. The conflict in this poem is cultural rather than military, a struggle over whose story gets told.
There is also a strong theme of reclaiming and pride. The poem does not just protest the erasure, it fills the gap with light-filled portraits of real Black heroes, moving from anger to self-definition. By the end, identity is something the speaker actively carves out rather than passively receives, which is why the poem feels like a victory rather than a complaint.
Poems to compare with Checking Out Me History
The Emigree
The natural pairing, since both are the anthology's identity poems. Both speakers hold onto a self shaped by a place, and both use language to assert it. Compare the tone: Agard is combative and reclaims his identity through anger and pride, while Rumens's speaker clings to a sunlit memory of a lost city with defiant love. Two different routes to the same act of holding on to who you are.
Tissue
A good pairing on power and control. Both poems question the power structures that shape people's lives, Agard the colonial control of history, Dharker the way documents and money control us. Compare how each poet imagines resisting or escaping that control, Agard by reclaiming his story, Dharker by imagining power as fragile as paper.
London
Use this for institutional power controlling the individual. Blake attacks the church, monarchy and commerce that trap Londoners; Agard attacks the education system that trapped him in someone else's history. Compare how both poems expose a controlling power and the damage it does, one to a city, one to a sense of self.
Common mistakes with Checking Out Me History
The most common mistake is treating the dialect spelling as something to correct or ignore. The non-standard English is the point, a deliberate assertion of Caribbean identity against standard English. Analyse it, do not apologise for it.
Second, do not stop at the anger. The poem is not only a protest about what was erased, it reclaims real heroes with imagery of light and vision, and ends in empowerment. An answer that misses the second half misses the arc from blindness to sight.
Third, keep the two forms in view, the mocking sing-song British history against the reverent reclaimed history, and quote short lines only. This poem is in copyright, so quote for analysis, never reproduce it whole.
Revise Checking Out Me History as your identity poem, and pair it first with The Emigree, its natural partner, or with Tissue for the power angle. My Power and Conflict comparison guide lays out the pairings that score, and the anthology themes page shows how identity, power and conflict run across the poems. When you are ready, work through the rest of the 15 anthology poems.