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Isn't My Name Magical?
James Berry
About James Berry
James Berry was born in Jamaica in 1924 and spent his childhood there. When he was seventeen, he went to America to work. He settled in England in 1948. He became famous as a black writer in England when he won the National Poetry Competition in 1981. Berry has written for both children and adults. He has also contributed to the promotion of Bristish West Indian writing.
Nobody can see my name on me.
My name is inside
And all over me, unseen
like other people also keep it.
Isn't my name magical?
My name is mine only.
It tells I am individual,
the one special person it shakes
When I'm wanted.
Even if someone else answers
for me, my message hangs in air
haunting others, till it stops
with me, the right name.
Isn't your name and my name magic?
If I'm with hundred of people
and my name gets called,
my sound switches me on to answer
like it was my human electricity.
My name echoes across the playground.
It comes, it demands my attention.
I have to find out who calls,
who wants me for what.
My name gets blurred out in class.
It is terror, at a bad time,
because somebody is cross.
My name gets called a whisper
I am happy, because
my name may have touched me
with a loving voice.
Isn't it all magic?
Available Answers
- 1.
According to the speaker, where is a person's name?
- 2.
What happens when someone else answers by mistake?
- 3.
'....my sound switches me on to answer/like it was my human electricity.'
- What is 'my sound'?
- Explain this expression, 'My sound switches me on.'
- Why does the speaker call it 'human electricity'?
- 4.
'It is terror, at a bad time, / because somebody is cross.'
Explain this line in the context of the poem.
- 5.
Why does the speaker say that everyone's name is magical?
- 6.
Explain why the speaker says, 'My name is.... all over me.'
6 more answer(s) available.