Topic Summaries

• Poet: Liz Berry
• Year: 2014
• Form: Free verse
• Key techniques: Dialect/code switching, imagery, metaphor

About the poet

Liz Berry is a British poet born in the Black Country, West Midlands. She studied at Royal Holloway and worked as a teacher in addition to earning an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham. Her poetry often celebrates working-class heritage, motherhood, and female experience, while reviving the music of the Black Country dialect. Her work draws on local speech, folklore, and memory, offering a rich sensory connection to place.

Historical context

‘Homing’ reflects the legacy of post-war class mobility and linguistic conformity in the UK. For much of the 20th century, working-class regional accents were often suppressed in favour of Received Pronunciation, seen as socially aspirational. Elocution lessons, as alluded to in the poem, were common for those trying to ‘better themselves.’ The Black Country, a region shaped by industry and mining, experienced social and economic decline in the late 20th century, deepening the sense of cultural loss.

Literary context

Berry’s use of Black Country dialect disrupts poetic conventions that privilege ‘standard’ English, asserting the lyric beauty of local speech. ‘Homing’ participates in a growing movement toward decolonising the canon and decentralising class and linguistic hierarchies in literature.

Key ideas

• Language and identity
• Class and social mobility
• Memory and inheritance
• Dialect and cultural preservation
• Silence and voice
• Home and belonging