Topic Summaries

• Poet: Raymond Antrobus (1986–)
• Year: 2019
• Form: Free verse couplets
• Key techniques: First-person voice, auditory and visual imagery, personification

About the poet

Raymond Antrobus is a Jamaican-British poet, educator, and writer born in Hackney, East London. Diagnosed as profoundly deaf at age six, Antrobus did not receive his hearing aids until age eight, an experience that deeply influenced his understanding of communication, identity, and isolation. He studied spoken word education at Goldsmiths and worked in various jobs before anchoring his career in poetry and advocacy. His award-winning debut collection of poems explores themes of deafness, grief, and bicultural identity.

Historical context

This poem reflects Antrobus’ experiences as a Black and Deaf man navigating urban life and seeking solace in nature. Written in 2019, it reflects contemporary awarenesses of urban alienation, mental health, and environmental crises. The speaker’s visit to Zealandia (a wildlife sanctuary in Wellington, New Zealand) serves as an antidote to city stress and alienation, recognising indigenous Māori ecological knowledge and the therapeutic potential of nature in an age of disconnected, screen-centric society.

Literary context

Antrobus’s poem aligns with contemporary lyric poetry exploring identity, difference, and environmental consciousness, drawing upon spoken-word, eco-poetry, and Black-British literary traditions.

Key ideas

• Contrast between urban alienation and natural belonging
• Sound, silence, and the experience of deafness
• Memory, presence, and sensory transition
• Indigenous knowledge and intergenerational wisdom
• Empathy and personification of non-human life
• Loneliness vs. community