analysis of the poem The sheep and the Goats by Merle Collins
Name: Dania Dwyer The poem “The Sheep And The Goats” has a strikingly raffish feature about it that immediately catches the interest of the reader from the title, and holds it to the very end. The terms are quite simple and ring familiar to the Caribbean reader in particular, who, carrying to the reading process a host of experiences peculiar to our own culture, can better appreciate this poem. It is familiarity that pulls the reader into the poem, and it is through it that Collins reveals underlying issues concerning segregation, identity and appearance versus reality, all of which form unflattering threads in the social fabric of our society. “The Sheep And The Goats” is a classic example of a poem whose poetic and figurative elements complement its literal content towards the end of enriching the experience of the poem for its ‘chief patron’- the reader. The reader experiences the poem through the perspective of an observant persona, who, while ‘standing in queue at the airport terminal’ (Lines 9-10), becomes acutely aware of the stark differences among those in the queue. ... He articulates the differences by likening these persons to sheep and goats, two groups of animals that are frequently compared and contrasted. In fact, these people become to the persona and to the reader, sheep and goats personified. The sheep are those possessing meek and serene characteristics; ‘the chosen few’ from the queue; the goats on the other hand, twitch, kick and tug, and clearly form the disreputable and inferior fraction of the group. ... The sheep-goat analogy is very effective in creating distinction among the persons waiting in line for the supposed credible judgment of the officer at the desk. In Matthew 25:32 of the Bible, Jesus says “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.