The Full Text of “Island Man”
The Full Text of “Island Man”
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“Island Man” Introduction
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“Island Man” was written by the poet Grace Nichols, who was born in Guyana but moved to England in 1977. Like Nichols, the man in the poem is an immigrant from the Caribbean. Each night, he dreams of his home in the West Indies, only to “come[] back” each morning to the harsh reality of his London surroundings. The poem expresses the homesickness immigrants can feel in a new country, while also suggesting that many immigrants keep their home alive within themselves and thus never truly leave it behind. Nichols first published “Island Man” in her 1984 collection, The Fat Black Woman’s Poems.
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“Island Man” Summary
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Every morning the man from the Caribbean island wakes up hearing the sound of the blue ocean in his mind. The waves make a steady sound, alternately breaking on the shore and swirling as though they are holding him like a baby in a womb.
He can hear the wild birds around the island and the sounds of fishermen pushing their boats out to the sea. He can see the sun boldly rising from the east of his small island, which is the vivid green color of emeralds. He always comes back, though, to where he is now, slowly, dizzily emerging from his dreams.
He wakes up and comes back to the sand and gray, metallic sky in this new country. He comes back to the sound of rushing traffic and the monotonous roar of cars in the North Circle in London.
These sounds muffle and block out his dreams and the way his pillow, crumpled up, might have resembled the waves of his island home. The island man drags himself out of bed.
It’s just another day in London.
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“Island Man” Themes
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Immigration, Homesickness, and Identity
“Island Man” describes a man who has immigrated to England but who still dreams of his home in the Caribbean each night. The poem speaks to the sense of homesickness and disorientation that many immigrants feel as they continually navigate two realities and cultural identities: the remembered comfort of their home, and the very different landscape of their new country, which can feel harsh and unwelcoming in comparison.
The vividness of the man’s dreams of the Caribbean speaks to the strength of his memories and longing for home. When the poem begins, it certainly seems like this “island man” is in some sort of tropical paradise. The man wakes up each morning to “the sound of blue surf / in his head” as well as that of “wild seabirds” and “fisherman” going out to the ocean. The ocean waves, meanwhile, are “wombing,” a made-up word that suggests that the man experienced his home like a kind of womb—a place of security and safety.
These images of the world coming to life under a bold sun are warm and inviting, which makes the revelation that the man is in England all the more of a letdown: the poem emphasizes that he always “comes back” to the humdrum reality of the “London day.” The poem’s tone abruptly shifts as “groggily” the reality of the man’s surroundings set in.
Whereas the poem earlier emphasized the vibrant, beautiful colors of the man’s home island, rich with “blue” water and “emerald” green, it paints London as harsh, industrial, and absent of color; it is “grey” and filled with “wheels” and the grating “roar” of the city.
This split in the poem reflects the unpleasant split in the man’s identity as he moves from one kind of “Island Man” to another (given that England is indeed an island!). The poem, then, makes clear that in coming to England, this man has lost a sense of comfort, familiarity, and even identity. And, since the man dreams of his home every night, he must experience this harsh sense of loss over and over again.
And yet, there’s also a more optimistic way to read the poem: perhaps the vivid nature of the man’s dream illustrates that he has never completely left his home behind. The vibrant depictions of the man’s Caribbean home make clear that this home is still very much alive within him: the “wild seabirds,” the fishermen, and even the rising sun seem immediate and present. The poem might suggest, then, that even though the man must “come[] back” to London and lose his home over and over, he also keeps his home alive through memory and can return to it again and again—if only in his dreams.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-19
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Island Man”
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Before Line 1
(for a Caribbean ... of the sea)
The poem begins with a dedication: it is for a man from a Caribbean island who now lives in England, but “who still wakes up to the sound of the sea.”
England, too, is an island, but London itself isn't close enough to the sea to hear its sounds in the morning. This dedication thus implies that the “island man” wakes up hearing the “sound of the sea” as he heard it in his home island, his country in the Caribbean.
In other words, even though he is living in England, the man dreams of his home each night and wakes up still hearing the waves as they sounded in the West Indies. In a sense, then, the man must navigate two realities—two different "islands." The poem will go on to explore what that feels like.
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Lines 1-5
Morning ...
... breaking and wombing -
Lines 6-10
wild seabirds ...
... small emerald island -
Lines 11-13
he always comes ...
... grey metallic soar -
Lines 14-15
to surge of ...
... North Circular roar -
Lines 16-17
muffling muffling ...
... crumpled pillow waves -
Lines 18-19
island man heaves ...
... Another London day
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“Island Man” Symbols
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The Island
While the island in the poem is literal—the man is from an actual Caribbean island and now lives in England (which is also an island!)—it is also symbolic. Islands traditionally represent loneliness, separateness, and isolation, and the poem builds on all those connotations.
This symbolic meaning suggests that the phrase “island man” can be read in several ways:
- The phrase means that the man still identifies as Caribbean even though he now lives in London.
- It also suggests that the man is an “island man” in the sense that he now lives on another island, that of England.
- Finally, it can also be read as implying that the man feels emotionally like an island. Where he felt at home in the Caribbean, in England he is set apart and isolated. He seems to be alone throughout the poem, and he feels alienated from his new surroundings. The name “island man,” then, incorporates all of these meanings at once.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Before Line 1: “for a Caribbean island man in London”
- Line 2: “island man wakes up”
- Line 10: “his small emerald island”
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Emeralds
As rare gemstones, emeralds symbolize wealth, preciousness, and beauty. When the man describes his home island as “emerald,” then, he doesn’t only mean that it is vibrantly green: he's also suggesting that his home is inherently precious and beautiful to him.
This symbolic meaning is especially important given that many people from the Caribbean migrate to the UK out of economic necessity. Additionally, the man describes humble “fishermen” in his home island, pushing their boats out to the ocean to make a living through difficult physical labor. Yet the word “emerald” implies that despite these economic hardships, the man’s island home has a preciousness all its own. The poem also suggests that the man’s true wealth lies not in his life in London, but in his ability to recall his home in such precise detail.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 10: “of his small emerald island”
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Green and Gray
The poem emphasizes the difference between the man’s home in the Caribbean—which is “emerald” green—and his new home in London, which is “metallic” and “grey” (a British spelling of “gray”).
Since the color green is associated with living plants and trees, it usually symbolizes life, vitality, and vibrancy. By contrast, the color gray symbolizes dullness and monotony.
The poem draws on the symbolic resonances of both colors, implying that the man’s island home is vibrant and full of life—and that he felt a sense of vitality within it. London, on the other hand, is gray and industrial. It is both unwelcoming and monotonous.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 10: “his small emerald island”
- Line 13: “a grey metallic soar”
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“Island Man” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Imagery
The poem is full of vivid imagery that conveys the difference between the man’s former home in the West Indies and his current home in London.
The images of the Caribbean island that the man sees in his dreams are full of color and life: he remembers the “blue” ocean waves and the bright, "emerald" green color of the plants and trees. There's sound- and touch-related imagery here too: the man can hear the "wild seabirds" calling and feel the warmth of the sun shining "defiantly" overhead. All this imagery creates the sense that the man’s home is full of vitality and beauty.
By contrast, the images of London seem monotonous and oppressive. The poem calls attention to the “grey metallic” color of the "sands" in this new place (which might be a reference to the city's dirt and grime) and conjures an image of metal skyscrapers “soar[ing]” into the air. Adding to this unwelcoming atmosphere is the “roar” of traffic on the nearby highway.
Finally, the image of the “crumpled pillow waves” seems to collapse these two worlds into one: the peaceful “waves” that the man remembers from the Caribbean become the "crumpled pillow” of his present home on this dreary London morning. The imagery in the poem, then, helps to illustrate the way the “island man” must constantly navigate between two realities: his remembered home, and the harsh, unwelcoming setting of his new one.
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Line 3: “the sound of blue surf”
- Lines 6-10: “wild seabirds / and fishermen pushing out to sea / the sun surfacing defiantly / from the east / of his small emerald island”
- Lines 12-13: “sands / of a grey metallic soar”
- Line 14: “surge of wheels”
- Line 15: “dull North Circular roar”
- Line 17: “crumpled pillow waves”
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Juxtaposition
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Metaphor
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Anaphora
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Repetition
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Personification
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Assonance
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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"Island Man" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Breaking and wombing
- Defiantly
- Metallic
- Surge
- Dull
- North Circular roar
- Muffling
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(Location in poem: Line 5: “breaking and wombing”)
The phrase “breaking and wombing” describes the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the shore and then moving back out to sea. “Wombing” is a made-up word that builds on the word “womb.” The fact that the man recalls the waves as “wombing” implies that he experienced his home island as a kind of womb, a place of security and safety.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Island Man”
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Form
"Island Man" consists of 19 lines organized into five stanzas of varying lengths. The poem’s stanzas are at their longest when the man is remembering his island home. This helps to convey the peace, restfulness, and expansiveness that he feels while remembering the beauty of the Caribbean.
As the man wakes up and “come[s] back” to his new home in London, however, the stanzas become increasingly shorter—perhaps evoking the way in which London saps the man of his joyous energy. The first stanza is five lines long, for example, but the last stanza consists of a single line that feels all the more striking and sad for its isolation within the poem itself:
Another London day
Other formal elements of the poem also contribute to its meaning. For instance, the first two stanzas feature a clear mix of long and short lines. This back-and-forth movement helps to convey the steady rhythm of the ocean waves in the man’s memory. Take lines 3-5:
to the sound of blue surf
in his head
the steady breaking and wombingThen, as the man struggles to wake up and return to his surroundings, the poem includes two large white spaces, before “groggily groggily” and “to surge of wheels.” These vast gaps of white space evoke the difficulty the man has in waking up and coming to terms with his new country.
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Meter
“Island Man” is a free verse poem, meaning that it has no set meter. Instead, the poem is written in language that is varied in its music and rhythm. This absence of meter helps to convey the sensation of thoughts moving fluidly through the man’s mind as he wakes up.
Interestingly, the language of the poem is especially varied in its rhythms in the first half, as the man remembers his home in the Caribbean. This subtly mirrors the vibrancy and variety of the island the man left behind.
The poem’s rhythms become more controlled, though, in its second half, as the man comes back to his London surroundings. For example, the parallel structure of “to sands,” “to surge,” and “to dull” creates a monotonous rhythm that conveys the dullness of the man’s new home.
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Rhyme Scheme
As a free verse poem, “Island Man” has no set rhyme scheme. Instead, the language of the poem is organic and varied, creating a sense on the page of all the different thoughts flowing through the man's mind as he wakes up.
Importantly, though, the poem does include several moments of slant-rhyme and end-rhyme. For example, in stanza 2, “sea” and “defiantly” rhyme, while the word “east” in the next line echoes both these words (and creates a slant rhyme). All these musical long /ee/ sounds help to create the feeling of peace and expansiveness that the man associates with his island home.
Then, as the man “come[s] back” to the dullness of his London surroundings, the poem includes a few more rhymes. Specifically, “soar” rhymes with “roar,” while “waves” creates a slant rhyme with “day.” The rhymes here might evoke the "roar" of the city itself, and perhaps reflect the monotony of the man's London life. Additionally, the slant rhyme between “waves” and “day” emphasizes the contrast between the beauty of the man’s dreams of waves and the “day” that he dreads facing in this harsh new place.
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“Island Man” Speaker
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The speaker of “Island Man” remains totally anonymous throughout the poem. This makes sense given that the poem isn't about the speaker; it's about the "island man" of its title. The speaker is simply an omniscient narrator who keeps the focus squarely on this "island man," delving into his dreams and sensations as he wakes up on a London morning.
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“Island Man” Setting
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The poem essentially has two settings, one concrete and one imagined:
- Literally, the poem takes place on a morning in London as the "island man" of the title is waking up. More specifically, this man lives near the North Circular Road (a major highway that loops around the center of the city).
- At the same time, this man's dreams and memories pull him—and the reader—back to the Caribbean. More than half of the poem describes this setting, which, though not literally present, remains vivid in the man’s mind.
The island man's home is a lush, green world filled with sunshine, blue waters, and the sounds of gentle waves, fishermen, and seabirds; London, meanwhile, is dreary and gray, marked by the rush of traffic.
The juxtaposition of these two settings, these two islands, makes the man's disorientation understandable. As the poem moves from its first half, which describes the man’s island home, to its second, which describes the harsh, industrial world of London, it enacts the inner struggle that the man experiences. The reader moves with the island man between these two worlds, experiencing alongside him the contrast between his remembered home and where he lives now.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Island Man”
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Literary Context
Grace Nichols first published “Island Man” in 1984 in her second poetry collection, The Fat Black Woman’s Poems. The poems in this collection touch on themes of alienation, discrimination, and identity, often with humor and wit. Nichols has said that “Island Man” was based on her own experience as a recent immigrant living in London.
Nichols, who was born in Guyana but moved to England in 1977, was part of a generation of Caribbean poets whose work took on issues of race, isolation, and the immigrant experience in an era of intense racism and xenophobia in the UK. Her work draws on Caribbean and American Indian culture, folklore, and oral traditions. Poems like “Hurricane Hits England” similarly deal with the loneliness and search for belonging that many immigrants can experience.
Nichols is now recognized as a major British poet and her work is taught in UK schools as part of the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) Anthology. In 2007, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Historical Context
Grace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950, at a time when the country was still a British colony. The British West Indies included many modern Caribbean nations, some of which remain part of the Commonwealth to this day. Guyana achieved independence from Britain in 1966.
Britain began colonizing the region in the 17th century and forcibly brought over millions of enslaved Africans to work on the islands. Even after decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, many people in the Caribbean continued to struggle economically as a result of centuries of colonialism and racism—which, in turn, pushed many to immigrate to the UK in search of economic opportunity.
The British government had in fact opened up migration from the Caribbean years earlier to fill a labor shortage created by World War II. West Indian immigrants of this generation, known as the Windrush generation, played a crucial role in rebuilding England after the war. The British government has more recently faced criticism for deporting members of the Windrush Generation and their descendants, including those born in the UK.
Within this context, “Island Man” acquires layers of additional meaning. The poem implies that the man left his Caribbean home out of necessity, to make a living. At the same time, the poem suggests that England is a harsh, unwelcoming place for him and for many other immigrants.
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More “Island Man” Resources
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External Resources
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Grace Nichols Discussing and Reciting “Island Man” — Listen to the poet talk about how she came to write “Island Man” and how it connects to her own experience as an immigrant in the UK. Nichols goes on to recite the poem in the last minute of the video.
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Audio of Poems by Grace Nichols — Read more about Grace Nichols’ work and listen to her read six of her poems at the Poetry Archive in the UK.
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The Windrush Generation — Learn more about Caribbean immigration to the UK in this British Library page on the Windrush Generation, a generation of immigrants from the West Indies who migrated to the UK in the wake of World War II. This timeline and associated resources discuss how Caribbean immigrants played a key role in rebuilding England following the war. The poet, Grace Nichols, also migrated from the Caribbean to England, in 1977.
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British Treatment of Caribbean Immigrants — The poem depicts England as a harsh and unwelcoming place for the “island man”; learn more about the British Government’s treatment of Caribbean immigrants in this article from CNN.
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Biography of Grace Nichols — Learn more about Grace Nichols’s life and work in this biographical article from the British Council of Literature. This page also includes a critical essay on Nichols's work.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Grace Nichols
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