Key Quote
“"I'd only have to say the word / and it opened a gate"”
Liz Berry · Homing
Focus: “gate”
The metaphor of dialect as a 'gate' suggests that language is not merely communication but a portal — a pathway back to home, heritage, and belonging that Standard English cannot provide.
Technique 1 — CODE-SWITCHING — STANDARD ENGLISH & DIALECT
Berry performs code-switching throughout the poem, moving between Standard English and Black Country dialect words like 'saft' (silly) and 'blart' (cry). This linguistic alternation enacts the poem's central theme: the speaker exists between two registers, two identities, two versions of 'home'. The dialect words are not translated or explained, forcing the reader to experience the defamiliarisation (making the familiar strange) of encountering an unfamiliar English.
By refusing to italicise, footnote, or explain the dialect words, Berry asserts their legitimacy — they are not quaint curiosities requiring translation but a complete, valid linguistic system. The poem challenges the hierarchy of Standard English over regional dialect, positioning the Black Country voice not as inferior but as richer, more emotionally resonant, and more deeply connected to place and identity than the 'received pronunciation' that replaced it.
Key Words
RAD — PROGRESS
The poem traces a clear arc of progress — from the mother's enforced suppression of her dialect (through elocution lessons) to the daughter's joyful reclamation of it. What was once a source of shame becomes a source of pride. Berry transforms the trajectory from loss to recovery, suggesting that the dialect was never truly lost — it was merely hidden, waiting to be spoken again. The title 'Homing' captures this movement perfectly: like a homing pigeon, the speaker returns instinctively to the language that represents home.
Key Words
Technique 2 — METAPHOR — DIALECT AS GATE / HOMING SIGNAL
The central metaphor of dialect as a 'gate' operates on multiple levels. A gate is a point of access — it lets you into a space otherwise closed off. But a gate can also be locked or hidden, suggesting that the dialect was deliberately shut away by elocution lessons and social pressure. The act of speaking dialect becomes an act of trespass: re-entering a space you were told you didn't belong in.
The title 'Homing' introduces a secondary metaphor: the homing pigeon, which always returns to its origin point regardless of distance. Berry implies that dialect operates like an instinct — it cannot be trained out of you, only suppressed. The mother's accent, hidden beneath years of Standard English, re-emerges naturally, inevitably, suggesting that identity is rooted in language at a level deeper than conscious choice. This is not nostalgia but atavism — a return to something primal and ineradicable.
Key Words
Context (AO3)
THE BLACK COUNTRY & DIALECT SUPPRESSION
Liz Berry is from the Black Country — the industrial region of the West Midlands. The area has a distinctive dialect with roots in Anglo-Saxon English. Throughout the 20th century, regional accents were stigmatised as markers of low social class, and children were subjected to elocution lessons (speech training) to 'correct' their pronunciation. Berry's mother experienced this suppression firsthand, losing her natural voice to conform to middle-class expectations.
LINGUISTIC IDENTITY & CLASS
In Britain, accent has historically been a marker of social class. 'Received Pronunciation' (RP) — the accent of the upper-middle classes — was promoted as the 'correct' way to speak English, while regional dialects were dismissed as uneducated. Berry's poem challenges this linguistic prejudice by presenting the Black Country dialect as a source of beauty, identity, and belonging that RP can never provide.
Key Words
WOW — BAKHTIN'S HETEROGLOSSIA — THE POLITICS OF VOICE
Berry's poem enacts what Mikhail Bakhtin called heteroglossia — the coexistence of multiple linguistic registers within a single text. Bakhtin argued that all language is inherently dialogic (containing multiple competing voices), and that the dominance of any single register (such as Standard English) is an act of political suppression. By embedding Black Country dialect within a published poem, Berry performs a radical act of linguistic democratisation: she insists that the dialect is not a deviation from 'real' English but one of many equally valid Englishes. The poem becomes a site of contest between two linguistic systems — one associated with power, education, and social mobility, the other with home, family, and emotional truth. Berry's refusal to translate the dialect forces readers to confront their own linguistic prejudices and to recognise that 'standard' English is itself a dialect — simply one that won the political battle for dominance.
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