Grace Nichols was born and educated in Guyana in the West Indies where she worked as a teacher, journalist and information assistant and educated in university of Guyana. She came to Britain in 1977 with her partner, the poet John Agard. They live in Sussex. She has edited several autologies as well as writing her own collections and performing regularly. By the caption it is quite clear even before reading the poem, that is about a man from an Island.
             The first stanza is about a man working up to the sound of the sea, but which is all in his mind. This is because he has lived in the Caribbean for so long, that he is imagining it and waking up in the morning to the sound of the sea but he's really waking up in London to the sound of traffic and people also maybe rain, which is probably pouring on the windows of his flat.
             This Caribbean man maybe is homesick so that is why he reminisces about his past enjoyable experiences of waking up to the sound of nature. Waking up in the morning to the peacefulness of the Caribbean island and then abruptly waking up in a totally contrasting environment to which he envisaged just before, the weather is gloomy. These are so appealing he doesn't want to let go.
             The weather, that is sunny, warm and cool at night because of the sea being so close. The steadiness of the air, the peacefulness of the island changes with the dull, rainy and grey weather. The noisiness and polluted air of London
             How the poem shows the peacefulness of the island, which I could actually imagine very clearly, are the words the author has used "the steadiness breaking and wombing", this is all in his mind about the Caribbean island in the morning.
             How I know, that its sun rising is another sentence she uses (poet) "the sun surfacing defiantly"
             The language the author uses for the island shows, that his home (island) maybe unique and beautiful "... of his small emerald island.&quo...