GCSE-readyIn Wales, wanting to be Italian by Imtiaz Dharker: context, form and key methods
The speaker asks whether there is a word for the longing to be someone else, from somewhere else, and imagines a teenager in Wales dreaming of being Italian. This poem is in copyright, so it is described mainly in our own words.
Context and Dharker's purpose
Her work often explores living across cultures. Here she looks at the very common wish of young people to belong somewhere more exciting.
Form and structure
The poem is built on questions. It asks if there is a word for this longing and invents playful German-style words for it. Then it gives examples: someone in Glasgow wanting to be French, someone in Bombay claiming another birthplace, with a mention of Freddie Mercury, who was born in Zanzibar. The longest stanza imagines a sixteen-year-old in Wales wanting to be Italian. The poem ends on a question, not an answer.
Language and key methods
Invented words add humour and show that no ordinary word quite fits.
Stereotypes: the Italian dream is full of clichés, such as a Vespa, a cigarette and "impossibly pointed shoes". The word impossibly hints that the dream is a fantasy.
Tone: light and playful, but it touches a serious idea: young people often look elsewhere to find where they belong.
Compare how identity is presented in In Wales, wanting to be Italian and Jamaican British.
- Both poems show young people working out where they belong.
- Dharker's rhetorical questions and stereotypes; Antrobus's repeated refrain.
- AO3: Dharker born in Pakistan, raised in Glasgow; Antrobus of Jamaican and English heritage.
Answer: Both Dharker and Antrobus present identity as something young people struggle to settle. Dharker's speaker longs to be someone else, and her rhetorical questions keep searching for a word for that feeling; the Italian dream of a Vespa and "impossibly pointed shoes" is built from stereotypes, so it can never be real. Antrobus's speaker does not want to be anyone else: he wants others to accept that he is both Jamaican and British, and the repeated title phrase works as a claim to both. Dharker's tone is playful and ends on an open question, whereas Antrobus's is more pressured, as people deny who he is. Dharker, raised in Glasgow after being born in Lahore, explores longing; Antrobus explores being questioned.
Dharker, born in Lahore, raised in Glasgow; poet, artist, film-maker; 2014. Free verse, four uneven stanzas; built on questions; invented German-style words; Glasgow and French, Bombay and Freddie Mercury; sixteen in Wales wanting to be Italian; Vespa, "impossibly pointed shoes"; ends on a question.
- Context
- The circumstances in which a text was written and set, such as historical events, social attitudes and the writer's life (AO3 in the GCSE, AO4 in the International GCSE).
- Form
- The type and shape of a text: for example sonnet, ballad, free verse, tragedy, comedy, novel or play.
- Speaker
- The voice of a poem. The speaker is not always the poet.
- Free verse
- Poetry without a regular rhyme scheme or metre.
- Stanza
- A group of lines forming a section of a poem (a verse).
- Tone
- The attitude or feeling conveyed by the writer or speaker, such as bitter, playful or sorrowful.
All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →
Try two quick questions
See if it has sunk in. Answers are marked straight away.
Check you have got it
Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.
Last updated 6 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.