GCSE-readyUs by Zaffar Kunial: context, form and key methods
The speaker thinks about the small word 'us': who it includes, who it leaves out, and whether two people can ever truly be joined. This poem is in copyright, so it is described mainly in our own words.
Context and Kunial's purpose
In the Midlands, people sometimes say 'us' to mean 'me'. Kunial uses this to explore how belonging can join people together, or shut them out.
Form and structure
The poem moves from the different meanings of 'us', to crowds, to the gap between two people, and ends on a cautious hope. The word 'us' appears in italics for most of the poem, then loses them near the end, as if it becomes more natural to say.
Language and key methods
Crowds: football fans doing a "Mexican wave" show how a group can move as one, but a crowd's 'us' can also exclude others.
Doubt: "colour me unsure" shows the speaker's uncertainty about whether 'us' can include him.
Hope: repeated statements of hope near the end, though he admits his hope may be far-fetched.
Compare how shared belonging is presented in Us and We Refugees.
- Both poems explore who is included in a group.
- Kunial's sea metaphor and hesitant structure; Zephaniah's anaphora and inclusive pronoun.
- AO3: Kunial's mixed heritage and Midlands dialect; Zephaniah's campaigning.
Answer: Both Kunial and Zephaniah focus on a small pronoun that decides who belongs. Zephaniah uses 'we' confidently: his refrain insists that anyone could become a refugee, so the reader is drawn into the group. Kunial is far less certain. His extended metaphor of waves and two shores shows the distance between people, and even a crowd's "Mexican wave", which moves as one, can leave others outside. Zephaniah's repeated stanza openings build a strong, steady argument, while Kunial's tercets, broken by caesura, hesitate, and his doubt, "colour me unsure", is only partly answered by his closing hope. Zephaniah, a campaigner, demands empathy; Kunial, with Kashmiri and English heritage, questions whether 'us' can ever include everyone.
Kunial, born in Birmingham, Kashmiri father, English mother; title poem of Us (2018), T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist. Seven tercets and a single line; enjambment, caesura; 'us' loses its italics near the end. Sea and two shores; "Mexican wave"; "colour me unsure"; cautious hope.
- 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.
- Enjambment
- When a sentence or phrase runs on from one line of poetry to the next without a pause.
- Caesura
- A pause in the middle of a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation.
- Extended metaphor
- A metaphor developed over several lines or a whole text.
All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →
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Last updated 6 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.