Marcia Douglas was born in the UK of Jamaican

parents in 1961, but grew up in rural Jamaica. She left Jamaica in 1990 to study for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Ohio State University.

 Set in rural Jamaica The arrival of electricity causes massive crowds; this

tells us that it is a very significant moment. At the beginning of the poem, the children of Cocoa Bottom gather to see the electric lights. As the children marvel at the lights, the sun starts to set and the sky turns dark. The climax of the poem is in lines 18-25. The poem ends in an anti-climax; the children are to walk home with their lamps as the only source of light.

This emphasises the great importance and effect electricity has on Cocoa Bottom.

Then all the children of Cocoa Bottom went to see Mr. Samuels electric lights. They camped on the grass bank outside his house, their lamps filled with oil, waiting for the sunset,

This builds tension within the audience.

The use of a simile here emphasises the difference between natural and man-made light. This also creates imagery within the audiences minds.

watching the sky turn yellow, orange. Grannie Patterson across the road peeped through the crack in her porch door. The cable was drawn like a pencil line across the sun. The fireflies waited in the shadows,

These 5 lines provide a description of how even nature is nervous in anticipation of the electric lights.

their lanterns off. The kling-klings swooped in from the hills, congregating in the orange trees. A breeze coming home from the sea held its breath; bamboo lining the dirt road stopped its swaying,
The use of personification reinforces the tension that is built up in even nature.

This simile creates a very detailed image of curtains closing slowly.

and evening came as soft as chiffon curtains: Closing. Closing.

The use of repetition mirrors the feelings in the poem; suspense and anxiety.

Light! Mr. Samuel smiling on the verandah a silhouette against the yellow shimmer behind him and there was such an arising gasp, such a fluttering of wings, The use of onomatopoeia tweet-a-whit, reinforces the feeling of excitement felt by everyone such a swaying, swaying.
including nature.

This short line enhances the excitement that is suddenly manifested with the presence of electric light.

The use of repetition enhances the importance of the occasion. At this point, the climax is reached.

Light! Marvellous light! And then the breeze rose up from above the trees, swelling and swelling into a wind such that the long grass bent forward stretching across the bank like so many bowed heads.
This personification is used to reinforce the huge levels of excitement.

The use of enjambment here creates a tempo for the poem, but also keeps the audiences attention.

And a voice in the wind whispered: Is there anyone among us to record this moment? But there was none no one (except for a few warm rocks hidden among mongoose ferns) even heard a sound.
The poet has chosen to include this in order to remind the audience that the setting is in a rural area.

Already the children of Cocoa Bottom had lit their lamps for the dark journey home, and it was too late the moment had passed.

The poem has ended in an anti-climax. This tells us that this moment will not be recorded.

>->-> Describe how the author builds up suspense, giving examples from the text to support your answer.