I think Flag by John Agard gives a negative view on patriotism
because at the end of the first stanza it says Brings a nation to its knees which gives a negative view on patriotism, because it says patriotism, portrayed by the flag, can cause the end of a nation through war, as losing war, or even participating in war, can bring a nation to its knees, by causing death etc. Bringing something to its knees also connotes with pain, and bowing down, behaving and doing as someone is told, this makes the reader think of falling, as in falling in line to do what a country tells you to do. The poem also gives a negative view on patriotism because in the final stanza of the poem it says then blind your conscience to the end, and this means that being patriotic (through a countrys flag) takes away your ability to make choices until you die, or until the country is no more. This is personification, because a flag cannot physically blind you, and a conscience cannot physically be blinded; but what the flag represents (the country) can blind, or stop, you, and your conscience from making choices by controlling you (as I mentioned earlier). To blind makes the reader think of hiding things and things being deceptive, this could make them question a country and its honesty, if the said country is what it seems, and makes itself out to be. Another reason the poem Flag gives a negative opinion on patriotism is because it says Whats that rising over the tent? and Whats that flying across a field? these both imply that patriotism leads to war, as in the flag rising over a war tent, and a flag flying across a battlefield, the poem also makes this point stronger by making both of these lines similar, so the reader will link them together and think about what they mean, that being patriotic can lead to war and death (This is demonstrated through the flag). I dont think a flag has any power by itself, because as said in the poem it says more than once Its just a piece of cloth.
Which tells us that a flag is a piece of fabric, and nothing more,
that the only power a flag has is the power given to it by us. A towel is just a piece of cloth, but we dont start wars and fights for a towel, but we do for a flag, this is because we choose to give the flag the power it has, which we choose to give it, most of the time unknowingly; We give the flag power by choosing what team we support (in sports), and who to fight for (in war). Overall, I think that the poem implies that patriotism is not a good thing, as it has in multiple places demonstrated that it can lead to death and removes ones ability to make decisions on what someone believes. The poem also shows that a flag has no power, only the power that we, as people, decide to give it, knowingly or unknowingly, this is demonstrated in four of the five stanzas when the poet says Its just a piece of cloth. The poet, John Agard, came from Guyana which was, when he was brought up, a British colony, and he would have seen how the patriotic spirit of people can lead to the near total destruction of a culture or at least that culture being changed; and this may have led him to think badly of patriotism.