How does the speaker in 'I come from' create a sense of identity?

The speaker in 'I come from' expresses his identity through free verse- which attempts to be structured similarly to a stream of consciousness; flowing but disjointed. The speaker's identity is constructed largely of childhood memories, from ''maths tables'' ''set of Observer I-Spy books'' suggesting that he comes from an educated background; which is clarified by ''a family of teachers''. However, the speaker's identity comes not only from this idyllic portrait of a family with ''clean handkerchiefs''. The speaker reveals that his identity is created by more violent, and sinister events which lurk within his childhood; ''skinheads and fights if you look the wrong way'' shows how violence and chaos also played a part in constructing who he is.

Additionally, other sinister events in his childhood ''a man who followed me back'' further attributes to the fact that although apparently picturesque; his childhood had almost sinister undertones to it, creating a sense of atmosphere and intrigue in regards to his identity.
This emphasises how his identity, like any humans, was created by good and bad things happening to him, which creates more genuity as the poem is aiming to be a stream of consciousness.

The poem is structured with varying sentence lengths, which paired with enjambment creates a disjointed feel to the poem ''waiting forever'' ''for the train to London. Although the enjambment makes the poem feel disjointed, it also allows it to flow. The enjambment emphasises that time is passing as the poem goes on, but also reflects on the ongoing onslaught of the mind, how it continues to think constantly and doesn't pause for breath like a spoken poem would.

Much like the contrasting events in his childhood- both threatening and bucolic- the poem flicks between these two themes. Each section of his childhood is separated and analysed in blocks, he comes from ''violence'' then from ''clean handkerchiefs'' in the next line. He comes from ''kindness'' then from ''rats behind the garage''. This contrast used to describe his origins and events in his childhood suggests that his identity is, in the same way, conflicted.

The speaker's sense of identity is that it lies within snapshots of his childhood, and is conflicting as well as coexisting. It has two sides to it, much like how every persons identity or character is multi-faceted, and not one long list of anecdotes and childhood memories.