'You mean when light an shadow Mix in de sky'
However having a mixed cultural background could be an advantage because if you lived in one culture, and moved to the other you wouldn't forget parts of the other as quickly as you would then if you only had one culture because you would be used to having two in your life. This is a way in which the poems are linked in with each other because search for my tongue shows that it is easy to forget a part of your culture and half-caste tries to show that having two cultures is not a disadvantage.
Another similarity between the two poems is that they are both in the first person and they both are talking to you as if you have asked them a question. In search for my tongue this is emphasized by the first word 'you', but in half-caste it is not seen until the fourth line
'Explain yuselfwha yu mean when yu say half-caste'
This quote also shows another similarity between the two, they both have uses of non-standard English. Search for my tongue uses non-standard English on line 15 to show that English is not the poets 'mother tongue' whereas half-caste uses it all the way through and is spelt phonetically.
The seven lines of gujerati with a phonetic version in search for my tongue, also helps to show what the poets 'mother tongue' is.
Another language technique used is an extended metaphor in search for my tongue. This is a difference between the two because half-caste doesn't use any metaphors at all. The extended metaphor is line 31-38 and the poet describes the language as being a flower, saying that it grows like a flower does, saying that it grows from 'a stump of a shoot' and eventually blossoms out in her mouth.
The language and language techniques used help to create certain moods within the poem and helps to show the poets feelings. In search for my tongue I felt that the poet showed anger, lines 1-4 show the poet being very defensive when answering the question, I also feel frustration when the poet talks about the 'mother tongue' rotting and dying on lines 10-14 and I also felt happiness that the 'mother tongue' does reappear and that she has not forgotten it. This is on lines 36-38. In the poem half-caste the mood is mostly the same except for there is no happiness. Anger is shown all the way from line 4-46 and only calms down at the end. It also shows frustration that someone could say such a thing to him. I agree that the poet should feel this way as there are many advantages coming from a mixed culture, you get to have different experiences that others won't have, you get to learn more and have a greater number of friends.
These poems are alike in many ways but both have different structural forms. Search for my tongue has only one long stanza which is broken in the middle by seven lines of language, but half-caste has four stanzas, 2 long and 2 short. I have also noticed that in half-caste there is no use of punctuation but in place of full stops is a forward slash. This is to create a pause without stopping the continuous speech. The shape of the poem emphasizes the stanzas importance it starts off with a small stanza, where the anger is building up, followed by two long stanzas where the anger and frustration are being expressed and one last small stanza in which he is calm again and has put his point across.
The poems search for my tongue and half-caste have a number of similarities and differences, but both show understanding of ways that different cultures, and by showing belonging to different cultures, can affect peoples lives in good and bad ways. The poets show emotions through these poems mainly by using different language techniques and altering the structure of the poem. This gives us incite into what people feel when cultures clash and how it affects them.