The first stanza of the poem is telling us that the poet is trying to search or remember her mother tongue. This fits its title ‘Search for My Tongue’, searching for her mother tongue, which then she found in the second and third stanzas. She include her mother tongue lines to show to the reader that she has finally found her mother tongue thus making her not feel alienated from her own society any more.
She also describe her feelings after gotten her mother tongue back, towards the end of the poem, like a flower blossoming out of her mouth and feels beautiful. She uses this so to show to the reader that it is step by step to remember her mother tongue, like a growing plant.
The second poem, “Half-caste”, deals with alienation in different types of people. The word Half-Caste here means a person who his/her parents are from different colour race. The poet is trying to show to the reader through his poem that how stupid and ridiculous people are to judge a person who is different than others, making the person feels left out or anonymous to the society.
The poet also uses metaphors to describe what is a Half-Caste without being racist, for example “Yu mean when Picasso mix red and green is a Half-Caste canvas”. He is trying to tell that whatever type of person you are, if you are mixed, you are still as the same as other people and therefore should be treated equally. The poet chooses Picasso because he is one of the greatest painters in the world and no matter which colour Picasso choose the end results will be beautiful.
The poet uses also the repetition of “wha yu mean when yu say half-caste” in his poem to indicate that he does not believe that people should be labelled as a Half-Caste and he also want to show his anger about calling people Half-Caste. When he said “an mix a black key wid a white key is a half-caste symphony”, he is referring to if black people mixed with white people they would make a loving and beautiful society.
Towards the end of the poem, the poet is trying to tell the person who is saying he is a Half-Caste to realise that no matter what you are you should not be labelled and that you should feel the same as other people and not feeling separated. He uses humour dialect to tell to the person that he would not be a friend with the person who does not think highly of himself. “I’m sure you’ll understand why I offer you half a hand” this suggests that the poet has ironically mutual disrespect of the person who thinks he is a half-caste in the handshake.
“An when I sleep at night I close half a eye consequently when I dream I dream half a dream” this is one of the ridiculous view of a half-caste is. He also suggest to the person to come back tomorrow without feeling half-caste and to think highly of himself and then the poet will be friends with him and will tell him his other half of the story.
The third poem, “Nothing’s Changed”, deals with alienation between the black and the white society. The poem is set in the District six in South Africa, which was the former residence of the black communities but now is formerly the white people territory. The title of the poem suggest to the reader that nothing’s changed in South Africa in the fact of black people have not still been treated equally by the white people.
In the poem the poet is trying to describe his feelings walking back to his former home in District Six. He is used to live with the white communities but as he grow up he realise that he does not belong there, a black man does not belong there. So he decided to live in the black communities. And now he is walking back to his former residence and remembering of hi childhood of living there.
As he is walking from the black territories to the white territories, he noticed that the landscape of the land had changed drastically: “bearded seeds into trouser cuffs, cans trodden on, crunch” to “in tall, purple-flowering, amiable weeds”. The flowers seem to be welcoming him back. The poet is trying to show how the environment varies between the black and the white territories, from harsh and hostile surroundings to friendly and happy surroundings.
As he reaches the white territories, the District Six, he knows that he does not belong there. “Whites only inn. No sign says it is: but we know where we belong”. The poet use a pun “whites only inn”, to show to the reader that black people does not belong there and to show that the place is belong to the white people.
At the end of the poem he contrasted the difference between the white people restaurants and the black people food stall. He noticed that the restaurant is fancy and have nice foods served there while the food stall is just plain, dull and simple food is served there.
After looking at the three poems, I found that the poets use similar ways to convey the sense of alienation. They uses metaphors to clearly describe to the reader the sense of alienation.