Poetry from other cultures - a study of 'Search for my tongue', 'Half-caste' and 'Presents from my aunts in Pakistan'.

             The Gujerti is included, to show how beautiful the language graphologically is. It is the centre of the poem, so that no matter what, you will always see it.

              In the poem she used disturbing imagery and enjembment at the start of the poem, but later she uses beautiful imagery, like she does not want to forget her "mothertongue"  

              This poem concludes by:-

                                  'Everytime i think i have forgotten,

                                    I think i have lost my mothertongue,

                                    it blossoms out of my mouth.'

               What she means by these choice of words, is that she does not want to forget her mothertongue, she has realised it is virtually impossible, and she does not want to loose her memories.  When she thinks she has lost her mothertongue, she is relieved when Indian words pop out of her mouth.

                The second poem which i studied was "half-caste".  This poem tone is very different from the first poem.  The poet John Agard is very sarcastic and demanding in this poem.  Agard is like this in this poem because he doesn't like being called a "half-caste".  He believes that being called this is very ignorant, just because he is of mixed race.  He belives being called this ranks him second class.

                  The word "half-caste" originates from the cast systems, where you were put in order of how you lived and wealth.

                   Agard uses retoricle questioning many times throughout the poem.  These are some of the questions he asked:- "excuse me", "explain yuself", "wha you mean".  He asks these questions to try and interogate the reader, or to make the reader feel rediculous obout saying the word "half caste".

                    This poem is written in a very unusual language.  The poem is written in half standard English and half Jamaican Creale.  Agard writes in this language to make people realise that he is half English and half Jamaican, and not a "half-caste".

                      Agard uses a lot of symbolic nature in this poem to describe what the word "half-caste" means for example:-

                                      "yu mean Tchaikovsky

                                        sit down at dah plais

                                         an mix a black key

                                         wid a white key

                                          is a half caste symphony"

                        Later on in the poem Agard starts to ask people would they call him a "half-caste" if he had just half an eye or just half an ear, or if he had just dreamt half a dream.

                         This poem concludes by not saying that he,ll listen but he is ready to tell the reader his side of the story:-

                                        "an i will tell yu

                                          de other half

                                           of my story"

with this he means that he has had enough time being ready to listen, but now he,s ready to tell.

                          The third poem is about a girl from Pakistan but now lives in England.  She is having great difficulty fitting in.  She is writing about what her Aunts had sent her from Pakistan, which were clothes.

                           The clothes that Alam gets sent are alienware compared to the ones that people wear where she lives for example:-

                           "They sent me Salwar-kameez

                             peacock blue,

                              and another

                              glistening like and orange split open,

                               embossed slippers, gold and black

                               points curling.

                              Secretley Alim admires her beautiful clothes from Pakistan but she doesn,t want anyone to know that she likes them.  Even in her own living room she feels that she is wearng Alienware,  Alim even pretends to her schoolfriend that she doesn,t like her own clothes.

                              Alim feels that she does not belong to England or Pakistan because, in England she looks different to everyone else and she doesn,t feel accepted in Pakistan because she lacks belongings.  Almi wishes that she could try and remember Pakistan when she was a baby.

                               This poem is similar to the other two I told you about because they,re all about people from mixed rece, who have great difficulty fitting in with their surrounding people.  This poem can also differ from the other poem because she actually enjoys her original culture unlike the others.

                                Their ways to solve these problems is to solve the problem of feeling uncomfortable wearing different things as other people are to simply feel proud of how you look and your culture.  If people are laughing at you because you are different and they don,t understand what you are wearing then tell them why you look that way and explain you culture and beliefs.  People often laugh at different laugh and stare, because they are unsure of the culture.