Comparison of 'Unrelated Incidents' and 'Search For My Tongue'

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Comparison of ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and ‘Search For My Tongue’

    'Search for my Tongue' 

This poem is about a woman who speaks 2 languages - English and Indian. She is from India, but has been forced to speak English, but she sometimes forgets what language she is speaking. This is shown in the poem in line 17-29, which are written in her 'mother tongue'. The entire poem describes her lingual conflict, and the way that whenever she thinks the mother tongue has gone from her mouth, it appears again.

    This poem is structured in 3 sections. The first section is line 1-16, the second is line 16-30, and the final section is line 31-38. The first and last sections are in English; the second is written in her natural language. The third section describes the 'mother tongue', comparing it to a plant.

    This poem is a very good example of imagery, with lines like "it grows back, a stump of a shoot". The third section of the poem all adds to the same image - that of a plant. This image begins at line 31, and continues to the end of the poem using phrases like "the bud opens" and "it blossoms out of my mouth" to add to the metaphor of a plant. This metaphor gives a very strong image, and this image is very easy to see because plants are something that we all see every day, so have no trouble imagining, and it is a very appropriate metaphor because the idea of growth is commonly associated with plants.

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    ‘Unrelated Incidents’

This poem is about a Scottish man writing in phonetic language who completely against the English. The poem is made against the English language and how it is correctly spoken; according to the poet the English language is completely wrong. His emotions are very fierce and angry towards the language. This

    He doesn't use the language correctly and he hates it with a deep passion that is very strong, it is a rebellion against the queens English which he is very contempt towards, he wants to prove that the English language is breaking ...

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