Half- Caste creates many images, by using descriptive language and humour. It creates such images as a man, ‘standing on leg’ and having ‘half mih ear’ because he is only half-caste so he only has half what a normal person would have but it also creates images about objects ‘mix a red an green is a half-caste canvas’ and even music ‘mix a black key wid a white key is a half-caste symphony’. This helps the reader to understand how the author is feeling about the term half-caste, and can also come to a conclusion about the term themselves. All the imagery in this poem makes the reader think about how anybody who has ever been called half-caste feels.
Search for My Tongue creates a very vivid image using very descriptive metaphors, ‘it grows back, a stump of a shoot, grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins’, and it starts becoming stronger and stronger until ‘it ties the other tongue in knots’. The language used by the author here is very descriptive and creates a very powerful image which enables the reader to understand that the author’s mother tongue, her birth language is still strong and perhaps even stronger than her second tongue, the language she most uses. The images are also very powerful because the author uses metaphors instead of similes which make the reader feel as though it is very realistic and can almost image two tongues fighting.
The structures of the two poems are quite similar but Search for My Tongue has only one stanza and Half-Caste has five stanzas. Another difference is that Search for My Tongue uses two different languages, however Half-Caste is also distinctive because of the language and accent used, ‘explain yuself’, and the way it is paragraphed because there is a very short paragraph at the beginning, a long paragraph in the middle and smaller paragraphs towards the end. John Agard writes in his accent to show that he is not ashamed of what he is and doesn’t have to change himself for anyone or anything. Although the structures of these poems aren’t very complicated they help to attract readers to them.
Neither poems rhyme, but both have a rhythm. Half-Caste’s rhythm is continuous, and is more effective when read aloud. When reading the poem you start talking in a Caribbean accent because of the words used and the speed of how you read the poem is always a standard pace but because of the Caribbean accent it makes the poem sound more realistic and exciting. Although Search for My Tongue does have a steady rhythm but it is broken when the reader reaches the gujerati. However another rhythm is then created by the reader having to read the gujerati, but the first, main rhythm is returned when the reader finishes the gujerati and continues reader the English.
Search for My Tongue and Half-Caste, both have messages that they want the reader to understand and the poems express these messages through language and imagery. Half-Castes message is all about the word half-cast, the author is trying to express his feelings about the word half-caste. The true meaning of half-caste is forgotten in this poem and the language the poet users is very emotive language. It makes the reader think about the word half-caste and how people who are called half-caste feel about themselves and the word. This imagery in this poem is very vivid and helps the reader to understand and focus on the issues raised.
Search for My Tongue message is about the poet’s birth language which is gujerati, she describes this as her mother tongue and her second language which is English, and she describes this as her second tongue. The poet uses very descriptive language which creates vivid images for the reader. Using gujerati in the middle of the poems shows that her mother tongue, her birth language, is still strong and at times, even stronger then her second language.
In conclusion both of these poems deal with the issues faced when moving between different cultures in their own ways. They both use language and imagery to express their messages Half- Caste explores the way that we use the term ‘half-caste’ in our vocabulary and exaggerates it. This is to a great effect as it makes the reader think more about racial issues and the way that we treat people from different cultures. Search for my Tongue deals with moving between different cultures by actually writing about the language barriers and losing your identity. This is how we can link the poems together and show how people move between different cultures.