In stanza two it is obvious that the clothing is not what she wants. She fells that it doesn’t suit her that it is gorgeous but also to simple for instance ‘alien in the sitting in the room’ (line 17). This shows that she prefers a more dull type of clothing, as shown in the second part of the stanza. ‘I longed for denim and corduroy’ (line 20-21). This shows that her British clothing is what she prefers. The Pakistani clothing ‘sets a flame’ and she can’t ‘rise out of its fire’. This part of the poem describes her and her clothing like a Arabian bird. She then describes herself ‘half English’. This shows that she might think that she does not fit in and she has no home.
However in stanza three there are some things that she likes about Pakistan, ‘the camel skin lamp’. This shows that she has some interest in some Pakistani things. She takes the transformation of camel to the colour. Her mother’s jewellery is described to make it look good and precious for instance ‘Indian gold, dangling, filigree’ (line 35). It shows us that it was stolen as it shows a sense of danger, as do some other items form Pakistan like the bangles. The items in the wardrobe give a good image of the differences between the two cultures. The dull, plain wardrobe and the dull plain English clothing are completely opposite from the vibrant, bright Pakistani clothing, which stands colourful.
Her school friends are not happy with her clothing and want to see her ‘weekend clothes’. This shows a major cultural difference between her and her friends. The poem moves back on her childhood and she moving to England. She is left alone in her grandmothers dinning room suggesting that even in her early life she is separated from everyone else. In her culture they must cover there body against male for instance ‘screened from the male visitors’. This show that they are to allowed to show there body which again shows that the two cultures are different. In this poem Moniza includes a bad image of her homeland.
In the final stanza we see that Moniza is isolated, left with ‘the beggars and the sweeper girls of no fixed nationality’. This shows that wherever she goes there is no sense of home and no place that she can belong to.
All throughout the poem there is a strong sense of wanting to belong, but in no way being able to belong which is a sense of disappointment.
On the other hand I would like to go on ‘Search for my Tongue’ which was written by Sujata Bhatt. She was born in India.
Search for my tongue can be split into three parts. The first part is the lines 1 – 16, the second part is the Gujerati lines 17-30 and the last part is lines 31 to 38.
The first part of the poem describes how she has lost her ‘tongue’ of her language. She describes two tongues in the poem, the ‘mother tongue’ and the ‘foreign’ tongue’. The mother tongue is in reference to her original language, Gujerati and the foreign tongue is her new language, English. The lines ‘you could not use both together even if you thought that way’. This shows that even if you commonly use both languages, one can still dominate and possibly destroy the other one, leaving you with only one tongue.
In the second half of the first part of the poem, we can tell that the mother tongue has gone rotten and died, causing the person to split it out. However, the seed of the tongue is still in the person and comes back to her when she dreams. This part of the poem reflects some of the ideas bought forward by ‘Presents from my aunts in Pakistan’. Both of the poems show a sense of cultural loss, one that is hard to regain.
The Gujerati in section two is there for two reasons. One is to isolate the people who cannot speak Gujerati. Although the text can be read without this section, it helps to build up sense of atmosphere in the poem. The other reason is that is shows the impact of the dream. It interrupts the poem, like a dream would, showing that the comeback is back and can’t be controlled.
Section three is an extended metaphor, a reflection of what section two is. The language is described as a plant, which has died, but left a seed for a new plant to grow, whilst another plant has taken place. The first plant grows from this as it takes its place back from the other plant, and strengthens itself for instance ‘grows strong veins’ as time goes on. This is a way of protecting itself against the foreign tongue .the image the poem gives of both the plants is a very different one. The foreign tongue is given the image of a weed, one which has choked and held back the mother tongue, which is given a more beautiful image.
There are many similarities and difference between the poems. The ideas of culture are strong in each one, both contributing to the idea culture of the writers, one which everyone is welcome and can speak the same way, with felling scared. Both the poets have been taken from the original home cultures and thrown into a harsh society to them, one that prevents them fully finding themselves. I would also say that both poems have a strong imagery which is a vivid. An example of this is the phoenix reference of ‘rising form the ashes’ to be reborn, something both writers either wish to experience or have experienced.
The main difference between the two poems is the fact that ‘Search for my tongue’ and the person recovers their culture, whilst the other person in ‘Presents from my aunts in Pakistan’ loses their culture.
I feel that ‘Search for my tongue’ is a more metaphorical poem, a dream like some one which discusses the aspects of a lost language, a major part in any culture. I feel that it has more influence than ‘Presents from my aunts’ as this more literal and I don’t feel has the depth of ‘Search for my tongue’. The culture in both of the poems has shown how moving form one country to another can have a major impact of people’s lives and can affect them in a way which they do not understand.
