Search for My Tongue Sujata Bhatt Possible themes: Identity; Living between two cultures; Language; Race.

Search for My Tongue - Sujata Bhatt You ask me what I mean by saying I have lost my tongue. I ask you, what would you do if you had two tongues in your mouth, and lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not really know the other, the foreign tongue. You could not use them both together even if you thought that way. And if you lived in a place you had to speak a foreign tongue, your mother tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth until you had to spit it out. I thought I spit it out but overnight while I dream, (munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha) (may thoonky nakhi chay) (parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay) (foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh) (modhama kheelay chay) (fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh) (modhama pakay chay) it grows back, a stump of a shoot grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins, it ties the other tongue in knots, the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth, it pushes the other tongue aside. Everytime I think I've forgotten, I think I've lost the mother tongue, it blossoms out of my mouth. Search for My Tongue - Sujata Bhatt Possible themes: Identity; Living between two cultures; Language; Race. Facts Quotes/facts Explanation/effects Content . The poet writes about losing her tongue = forgetting how to speak her Mother tongue. 2. But then, as she dreams, her mother tongue

  • Ranking:
  • Word count: 1314
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

How does Sujata Bhatt show that identity is important in Serch for my tongue? Compare the methods she uses with another poet uses to show that identity is important in one other poem.

How does Sujata Bhatt show that identity is important in "Serch for my tongue"? Compare the methods she uses with another poet uses to show that identity is important in one other poem. In the poem "Search for my Tongue" Sujata Bhatt shows her importance of identity in many different ways, for example when she loses her mother tongue over her other language, she explains it as though she is losing part of herself, her home language/ her culture, this is where I believe the images of her tongue rotting in her mouth came from. "your tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth" Is and ugly disgusting image of a tongue in her mouth dying, but as "tongue" in this sense doesn't only mean the physical tongue in our mouths, it is a description to explain how she feels her whole culture and native self is wasting away and dying because she's in a new foreign country. For this reason I think her poem should be read mournfully, because there is a feeling of loss of herself and who she is. Whereas in Tom Leonard's poem, "Unrelated incidents" he explains the difference in his Scottish accent and the traditional BBC news reader voice. This poem is in a phonic form to show how the words should be pronounced in a Scottish accent, I believe this is to add to effect of his accent and strange adaptation to the standard English, he uses very little punctuation and has shaped the poem to an

  • Ranking:
  • Word count: 1042
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Comparison of Search for my tongue by Sujata Bhatt and Unrelated incidents by Tom Leonard.

Comparison of Poems Search for my tongue and Unrelated incidents use very different languages to portray different identities. Search for my tongue by Sujata Bhatt is a poem where the author is expressing her feelings about losing her mother tongue; and she thinks she is unable to regain it. It portrays a message that if we develop a foreign tongue we forget our mother tongue. Sujata Bhatt expresses this valid theory by the poetic language she uses to portray her message. Unrelated incidents by Tom Leonard is a difficult poem to understand and interpret as it uses a lot of slang words, which is mainly Scottish dialect used on the streets. What I have interpreted of it was that the six o'clock news was being read out in slang terms. This creates a distinct identity because of the use of slang words. What the author of this poem is trying to depict is that we can't tell the news in a street slang manner and be believed. It doesn't matter how you portray the language it is what you say. Search for my tongue uses very poetic language throughout the poem especially in lines 31-38, where it uses a lot of metaphors. The author engages the reader by asking a rhetorical question: "I ask you, what you would do, if you had two tongues in your mouth, and lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not really know the other, the foreign tongue." This makes the reader question

  • Ranking:
  • Word count: 588
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

The poem Search for my Tongue, written by Indian born author Sajata Bhatt, is about a girl who is worried she is forgetting her mother tongue.

"Search for my Tongue" The poem "Search for my Tongue", written by Indian born author Sajata Bhatt, is about a girl who is worried she is forgetting her mother tongue. In my opinion, the poet wrote the poem to try and help people understand the difficulty of speaking two languages. I think she is trying to get across the message that you will never loose something that is such a big part of who you are. There are different emotions throughout the poem. At first, the girl feels confused and sad, as she is scared of losing her native language of Indian: "...and lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not really know the other". Towards the middle, the girl speaks quite angrily and fiercely: "rot and die in your mouth, until you had to spit it out", using negative words such as "rot" and "die". This could be because she is frustrated with herself for not practicing the Indian language, and therefore feeling like she has forgotten it. However, at the end of the poem, the girl realises that she dreams in Indian, and so has not lost her mother tongue: "the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth". She is full of joy, and is much more confident. This time she uses happier words, like "blossoms". With all these different emotions, I think the poet is trying to get the reader to feel the confusion the girl is going through. There are no stanzas or rhyme in the poem (which

  • Ranking:
  • Word count: 702
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

In both Search for my Tongue by Sujata Bhatt and Half Caste by John Agard strong imagery is used to present ideas and feelings, mainly those of identity.

In both Search for my Tongue by Sujata Bhatt and Half Caste by John Agard strong imagery is used to present ideas and feelings, mainly those of identity. Both poets use metaphors to show their feelings towards the aspect of their identity in which they feel strongly about. Search for my Tongue as a whole is an extended metaphor for the persona re finding her language and identity. Negative imagery is very apparent in the first stanza; the author uses metaphors to present that the persona feels she is forgetting her home language. "mother tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth" The metaphor 'mother tongue' is used to symbolize the first language of the persona. Personally, I think the use of [the adjective] 'mother' is very apparent as a person's mother is usually of great importance to them and the persona is comparing her language and identity to how one would feel about their parents: irreplaceable. In contrast, the third stanza of this poem is very positive. Imagery like "the bud opens in my mouth" is used to represent that her first language is re-growing and blossoming within her. The persona realises that no matter where she lives or what language she speaks, her identity will always remain the same. Metaphors are used differently in Half Caste; Agard uses imagery of mixed things and shows them as beautiful while comparing them to mixed race people

  • Ranking:
  • Word count: 729
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay