Comparing Poems
Compare two poems showing how the poets reveal their ideas and feelings about the particular cultures and traditions that they are writing about. The two poets I decided to compare are Search For My Tongue by Suyata Bhatt and Hurricane Hits England by Grace Nichols. The ideas about culture in Search For My Tongue, is that the poet feels that she losing a big part of her culture, her language. We see this in line 2 she says ''I have lost my tongue'' The words she uses to express her feelings are quite dramatic in that saying she has lost her tongue, makes the reader feel that has misplaced her tongue and it cannot be found. In Hurricane Hits England the poet says 'I have lost my mother tongue'. In Hurricane Hits England the poet says 'my sweeping back home cousin' the unusual weather in Britain makes the poet feel like she is back in the Caribbean. Both poets feel they have lost something which is very important to them, both feel that they have change to fit in the society they are now living in. For example Search For My Tongue the poet feels she has lost an important part of her culture, we see this in lines 36 - 38 she writes, 'Every time I think I've forgotten, I think I've lost my mother tongue, it blossoms out of my mouth' by using the words forgotten and lost Suyata Bhatt states she has lost her mother tongue forever she uses these words to make the feel that
Poems from other cultures
'It is always a positive benefit to live in two cultures at the same time' How far do you think this is true of three poems? I disagree with this statement 'It is always a positive benefit to live in two cultures at the same time' because the poem 'Search for my tongue' is an autobiographical poem about an Indian woman moving to a different country having to learn another language, this is a negative benefit she will forget her own language Gujerati which is described as the mother tongue. Sujata Bhatt uses the word tongue in two different ways; one of which is the muscle of speech and the other one which is language "If you had two tongues in your mouth", she describes having two languages to having to having two tongues and there is only space for one while the other gets weaker and weaker until she spits it out, she uses imagery to show it as physically spitting out the tongue. Although her 'mother tongue' dies during the day, it 'grows back' in her dreams at night. When she is asleep in her dream she starts to speak the mother tongue written in Gujerati with the transliteration of the English language then repeats the Gujerati in English, she does this because she has two languages so she has to uses both of these, it also makes it more difficult for us to read it therefore communicating her difficulty of learning a new language. Sujata Bhatt uses a semantic field using
A Summary For all the poems from a different cultures.
A Summary For all the poems from a different cultures Coursework Sujata Bhatt: from Search for My Tongue This poem (or rather extract from a long poem) explores a familiar ambiguity in English - "tongue" refers both to the physical organ we use for speech, and the language we speak with it. (Saying "tongue" for "speech" is an example of metonymy). In the poem Sujata Bhatt writes about the "tongue" in both ways at once. To lose your tongue normally means not knowing what to say, but Ms. Bhatt suggests that one can lose one's tongue in another sense. The speaker in this poem is obviously the poet herself, but she speaks for many who fear they may have lost their ability to speak for themselves and their culture. She explains this with the image of two tongues - a mother tongue (one's first language) and a second tongue (the language of the place where you live). She argues that you cannot use both together. She suggests, further, that if you live in a place where you must "speak a foreign tongue" then the mother tongue will "rot and die in your mouth". As if to demonstrate how this works, Ms. Bhatt rewrites lines 15 and 16 in Gujerati, followed by more Gujerati lines, which are given in English as the final section of the poem. For readers who do not know the Gujerati script, there is also a phonetic transcript using approximate English spelling to indicate the sounds. The
Compare two poems from different cultures and traditions, "Search for my tongue" by Sujata Bhatt and "Presents from my aunts in Pakistan" by Moniza Alvi.
English Coursework: Compare two poems from different cultures and traditions. The two poems from different cultures and traditions that I have chosen are "Search for my tongue" by Sujata Bhatt and "Presents from my aunts in Pakistan" by Moniza Alvi. These poems are about girls who are living in a place which is different from their culture i.e. they live in England but have an Indian/Pakistani heritage and background. However Moniza Alvi in my opinion is ashamed or embarrassed about her background but Sujata Bhatt would like to learn more about her culture. Sujata Bhatt's poem is about a girl who lives away from her culture and as a result she uses the language of that country more and so she is forgetting her mother tongue (gujerati). She is feeling sad and ashamed that she has forgotten who she is. Sujata Bhatt talks to you and continues to ask you questions through the first stanza: "I ask you what would you do If you had two tongues in your mouth" This involves the reader and makes him/her think about Sujata's predicament. "Presents from my aunt in Pakistan" is about a half Pakistani half English girl who is almost an outcast in both societies, as she cannot release her Pakistani side in England and vice versa. She will always be frowned upon by Pakistanis for being half English and vice versa. In the poem she says "Half-English Unlike Aunty Jamila" But then
Comparisons Between The Two Poems 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' & 'Search for my Tongue'
Comparisons Between The Two Poems 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' & 'Search for my Tongue' In our poetry unit, we have been studying two poems from different cultures titled 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi, and 'Search for my Tongue' by Sujata Bhatt. In this essay, I will be showing you how the writers use their own poetic devices within their work to their advantage and how the poets have used different themes to overcome in their own poems. To begin this essay, I will be presenting to you how Alvi and Bhatt have used different viewpoints within their poems to put across their message to the reader. In the poem 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan', Alvi chooses to present her work in the narrative viewpoint of the first person, reducing the chance of her poem being a conversational one. She then chooses to phrase her work in the past tense, so that she is getting the reader to ponder on the characters state of mind and explore into her past. The poem 'Search for my Tongue' starts off in the past tense but later converts into the present, towards the end of the poem. Secondly, it soon becomes aware to me that, whilst comparing both poems, the poets have used their work to portray their emotional status' in response to almost possessing dual cultures. In 'Presents from my Aunt in Pakistan', Alvi concentrates on cultural dislocation, which is
Poetry Analysis Tatamkhulu Afrika: Nothing's Changed, Sujata Bhatt: from Search for My Tongue, Tom Leonard: from Unrelated Incidents, Derek Walcott: Love after Love
Tatamkhulu Afrika: Nothing's Changed This poem depicts a society where rich and poor are divided. In the apartheid era of racial segregation in South Africa, where the poem is set, laws, enforced by the police, kept apart black and white people. The poet looks at attempts to change this system, and shows how they are ineffective, making no real difference. Jackie Fielding writes: "I had always assumed that the poem was written post-apartheid and reflected the bitterness that knowing "one's place" in society is so deeply ingrained that the I-persona can't bring himself to accept his new-found freedom under Mandela. I also find it interesting that the poet is not South African and not black." "District Six" is the name of a poor area of Cape Town (one of South Africa's two capital cities; the other is Pretoria). This area was bulldozed as a slum in 1966, but never properly rebuilt. Although there is no sign there, the poet can feel that this is where he is: "...my feet know/and my hands." Similarly the "up-market" inn ("brash with glass" and the bright sign ,"flaring like a flag", which shows its name) is meant for white customers only. There is no sign to show this (as there would have been under apartheid) but black and coloured people, being poor, will not be allowed past the "guard at the gatepost". The "whites only inn" is elegant, with linen tablecloths and a "single
Comparing ""Search for my tongue" and "Unrelated incidents"
"Search for my tongue" and "Unrelated Incidents" In this essay I intend to show how the two poems "Search for my tongue" and "Unrelated Incidents" show that language and identity is an important part of life. Also I will show my response to the way the poems are written and perhaps show how language is a big part of identity. "Search for my tongue" is about how the language can show your identity. The author has shown that the different language she speaks are all part of her identity. Here the writer believes that "if you had two tongues in your mouth and lost the first one the mother tongue" Clearly here the writer has shown that "the mother tongue" is important; it forms a person's identity. The language used in "Search for my tongue" is important to how the writer, Sujata Bhatt, puts the point across of how a person can be torn between two cultures due to the language. The poet has expressed confusion through the Denranagari script in the middle of the poem. Here, the reader is confused as to why this language is written. The reader is put in the poets shoes and feels the poets' emotions. This relates to the two different cultures in the poem; Bhatt also shows that language is a part of her, "it blossoms out of my mouth" The tongue is described as a flower that has always been there. The metaphor signifies that the "mother tongue" is strong, as it is just as essential
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
Comparing 'Search For My Tongue' with 'IslandMan'.
Comparing 'Search For My Tongue' with 'Island Man' Both 'Island Man' and 'Search For my tongue' illustrate strong feelings towards the differences between Cultures. Both poets present their identities by using strong metaphors to express the way they feel. An example of this is in 'Search for my tongue', where Sujata Bhatt uses a plant to show her culture and language. Similarly In 'Island Man' Grace Nichols uses the Word "Sands" to represent English roads. Both poems are highly effective at showing the importance of peoples own cultures. Firstly in 'Search for my tongue', Bhatt uses her own language (Gujarati) in her poem. An example of this is in the quote "may thoonkay nakhi chay". By using this, Bhatt emphasises how different the English language is to her own. It also reflects how she feels about her own identity. Contrastingly, in 'Island Man' Nichols uses a wide range of contrasting colours to show culture. In the poem the colour "emerald" is used to describe the island and the word "grey" to describe London. This contrast in colours builds up a contrast between the two islands. The Islands colours are bright and intense, to show the beauty of the place. By using dull colours to describe London the reader believes that the Island Man would be more contented in his own culture. Significantly, both poets include very negative attitudes towards their new cultures.
For many poets, English is a second language. Many poets feel trapped between two cultures. Choose 3 poems we have studied which show this.
For many poets, English is a second language. Many poets feel trapped between two cultures. Choose 3 poems we have studied which show this. The collection of three poems I have chosen to use give an in-depth incite into the fears and feelings that an outsider goes through after settling in to a new country. The cultural differences between the poet's home countries and their new home country become very clear and this major life change is mainly what fuels their discontent. All three of the poems give the impression that the poet is unattached and that they feel as if they are not a member of any nation. All these problems are shown in the three poems and by the end of each poem the reader almost feels as if they have some role to play in this person feeling so alone. The first of the three poems is called, "Search for my tongue," and it is about the poet searching herself for her mother tongue. The poem starts with a sense of bereavement as the poet mourns the loss of her mother tongue. The first few lines give the sense that the poet is proud of her roots and that her mother tongue is one of the only things left that attaches her to her home country. Her feelings towards her roots are strong and in the last few lines of the play we see how deep her roots go. The poem describes how her new language has starved her old one and how she strives to be able to speak as