For many poets, English is a second language. Many poets feel trapped between two cultures. Choose 3 poems we have studied which show this.

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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 fluently as before.  She seems to almost feel hate towards the new language that has starved her much loved mother tongue. She uses blunt sensual expressions to describe her emotional turmoil which shows how much her mother tongue means to her. “Mother tongue would rot. Rot and die in your mouth, until you had to spit it out.”

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    The whole mood of the poem changes during the line, “I thought I spit out but over night while I dream, it grows back,” The but is pivotal in this line as it swings the mood of the poem around completely. The return of the mother tongue is signified by the six lines of translated Arab compete with phonetic expressions for the reader’s benefit. After this section of Arab text the poem suddenly springs into life. The sudden reappearance of the mother tongue is described using spring imagery. This may be used to signify the blossoming of her ...

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