This is different to ‘Search for my Tongue’ because Sujata Bhatt for 15 lines writes in English but then from line 16-29 writes in Gujarati which is her mother language, beneath this it also tells the reader how to read this language (which is spelt phonetically). The lines written in Gujarati is actually the first part of the poem written again and when you read it the first part sounds harsh and not very nice to read but when you read it for a second time in Gujarati it flows and is nice to read.
In ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and ‘Search for my Tongue’ they either are cross or upset with themselves or with others around them. In the poem ‘Unrelated Incidents’ the Scottish man is angry for being rejected by the BBC just because of the way that he talks and because of his accent and in ‘Search for my Tongue’ she is upset with herself for not being able to talk with her mother tongue. In neither of the poems there is a rhyme scheme, this is because by adding rhyme it would not sound right in ‘Unrelated Incidents’ or ‘Search for my Tongue’ because both of the poems are serious poems and by making the lines rhyme, they would lose some of their seriousness and make the poem more childish. In ‘Unrelated Incidents’ this would not work because it is written as if it were actually the six clock news but by making it rhyme would sound like he is just messing around and is not serious about what he is talking about. This would be on the contrary of what the poet is trying to get across. By giving ‘Search for my Tongue’ a rhyme it would make what she says not serious but funny and more of a joke and this distracts you from the actually issue that Sujata is trying to get across to the reader. Also both of the poems are the same because they both have enjambment in them. In ‘Unrelated Incidents’ it is written as an autocue so if that the presenter can read the script naturally and be able to make it flow. ‘Search for my Tongue’ has enjambment because it keeps the poem flowing so that you don’t need to stop at the end of each line to pause. Also by using enjambment on both of these poems it keeps the reader interested because it doesn’t stop and start it just keeps on going.
In ‘Unrelated Incidents’ there are no capital letters which shows that no word is more important then another this could also mean that everyone is the same and no ones better than another and it doesn’t matter where your from or what accent you have everyone is the same, which is the message of the poem.
In both of the poems ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and ‘Search for my Tongue’ they have a message behind them. This message is that however hard you try you can’t lose your roots. In ‘Unrelated Incidents’ the Scottish man knows that he will never get a job on the BBC because he will never be able to get rid of his accent. In ‘Search for my Tongue’ she says that she can never get rid of her mother language, her original language and that it is like a bud ‘the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth, it pushes the other tongue aside. Every time I think I’ve forgotten I think I’ve lost my mother tongue it blossoms out of my mouth.’ Sujata Bhatt is saying that her foreign tongue will never be stronger than her mother tongue; she will never be able to lose her roots. It is also saying about their cultures and that they are fully accepted into a new culture because they can not completely get rid of their original one.
I think that by studying these two poems it has given me a greater understanding of the difficulties of speaking in a different way or a different language which isn’t widely accepted where you live. I have also found that these poems have lots of things the same or similar in them such as both have enjambment because it makes the poems more serious. The poems both give a different understanding of how the way a person speaks tells us about them. The poem ‘Search for my Tongue’ you can tell about this person because the tongue which is the language will never be able to get rid of the mother tongue and be able to stop people from knowing that they are not the same as them and by this mother tongue people can know that they have a different culture and are not from around where they live and so are not so easily accepted. In ‘Unrelated Incidents’ the Scottish man has the same problem as Bhatt because of his accent as well. People think that because he doesn’t speak in Standard English that he is not as bright or clever as them and can not even be considered for the job because of the way that he speaks. He is being judged by the way that he speaks because people assume that they know all about him because they think that by the way that they speak tells them all about that person. I think that the way the person speaks does tell us a bit about the person but not a lot. It tells us a bit about where their from but not about how clever they are or how nice they are. The two poems ‘Search for my Tongue’ and ‘Unrelated Incidents’ do tell us how hard it is that people can tell about them by the way that they speak.
