Culture or tradition Essays

Culture or tradition Essays Culture or tradition Essay Culture or tradition Essay The poems, For search For My Tongue and Half-Caste are poems, which concentrate on one major factor: culture. Although the poets may hold opposing stances, these are expressed in an effective and distinctive manner. Both John Agard of Half-Caste and Sujata Bhatt of For Search For My Tongue talk passionately of their culture and tradition in emotive language.  Firstly I will discuss an idealistic yet cultural poem: For Search For My Tongue. An unordinary poem using Gujrati, phonetic Gujrati and ordinary English language structure. The poem is concerned with mother tongue (Gujrati), and how the first tongue is put on back burner; as a foreign tongue needs to be spoken. The language of the poem is like plait; this has been shown with the use of the metaphors in a rather dramatic style. Unique style and hypothesis needs to be tested. [emailprotected] Secondly the poem entitled Half-Caste: here the author takes a rather dramatic tone, although there is humour but is sarcastic and cynical. The author is a victim of prejudice and looks for acceptance as a person and explanation from those who have been prejudiced towards him. He authenticates the poem to a certain extent by illustrating his concerns by challenging the faces of prejudice.  Although the poem For Search For My Tongue has been written in two very contrasting styles, Sujata Bhatt, the author creates a sense of panic and uncertainty. Panic because she has a worry about losing the ability in speaking her mother tongue: if you had two tongues in your mouth,  and lost the first one, the mother tongue,  Here the audience is given a negative imagery of the poet. In the first section of this poem, the poet shows the importance of her Gujarati culture and the fear of losing her mother tongue, which to her means losing her identity: she says;  And if you lived in a place yu had to  speak a foreign tongue, your mother tongue would rot,  rot and die in your mouth  In the opening section Bhatt talks about the situation shes in about having two cultures: a mother tongue and a foreign tongue and feels her identity is under threat because what she feels is that what one speaks is to some extent what he is. And if you lived in a place you had to  speak a foreign tongue,  Looking at the different styles and moods of the poem, For Search For My Tongue here the reader can see that it is written in two very contrasting styles, Standard English and Gujrati as well as phonetic Gujrati:  (munay hutoo kay aakee jeebh aakee bhasha) phonetic Gujrati.  There isnt much use of punctuation, the basic: full stop, use of brackets and commas. The words in the bracket are direct in terms of being phonetically spoken. The use of the bracket not only help the reader understand the sentiments of the author but establishes how her thoughts. For Search For My Tongue, has been split into three sections. In the opening section, the scene is created immediately:  You ask me what I mean  by saying I have lost my tongue.  Here the author immediately tells the reader what the poem is about in a relaxed, casual but in a sense that it is hesitant and vague language style and corresponds it with the subsequent line in simple language. With the worry of the language being portrayed as grows backgrows longerbud opens in the mouth, are all examples, which create positive imagery of the rediscovery mother tongue. The first section of the poem is in many terms negative:  your mother tongue would rot,  rot and die in your mouth  until you had   o spit it out. As in the first section, the author talks about discovering the loss of her mother, the ability to not speaking it anymore due to having to adapt a new tongue, foreign. A tongue, which is suited by the environment. The second section, gives the reader an insight of the authors dream, in which Bhatt discovers her mother tongue, realising it was never lost, just and been put on the back burner. The dream is in phonetic Gujrati, so those who cant read Gujrati have the help of the written terms. This section of the poem shows that the author is relieved to find that that her mother tongue still remains there. The final section is in comparison with the first section as the began with a negative tone, the author expressing the loss of her mother tongue: by saying I have lost my tongue.  And the final section ending in a positive tone, as she has rediscovered her tongue in her dream. The tone takes a merriment tone:  I think Ive lost the mother tongue,  it blossoms out of my mouth.  She feels reassured. In the last section, there is a key metaphor:  the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,  The language is a plant, like a plait. It grows from the rot, grows longer and forms stronger than before:  grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,  it ties the other tongue in knots,  the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,  the poem remains reliable as this could happen to anyone, in a sense that what one speaks to some extent who the person is. Bhatt was at a stage where she thought she had lost her identity as person. Unlike, the previous poem, Half-caste, takes a very serious, realistic and pleading tone, although there is humour which is more cynical and sarcastic, which is used to get point across that half-caste people are the same as anyone else in the community. This poem is written in a form of prejudice. This poem, in my opinion is more serious and dramatic than For Search For My Tongue, a desperate man demanding an explanation for being a victim of prejudice. The language used in simple but there is a dialect, a Caribbean dialect.