What the poem 'Search for My Tongue' is about...

  

  

Language for Bhatt, is a vital component of who we are.   For her - an Indian child transplanted to the USA - the struggle between English and Gujerati she writes about in 'Search for My Tongue' symbolises the two cultures (Indian and European) struggling within her.

   

One of the techniques teachers use to teach dyslexic children is to get them to speak words out loud, and to FEEL the sensation of the words in the mouth as they are spoken (for example, speak out loud the word 'mindful' and notice the FEELING on your lips, tongue and teeth as you form the word in your mouth).   In the same kind of way, Bhatt is aware of the physical feel of words in her mouth - and consequently it is there that her inner conflict about her identity is represented as taking on an actual physical form.

 

In this way, therefore, 'Search for my Tongue' records a battle.   At the start, the English language dominates, and has almost driven out and replaced all her Gujerati culture.   But, she tells us through the poem, her Indian-ness never completely goes away and from time to time - starting in her dreams - she feels the Gujerati words of her childhood forming on her tongue, and her Indian nature reasserts itself through them, and takes over her soul again.

     

Links

Main Sources

BBC Bitesize - simple explanation

Andrew Moore's REALLY clear and detailed explanation

  

Other websites

Rendell Harris - brief comment

St Peter's High - general notes on the poem

  

brill BBC podcast (text version)

  

First, we need to make some Brief Notes:

 

What do the BBC Bitesize webpage on the poem say about its meaning?

  

What does Andrew Moore say about the meaning of the poem?

  

(if you wish, here is space for other notes/ideas from other websites)

  

  

  

Now you can note your own Ideas about the Meaning of 'Search...' by answering the following questions... 

Mouseover here to see the text of the poem   

(REMEMBER - in these notes, you MUST support your ideas by referring to the text.)

    

What is the poet's great worry (ll. 1-7)?

    

What does the poet mean when she says: 'You could not use them both together'?   (l. 8)

    

Why is the poet losing her mother tongue (ll. 10-13)?

    

What does the poet mean when she says: 'until you had to spit it out' (l. 14)?

    

What does the poet mean when she says that her mother tongue had been reduced to 'the stump of a shoot'?   Can you find another line in the poem which means the same thing?

    

Find two phrases in lines 31-35 that carry the idea that the two languages are at war - struggling woth each other to control her tongue (ll. 31-35).

    

What does the poet mean when she says her words of Gujerati 'blossom' out of her mouth (l. 38)?

       

     

Now let's go on to think about two of the KEY IMAGES in the poem.

Mouseover here to see the text of the poem   

 

Let's think first about the way she uses the idea of the tongue.
What different ways does the poet mix her use of the word 'tongue'  (mouseover here for ideas)?

  

Now let's go on to think about the central image of her native language as a plant.

In what different ways does she represent her mother tongue as a plants, what might these symbolise

(mouseover here for ideas)?

   

     

In conclusion, write about what the poem means to YOU, and why.

Mouseover here to see the text of the poem   

(Don't forget to illustrate and prove your points by referring to the text of the poem.)

 

     

     

Finally, you need to jot down some ideas about the Themes of 'Search...'.

  

Three possible themes that you might see in the poem include:

•   Identity

•   Living between two cultures (different cultures, customs and traditions - way of life spiritually and materially

•   Language and its uses.

  

Now you need to explain HOW each theme is used in the poem...

You don't need to go into lots of detail, but give a definition of what the theme means, and explain how it is shown in the poem.

    

(REMEMBER - in these notes, you MUST support your ideas by referring to the text.)

  

Mouseover here to see the text of the poem   

Identity

     

Living between two cultures

  

Language

    

  

Your name:

      

Your form:

  

 

    


Ways the poet uses the word 'tongue' - hints

•   When is she talking about the physical tongue?

•   When is is talking about tongue as 'the ability to speak'?

•   When is she talking about tongue as 'language'.

•   One key idea is in line 4: 'if you had two tongue in your mouth'.   How is the poet mixing the meanings of the word 'tongue' here?

Language as a plant - hints

Think of the implications of the following words:

•   'rot and die' (line 13)

•   'stump of a shoot' (line 31)

•   'rot and die' (line 13)

•   'grows' (line 32)

•   'bud' (line 34)

•   'blossoms' (line 38)

 
 

       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,
5     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.
10   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.

15   I thought I spit it out
       but overnight while I dream,

     

      

       (munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha)

      

20   (may thoonky nakhi chay)

      

       (parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay)

      

       (foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh)

25  

       (modhama kheelay chay)

      

       (fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh)

      

30   (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,
35   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.

Themes

Possible themes you might be asked about include:

•  Identity

•  Feelings about people

•  Feelings about places

•  Language and dialect, how people talk.

•  Other cultures, customs and traditions - way of life spiritually and materially.

•  Beliefs and rituals

•  Different attitudes and values

•  Living between two cultures

•  Travel and migration

•  Feelings about change

•  Poverty (e.g. contrasting the developed western world with developing countries).

•  Protest and politics