Poems From Other Cultures- John Agard and Sujata Bhatt Essay

Search for My Tongue by Sujata Bhatt and Half-Caste by John Agard, are metrical compo layions that both rationalise the struggles of living with mixed heritages and being split between the devil. They both express in that respect opinion in different ways, Bhatt using symbolism and Agard using confrontational speech and metaphors. Agards poesy portrays the racist con nonations associated with the word Half-caste and he effectively puts across his accepted feelings on the subject.Agard was born in Guyana and like most Caribbean slew Agard is bi-racial, being born of a white Portuguese fuss and a foreboding(a) Caribbean father. Consequently, Agard is going to be dealing with several issues as he has to receive between two dustups, three cultures, and living in a surface area that comfortably gives spoken language very much(prenominal) as wiz- half(a)(prenominal)-caste without thinking round the negatively charged undert one(a)s that can dampen his spirit and con ceit in being of duel-heritage.Similarly, Bhatt writes about her struggle of living between two cultures, scarce unlike Agard she is of one race, Indian. Bhatt and her family moved to the West when Bhatt was still young and there she learned incline in extension to her first language, Guajarati. Bhatts verse form explains the difficulty of having two languages, the fear of looses a native language when living abroad, and ultimately suggests that language is the centre of an identity. She does, however, comes to the conclusion that even though you may not direct your mother expectoration on a regular, day-to-day basis it pass on always be with you and that you cannot loose who you are.Agard presents his words in a ridiculous and abrupt method. He puts his rime into five stanzas that vary in length this could be so it sounds like someone talking not a verse, showing that he wanted the fluidity of the metrical composition to feel veridical, and not rehearsed. He withal fl aunts his poem by using short lines, explain y white plaguelf to maybe be abrupt and direct, giving his poem a confrontational feel barely he also may do this as a symbolic gesture as he only has half a line, half a self, half a human. By doing this he is ch eachenging the line half-cast and sidle uping its negative repair and connotations, he is also exploiting it and devising the line seem ridiculous.Conversely, Bhatt presents her poem as one prospicient stanza and has written it by using longer lines. It is written with fluidity, and ease, this is beca map she wanted the two languages, Guajarati and English, to mesh into one and more or less become one language. By structuring the poem and putting the Guajarati in the middle of the poem this shows that it is the focal point of her life, and is in the middle of her mind and centres her thoughts. Having English on either side this could be to show that there is more English in her life only if the language that holds it all together is her mother knife, Guajarati.Both poems are multi-lingual with Agard admixture Patios and English. In his sentences he has casually overlapped colloquial English and patois you could regulate that the poem is half English half patois showing that he is half of each, emphasising his original message of the poem. The language that Agard has used has made his poem read like a conversation. His use of colloquial English has added to this, but the way he opens his poem in very formal and polite, this could be to get the attention of the reader, or to mimic posh people. He also introduces the poem by truism excuse me, corroborateing(a) on one leg, Im half-caste to say that the first thing people want to know is his race not him, his name, or his personality. Also the connotations with standing on one leg, verbalise that he is only worth to stand on one leg and that being half-caste entertain he is half a man.Also by using metaphors such as yu mean when light and shadow, mix in de sky, is half-caste weather? he is accentuating the stupidity of the vocalize half-caste and how observed the word truly is. His language also has hints of subtle humour. For fount, head in dat case, England weather, nearly always half-caste. Here he is making fun of English weather saying that it isnt good as it is always half light and half dark and he is saying that people are constantly surrounded by half-caste images but neer pick up on them so wherefore should him and him only be subjected to this, what can be perceived as racist, devise. As well as the above Agard emphasises the argument by constantly repeating words such as explain yuself, what yu mean. This fully drills the argument with full impact constantly asking the reader to change their attitude towards the term half-caste.Bhatt has a very blatant language variation in her poem as she has written in Guajarati and English two extremely different languages. This use of Guajarati shows that her life is m ixture of both and that her Guajarati impart near be befuddled and will always be in her thoughts and life. Also in this poem Bhatt uses the word I allot, you ask me what I mean by saying I have lost my tongue, by doing this Bhatt is constantly referring to herself making it much more likely for other multi ethnic people to relate to the poem.Whats more Bhatt uses some very powerful lines for instance, if you had two tongues in your mouth, and you lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not truly know the other, the foreign tongue. In these lines Bhatt duologue about their tongues being in conflict, never really fully mixing or complementing each other, but she also talks about how without each other they wouldnt work. Furthermore Bhatt writes about how you will never fall asleep the mother tongue, but overnight when I dream, it grows bandagingthe bud opensit blossoms out of my mouth, this says and shows that the reinforcement of the mother tongue is unstoppable and by using the metaphor of a flower, it makes it beautiful.Agard has filled his poem up to the brim with some(prenominal) different metaphors and images. All of the images he uses like, yu mean Tchaikovsky, sit down at dah piano, and mix a black key, wid a white key, is a half-caste symphony?, emphasise the ridiculousness of the term, and it also highlights that if you use the term half caste for people then you requisite to use it for everything even things that are highly respected in society. In addition to these images Agard writes some very obscure and irregular images in the third stanza of the poem. Agard goes on to say, an when Im introduces to yu, Im sure youll understand why I offer yu half-a-hand, and when I sleep at night I close half-a-eye.These are very powerful images that Agard is writing and they are one final punch in the poem to try and truly highlight the complete stupidity of the term half-caste and also by making many references of half-a-human this can show th at the term of half-caste can hurt and be disgusting as well as not necessary. Finally in the perish six lines of the poem Agard says that it is us who isnt whole and we need to take heed to his story with de whole of yu mind to truly understand the other half of his story. These lines flip the racist connotations of the term saying that those who use it are the authorized not whole people.Bhatt has one major image that carries the whole poem through the words and making the poem flow. She referees to languages as plants. For example, it grows back, a soapbox of a shoot grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veinsit blossoms. Bhatt does this to show clearly what she means by loosing he tongue because plants die when in the wrong environment and they need nutrients of their home soil to live, so she is saying that so your mother tongue doesnt die you need to feed it with culture of your home.Also Bhatt may use the idea of plants as this accentuates the concomitant that when yo u become comfortable with the fact that you have two tongues you can grow, blossom and enrich yourself with confidence. She also uses lines that pass water strong images like, your tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth until you had to dot it out. By saying that you must spit it out shows how disgusted she is by the fact that she thinks that she has lost her mother tongue.Throughout Agards poem there is a mixture of many tones. There is a slight uncivilized tone he is slightly warning those that use the word half-caste. He constantly says explain yuself and by doing so he is close peril the reader, he is challenging the reader to try and explain why this term should be acceptable. There is also a very slight justificative tone to the poem, in the first stanza especially, as the poem begins with the line, excuse me, almost like he is apologising for being mixed race, again emphasising the utter absurdity of the term half-caste. The entire poem has the tone of over exerti on of all emotions again i feel that this is just to highlight the ridiculous phrase that is half-caste.Unlike Agards poem half-caste, Bhatt has a much more pacific and calm tone to her writing. Her poem flows of the tongue and is read very gently. This could almost be to emphasise the idea that sleep, a calm concept, unlocking the mother tongue, or is to make sure that the idea of anger isnt brought across but it is more the idea of confusion and the idea of being lost without the mother tongue.I think that Agard is almost vulgarly blatant with his message that the term half-caste shouldnt be used and demines people that are mixed race. He argues the idea that when two opposite are mixed it creates something better, new and exciting. For example he writes yu mean when Picasso mix red an green is a half-caste test? he is almost using reverse psychology as Picasso by mixing red and green created an amazing canvas. He is using this poem to make it clear to people how offending this term can be and that it can truly rip a mans pride in half.Bhatt however, is conveying almost an opposite message. She is saying that no field of study what you do, say, or for that matter what other people say, you can never lose who you are or where you came from or put in other words you can never lose your past.All in all I feel that the poems both convey the message that they set out to and did it with real passion but with two alone different massaged and two completely different styles, it really shows two completely different attitudes to dealing with a multi racial life.