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 compositions that devil explain the struggles of living with change integrityed heritages and macrocosm split amid the twain. They two express there opinion in divers(prenominal) ways, Bhatt use symbol and Agard apply confrontational speech and illustrations. Agards verse portrays the racist con nonations associated with the sc draw outt Half- clique and he effectively puts across his true lifeings on the subject.Agard was born in Guyana and ilk most Caribbean heap Agard is bi-racial, being born of a etiolate Portuguese m different and a black Caribbean father. Consequently, Agard is going to be transaction with several issues as he has to live between two run-ins, three cultures, and living in a country that comfortably uses words much(prenominal) as half-caste without thinking some the negative undert integritys that buns dampen his olfactory property and pride in being of duel -heritage.Similarly, Bhatt writes about her struggle of living between two cultures, but unlike Agard she is of one charge, Indian. Bhatt and her family moved to the West when Bhatt was in time young and there she learned face in addition to her offshoot language, Guajarati. Bhatts verse form explains the difficulty of having two languages, the fear of receptives a infixed language when living abroad, and ultimately suggests that language is the centre of an identity. She does, however, comes to the conclusion that crimson though you may not speak your set out tongue on a regular, day-to-day basis it will always be with you and that you cannot loose who you are.Agard presents his words in a unique and open method. He puts his numbers into five stanzas that vary in length this could be so it sounds like someone talking not a verse, showing that he valued the fluidity of the poetry to feel real, and not rehearsed. He too flaunts his poem by using short lines, explain yus elf to maybe be abrupt and direct, giving his poem a confrontational feel but he also may do this as a symbolic movement as he only has half a line, half a self, half a human. By doing this he is challenging the barrier half-cast and high promiscuousing its negative impact and connotations, he is also exploiting it and reservation the end point face ridiculous.Conversely, Bhatt presents her poem as one long stanza and has written it by using longer lines. It is written with fluidity, and ease, this is because she wanted the two languages, Guajarati and side of meat, to mesh into one and or so become one language. By structuring the poem and putting the Guajarati in the put of the poem this shows that it is the focal point of her life, and is in the middle of her understanding and centres her thoughts. Having face on either side this could be to show that there is more than English in her life but the language that holds it all unneu blowic is her beat tongue, Guajarat i.Both poems are multi-lingual with Agard mixing Patios and English. In his sentences he has coolly overlapped colloquial English and patois you could say that the poem is half English half patois showing that he is half of each, emphasising his original essence of the poem. The language that Agard has use 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 actually formal and polite, this could be to get the attention of the endorser, or to mimic posh people. He also introduces the poem by adage excuse me, standing on one forking, Im half-caste to say that the runner thing people want to know is his race not him, his name, or his personality. Also the connotations with standing on one leg, saying that he is only worth to stand on one leg and that being half-caste flirt with he is half a man.Also by using metaphors such as yu mean when light and shadow, mix in de sky, is half-caste abide? he is accent uating the stupidity of the phrase half-caste and how observed the word rightfully is. His language also has hints of subtle humour. For example, well 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 eternally surrounded by half-caste images but never pick up on them so why should him and him only be subjected to this, what can be perceived as racist, phrase. 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 wondering the indorser to change their attitude towards the full 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 mixture of both and that her Guajarati will near be at sea 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 different 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 babble out, and you lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not really know the other, the foreign tongue. In these lines Bhatt talks 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 digest the mother tongue, but overnight when I dream, it grows backthe 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 beauti ful.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 style piano, and mix a black key, wid a white key, is a half-caste harmony?, emphasise the ridiculousness of the term, and it also highlights that if you use the term half caste for people then you charter to use it for everything even things that are super respected in society. In addition to these images Agard writes some very mist over 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 that the term of half-caste can hurt and be offensi ve as well as not necessary. Finally in the last six lines of the poem Agard says that it is us who isnt whole and we need to listen 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 true 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 stump of a shoot grows longer, grows moist, grows unafraid veinsit blossoms. Bhatt does this to show clearly what she means by loosing he tongue because plants bankrupt 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 report of plants as this accentuates the fact that when you become comfortable with the fact that you have two tongues you can grow, blossom and enrich yourself with confidence. She also uses lines that create strong images like, your tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth until you had to spit 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 angry tone he is meagerly warning those that use the word half-caste. He constantly says explain yuself and by doing so he is around threatening the reader, he is challenging the reader to try and explain why this term should be acceptable. There is also a very slight apologetic tone to the poem, in the first stanza especially, as the poem begins with the line, excuse me, approximately like he is apologising for being mixed race, again emphasising the utter silliness of the term half-caste. The entire poem has the tone of over exertion of all emotions again i feel that this is just to highlight th e ridiculous phrase that is half-caste.Unlike Agards poem half-caste, Bhatt has a much more peaceful and calm tone to her writing. Her poem flows of the tongue and is read very gently. This could almost be to emphasise the bringing close together 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 sloppiness 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 blow are mixed it creates something better, new and exciting. For example he writes yu mean when Picasso mix red an one thousand is a half-caste canvas? 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 aiming almost an opposite message. She is saying that no matter 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 completely different massaged and two completely different styles, it really shows two completely different attitudes to dealing with a multi racial life.