Search for my tongue

Question 1

Two tongues in your mouth

Answer 1

It is shocking and creates an unpleasant thought. However it may suggest that people which can speak more than 1 language find it difficult to create space to speak both languages.

Question 2

Line 5-9

Answer 2

She alternates between enjambment and end stopped lines to reflect the tensions between the mother tongue and foreign tongue.

Question 3

rot, rot

Answer 3

The repetition of the verb creates an unpleasant image.

Question 4

She if forced to ‘spit it out’

Answer 4

The repetition of the speaker emphasises the extreme nature of the act. The speaker has had to discard her mother tongue.

Question 5

Line 17-30

Answer 5

It includes transliteration of what she says in Gujarati which helps people who doesn’t understand and she invites the reader to experience her language.

Question 6

‘stump of shoot’ ‘bud opens’

Answer 6

The extended metaphor of a plant suggest the tongue is growing and becoming healthier

Question 7

This stanza compared to last

Answer 7

This contrasts the earlier stanza which describes the tongue as rooting and dead.

Question 8

The poem is written in free verse

Answer 8

The free flowing verse allows the speaker to let language flow naturally and organically through the poem.

Question 9

you could not use them both together

Answer 9

Suggest the speakers new environment doesn’t allow for billgualism and she is forced to speak in the foreign tongue in order to belong.