Search for my tongue

Question 1

You ask me what I mean

Answer 1

Direct address to engage the reader, effect as if beginning in the middle of a coversatiom- reader being addressed doesn’t understand what it is like to loose your mother tongue

Question 2

Until I had to ‘spit’ you out

Answer 2

Verb- shows disgust as she has no choice to reheat her mother tongue as her second language is more palatable to others, shows both her anger and resentment at having to do this in order to fit into he new culture

Question 3

Part of the poem being in Gujarati

Answer 3

STRUCTURE: Shows how her mother tongue can anger be repressed as it breaks into the poem- she wants the reader to feel what it’s like to be bilingual and having to encounter another alphabet and pronunciation

Question 4

Grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,

Answer 4

Caesura emphasises slow incremental return of her mother tongue to her

Question 5

It ‘ties’ the other tongue in knots, it ‘pushes’ the other tongue aside

Answer 5

Verbs- shows how forcefully the other language of returning to her, it will not be repressed.

Question 6

Grows back, grows longer, grows moist

Answer 6

Extended metaphor to represent her mother language growing and blossoming, shows how that mother language hasn’t left her and it will always continue to blossom

Question 7

How is the poem written?

Answer 7

In free verse, she is unconstrained and free to speak both languages- as nth are part of her cultural identity

Question 8

What is the tone at the start of the poem?

Answer 8

Confrontational tone whicn reinforces her anxiety over loosing her mother language and how much she cares abiut it and desires to use it