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Anthology Part 3: identity, language and culture

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Three modern poems from Part 3 of the Anthology explore identity through language, labels and community. These poems are still in copyright, so this lesson describes them in our own words. Use your anthology for the exact words you quote in the exam.

What each poem is about

Search For My Tongue (Sujata Bhatt): the speaker, who lives abroad and uses a foreign language every day, fears that her mother tongue (Gujarati) is rotting away inside her mouth. In the middle of the poem, lines appear in Gujarati script with a guide to how they sound. Then the mother tongue grows back overnight in her dreams, like a plant budding and blossoming, so it cannot be destroyed.
Half-caste (John Agard): the speaker challenges the label 'half-caste' with sarcasm, asking whether a painter mixing colours, English weather mixing light and shadow, or music using a piano's black and white keys are 'half' too. He ends by asking the listener to come back with a whole eye, ear and mind.
Blessing (Imtiaz Dharker): in a poor community where water is scarce, a municipal pipe bursts. Everyone rushes out with pots and pans to collect the water, and children play in the spray. Water becomes a precious, almost holy gift.

Themes and ideas

Language and identity: Bhatt shows that losing a language feels like losing part of yourself; Agard shows that the way you speak is part of who you are.
Labels and prejudice: Agard turns a racist label back on the person who uses it.
Community and poverty: Dharker shows a whole community united by joy at something others take for granted.
Resilience: the tongue grows back; Agard's speaker refuses to be 'half'; the community celebrates despite hardship.
Context: Bhatt was born in India and has lived in the USA and Germany. Agard was born in Guyana and moved to Britain in 1977. Dharker was born in Lahore, Pakistan, grew up in Glasgow and has lived in India and Britain.

Methods and how to write about them

Bhatt: an extended metaphor of the tongue as a plant (rotting, then growing back); the Gujarati lines put the reader in the speaker's position, since most readers cannot read them; a structure of loss, then rebirth.
Agard: phonetic Caribbean-influenced spelling, lower case and almost no punctuation; sarcasm, rhetorical questions and absurd literal images; a final turn on the listener.
Dharker: religious imagery (blessing, congregation, a kindly god); onomatopoeia and sound effects for the water; lists of containers; a short opening line about dry skin cracking.
To write well, link each method to an attitude: Bhatt's fear turns to triumph; Agard's humour carries anger; Dharker's joy carries a hint of sadness at how little the people have.
Worked example

Plan a comparison: how do Bhatt and Agard present language as part of identity?

  1. Thesis: both show that language is central to who we are; Bhatt fears losing hers, Agard proudly uses his.
  2. Point 1 (ideas): Bhatt's mother tongue fights back; Agard's voice resists a label.
  3. Point 2 (language): Bhatt's plant metaphor; Agard's sarcasm and absurd images.
  4. Point 3 (form): Bhatt's Gujarati lines in the middle of an English poem; Agard's phonetic spelling throughout.
  5. Judgement: both end in strength: the tongue blossoms and Agard demands to be understood whole.

Answer: Both poets show that language is identity. Bhatt's plant metaphor and Gujarati lines show a mother tongue that survives, while Agard's phonetic, unpunctuated voice is itself his answer to the label 'half-caste'.

Key idea

Search For My Tongue: fear of losing Gujarati; the tongue grows back like a plant. Half-caste: sarcasm and a Caribbean-influenced voice against a racist label. Blessing: a burst pipe brings joy; water as a holy gift.

The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.

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