GCSE-readySearch For My Tongue by Sujata Bhatt: context, form and key methods
A speaker living abroad fears her mother tongue is dying, until it grows back in her dreams. This poem is in copyright, so it is described mainly in our own words.
Context and themes
Themes: language and identity; culture and heritage; living between two cultures; loss and survival.
Form and structure
The speaker addresses "you", someone who has asked what she means by losing her tongue, so it feels like an explanation.
The structure is loss, then rebirth: the first section fears the mother tongue is rotting; the middle section shows Gujarati on the page; the last section shows it growing back.
Language and key methods
Imagery of decay: the first tongue rots and dies, and she thinks she has spat it out.
Extended metaphor of a plant: overnight, while she dreams, "it grows back", like a shoot that buds and opens until "it blossoms out of my mouth".
The Gujarati lines put English readers in the position of not understanding, and show the language visibly alive on the page.
Compare with: Half-caste and Blessing
Blessing (Dharker): both use rich natural imagery and end with growth or joy. Bhatt's tongue blossoms; Dharker's community is revived by water.
Exam tips
Strong points for Search For My Tongue: the double meaning of tongue; the plant metaphor from rot to blossom; the Gujarati section as structure that performs the meaning.
This poem is in copyright: quote briefly from your anthology and explain in your own words. You do not need to read the Gujarati: comment on its effect.
How does Bhatt use structure to show that her mother tongue survives?
- Section 1: the fear that the tongue is rotting and has been spat out.
- Section 2: Gujarati appears in its own script, visibly alive.
- Section 3: the plant metaphor shows the tongue growing back.
- Effect: the reader experiences the return of the language, not just reads about it.
Answer: Bhatt shapes the poem as loss followed by rebirth. In the first English section the mother tongue seems to rot and die, but the middle of the poem suddenly switches to Gujarati script, so the language appears on the page, very much alive. In the final section an extended plant metaphor shows that "it grows back" overnight until "it blossoms out of my mouth". The structure performs the poem's message: her first language cannot be destroyed.
Bhatt, born 1956 in Ahmedabad, India; mother tongue Gujarati. Free verse in three sections: English, Gujarati script with sounds, English. Tongue as body part and language; decay; plant metaphor: "it grows back", "it blossoms out of my mouth". Language as identity.
- Context
- The circumstances in which a text was written and set, such as historical events, social attitudes and the writer's life (AO3 in the GCSE, AO4 in the International GCSE).
- Form
- The type and shape of a text: for example sonnet, ballad, free verse, tragedy, comedy, novel or play.
- Speaker
- The voice of a poem. The speaker is not always the poet.
- Free verse
- Poetry without a regular rhyme scheme or metre.
- Metaphor
- A comparison that says one thing is another, without using 'like' or 'as'.
- Structure
- How a text is organised and develops: its order, shifts, turning points, openings and endings.
All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →
- Not “Taste and smell”. The poem is about language, not taste.
- Not “Speaking and singing”. Tongue here means a language, as in mother tongue.
- Not “A shoe and a bell”. Those meanings are not used here.
- Not “That she will forget English”. English is the language she uses daily; her fear is for Gujarati.
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Last updated 6 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.