Moving Between Different Cultures in Poetry
For my essay I will be looking at two poems which deal with the
experience of moving between different cultures, these are Half-Caste
and Search for My Tongue. These poems are written from experience.
John Agard the author of Half-Caste was born in Gugana and moved to
Britain in 1977. He is half-caste himself and his poem expresses his
feelings about the term half-caste.
Sujata Bhatt the authoress of Search for My Tongue was born in India
in 1956, her family moved to the United States of America in the
1960's and she now lives in Germany. In her poem Search for My Tongue
she explains how she feels about having two different languages her
birth language, Gujerati and her second language, German.
Half-Caste and Search for My Tongue, create very vivid images, which
makes it easier for the reader to interpret and understand both the
poems and the authors' opinion on the different cultures.
Half- Caste creates many images, by using descriptive language and
humour. It creates such images as a man, 'standing on leg' and having
'half mih ear' because he is only half-caste so he only has half what
a normal person would have but it also creates images about objects
'mix a red an green is a half-caste canvas' and even music 'mix a
black key wid a white key is a half-caste symphony'. This helps the
reader to understand how the author is feeling about the term
half-caste, and can also come to a conclusion about the term
themselves. All the imagery in this poem makes the reader think about
how anybody who has ever been called half-caste feels.
Search for My Tongue creates a very vivid image using very descriptive
metaphors, 'it grows back, a stump of a shoot, grows ...
... middle of paper ...
...age which creates vivid
images for the reader. Using gujerati in the middle of the poems shows
that her mother tongue, her birth language, is still strong and at
times, even stronger then her second language.
In conclusion both of these poems deal with the issues faced when
moving between different cultures in their own ways. They both use
language and imagery to express their messages Half- Caste explores
the way that we use the term 'half-caste' in our vocabulary and
exaggerates it. This is to a great effect as it makes the reader think
more about racial issues and the way that we treat people from
different cultures. Search for my Tongue deals with moving between
different cultures by actually writing about the language barriers and
losing your identity. This is how we can link the poems together and
show how people move between different cultures.
The speaker in Li-Young Lee’s poem “Persimmons” has been clearly raised in a bi-lingual, bi-cultural atmosphere. His experiences, although not entirely positive, have helped him grow into the man he is today. By using sensory imagery and “precise” diction along with the informal stanza structure, the speaker shows the reader that, despite his bi-cultural past, he now has realized, thanks to his experiences, that some of the most important things are not “visible” and that he is indeed proud of his ethnicity.
“Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective” an essay written by Leslie Marmon Silko brings to life the diversified facets of the Pueblo Indian culture, sharing with readers the infrastructure of Puebloan dialect and folklore. Likewise, Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” details a series of prominent reflections of the nurturing voice responsible for constructing the author’s perceptions of the world. Both of these essays share a corresponding theme of the influence one’s culture can have on can have on individual styles of communication. The implication of the nonfiction elements plot and setting throughout the piece allows the author to adequately reinforce the theme of each piece. Each essay embodies commonalities, as well as, differences in the nonfiction elements used to depict the common theme.
“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people” (Hanh). The defining of a person begins first from their ancestry. The importance of family is vital in every person’s life and the reason for this is because families are the group structure the mostly in every cases tries to be and do the best for each other. Sherman Alexie and Wendy Rose are both poets that have expressed the characteristics of their ancestry and culture in their inspirational and touching poems. Many of them are involved with the critics of personal experiences they have had, and their ideas are portrayed in a meaningful and well structured way. They also describe the way the society views them for being Indians or Indian descendant. To reach a poignant and deep point in the poems, the poets use several literary techniques and imagery in a way that the reader can visualize every description made in the works. Sherman Alexie’s poems and Wendy Rose’s poems such as “What the Orphan Inherits” and “Genealogical Research” describe the aspects that define an Indian. Sherman Alexie’s thematic is usually about the how the Indian society works, whereas Wendy Rose focuses more in personal experiences and her descendants. These two poems have diverse differences and similarities in their treatment of ideas about family.
In its entirety, this poem describes how a language can evolve or die, and how things said in this language can change or die with it. Boundaries between languages may not be clear. Like rivers they can travel close together, or merge completely. All languages, however, act as rivers. They start at a source and travel. They then travel, merge, or fade away. Upon closer examination, the poem also says why languages are difficult to label. The reason is that they change with time. The English language of today is not the same English language spoken hundreds of years ago. As all languages evolve similarly, this applies to all languages. Subtle changes in gestures, writing, or spoken language eventually add up. After a long enough period of time it is as though an entirely new language has formed, but kept the same name as the previous language.
Poetry Intertextual The anthology “Lines to Time” includes a wide range of poems written by a selection of poets. What makes “Line to Time” interesting and enjoyable to read is the variety of topics and treatments the poets use to make their poetry effective. The range of poets featured in “Lines to Time” use a variety of poetic devices and writer’s techniques such as symbolism, imagery, alliteration, onomatopoeia, tone, metaphors and humour, to effectively construct an evocative poem. Symbolism and imagery plays a large role in Gwen Harwood’s poems “Suburban Sonnet”, “Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day” and “Father and Child”.
Lastly, half of the poem, “I’m not the Indian you have in mind,” has a double meaning behind it. The first half of the poem is all about our perception of what we believe an Indian is. Linda Hutcheon talked about“Dual allegiances,” in her writing. These two authored works blend together in a sense because they both seem to follow the ideology of a double meaning hidden within Canadian beings; between having a set perception of something such as a stereotypical Indian to the irony of Canadian culture both are examples of double
In Rita Wong’s poem “Write around the absence,” it showcases the importance of having the courage to stick to one’s own cultural interpretations despite living in a country where your culture and or values are considered a minority. With the narrator being of a Chinese descent living in an English majority, she describes and questions the dominant nature English has over her thoughts, expressions, and life; despite being equally bilingual. Expressing the anxiety and oppression she feels about having the “tones” (Wong 8) she wishes to express be “steamrolle[d]” (13) and marginalized to the corner by the powers of the English linguistic. Therefore, she finds the determination to try to fight back this dominance in unique ways, not allowing herself
Have you ever wondered how your ethnicity can impact the way you interact with people? What about the conversation you might have with people? Do you have a voice in our society that allows you to speak for yourself or a group of people? In the poem “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” by Diane Burns, the author focused on showing the importance poetic devices have through allusions, repetition, and imagery. Through poetic devices, author of “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” shows how stereotypes from societies and her ethnicity affects her life. Diane Burns uses three poetic devices to communicate her tone throughout the poem.
Throughout ‘To the Welsh Critic Who Doesn’t Find Me Identifiably Indian’, Arundhati Subramaniam argues that the “the business of language”, or the language that one speaks, should not dictate one’s identity. This becomes crucial in her poem as she uses this argument in response to a Welsh Critic, who does not identify her as being Indian. The poem substantiates her perspective of language through various techniques. For instance: Subramaniam reinforces the critic’s cultural assumptions in a defiant tone; she questions him, repeatedly, about language and eventually she challenges him, insisting he should explain to her how he would receive her as “Identifiably Indian”.
Sheenagh Pugh and Carol Ann Duffy are two poets that have written many poems on the topic of language using linguistic features to enhance meaning and depth. In this essay, I am going to discuss the similarities and differences in how they portray this theme on the reader and the effects it creates. I am going to create an in depth analysis of three poems with this theme, two written by Carol Ann Duffy and the other by Sheenagh Pugh.
If I were to personalize Whitni Thomas’ poem “ Colors” I would write it like this: I was born in Houston, Texas to Nigerian parents. I am Nigerian but I grew up in Oman and Canada. I used to envy those who could say, “I was born and raised in Detroit” because of convenience. As a third culture kid,- a child who grew up in a different culture than that of their parents- I had to provide my life story to answer that question. However I am proud of the different cultures that create my identity due to a ted talk from Poet Ali in 2014, in which he explained the definition of language. Experience can be a language,
Great Britain as a worldwide system of colonies dominated the world for some three centuries. The first uncertain British attempts to establish overseas settlements were made as early as the sixteenth century. Huge economic and trade success, plus maritime expansion, resulted in the seventeenth century in the establishment of settlements in North America and the West Indies. The East India Company established its first trading posts in India at the beginning of the seventeenth century and the same company helped to establish British supremacy in Penang, Singapore, Malacca and Labuan. The first permanent British settlement in Africa was on James Island in the Gambia River in 1661.
Swimming through the river, like a red bolt of lightning, the salmon tries to find the place it was born at so it can spawn. It has learned this through the species’ trial and error, which is acquiring knowledge, one of the most important parts of a journey. As we’ve seen through many journeys, such as the poem by CP Cavafy “Ithaka”, and the migrations of animals like salmon, beluga whales, and horseshoe crabs, the journey is the most important thing out of an adventure. Although the destination still matters, the journey is where you gain all of your knowledge and your important items from.
Lorca’s poetry is seen as dull and flat when translated into English, but when the original poem and the translation are side by side, they still manage to be captivating. The incorporation of musical knowledge was a nice touch on his work. Because he was also a playwright, some of his plays were found in his poetry as well. Readers can find repetition of nature-based imagery. He is constantly compared to Burns because of his realism, while he always admired Whitman (1).
Poetry unlike fiction is solely based on the author’s personal take on a certain subject. The tone, diction, syntax, and mood of a poem are all determined by the author of the poem. For some readers, to interpret a poem or explain the plot can be a difficult task. Other forms of literature such, as fiction is much easier to understand and discuss.