By Sujata Bhatt
EAL support materials produced by Carol Shayle & CTC

• It has a double meaning
• 1) It can be the fleshy thing in your mouth.
• 2) It can be a language.

• Born in India
• Childhood in America
• Now lives in Germany
• How is her early life similar to Moniza
Alvi’s early life?

• What do you notice about the structure?
• Written in two languages- English and
Gujarati
• Gujarati extract in the middle is written phonetically in English so we can read and hear the sounds.
Is the structure similar to “Presents…..”?

• In pairs write the names for parts of a plant
• Bud
• Shoot
• Root
• Stem
• Leaf
• Flower

Mother tongue
Tongue tied
Native tongue
Has the cat got your tongue?
Forked tongue
Foreign tongue
Lost your tongue
All expressions are based on language

• What is a metaphor?
• These tell you one thing is actually something else
•
• e.g. The wind was a monster today.
You are a devil

• In pairs discuss the meaning of the words
• To rot
• To spit
• To loose
• To knot
• To compete
• To blossom
• To repeat

What do you notice?
Colour
Moist
Veins

• Look at Lines 1- 16.
What is the poet explaining?
What does Line 16 introduce?
. Lines 17-30 describe the dream.
What language does she use?
Look at Lines 31-38 .These are a translation of lines 17- 30

• The writer uses an image to describe her mother tongue- What is it?
• Why does Sujata choose this object as a metaphor for her first language?

• The poem is about a woman who feels that she is losing her identity. She has two
‘tongues’ in her mouth – a metaphor for being able to speak two languages. She cannot use both languages together, so perhaps she is a different person when she uses the other language.
• The poem explores how it is difficult to express yourself in another language.

• Bhatt was born in India and her mother tongue is Gujarati.
• She moved to America and then spoke mainly English.
• The poet uses her traditional language and phonetics so we can hear the sounds in the poem.
• The poem reflects her view that your first language is a link to your family, childhood, and it is the link to who you are.

• Section 1
Sujata talks about having two tongues in her mouth. This is a metaphor for two languages that she speaks. She describes how when you go to a foreign place, you speak a different language and your mother tongue would “rot and die in your mouth”. The tone of the poem is quite negative and shows the poet’s distress of losing her mother tongue.
Do you feel you are losing your mother tongue?

Can you name any pronouns?
What is the effect of using lots of pronouns at the beginning of the poem?

How many syllables do you have in your name?
• The poet uses some monosyllabic words (one syllable) like “rot”, “die” and “spit”. What is the impact of these words on the reader? Think about how they sound.
• The poem has a conversational tone. How does this affect the reader?
• Which tongue is more dominant according to the poem in the first section of the poem?

• This section of the poem is written in the mother tongue. Underneath each line is a phonetic transcript so we can read and understand what it sounds like, but not understand what it means.
• This section is written in two different scripts, so we can see the difference as well as hear it.

• Why does the poet use the mother tongue in this section?
• Why does she give the phonetic transcript?

• What natural imagery does she use?
• Stump
• Plants
• Bud
• Blossom
• Why?

• Section 3 is a translation of the middle section. The poet describes that as she sleeps her mother tongue grows back
(another metaphor for language)
• There is almost a full circle – tongue rots, dies, buds and then blossoms like a flower. The tongue is even stronger in the end.

• What does pessimistic mean?
• What does optimistic mean?
• At the end of the poem is she optimistic or pessimistic?

• Can you find a synonym ( a word or expression with a similar meaning) for optimistic and pessimistic?
Write two similar meanings in your book

• Why is a metaphor used again to describe her language?
• Why does this section use lots of punctuation ?
• Can you find an example of alliteration in this section?
• Why does the poet use lots of natural imagery?
• Is the poem optimistic by the end?

• The effect of the last line is to make us see language as something essential to the way we are as a whole person, not just to the way we speak.
• Do you feel your mother tongue is just a language or is it part of what makes you, you?

• Section 1. How does she feel?
Sad, regretful explanation of the loss of her mother tongue.
Section 3. How does she feel?
Joyful, she celebrates the regrowth of her mother tongue and realises that it will always be a deep rooted part of herself.

What is the poem about?
Structure
Voice in the poem/narrator
Poetic devices used
Tone of poem
What is the effect/purpose of the poem?