GCSE eLearning Guide by G. Hollingsbee
the ENGLISH
ANTHOLOGY Poems from Different Cultures
cluster two
This textbook is for the purpose of supporting secondary school students in their study of Cluster Two of the AQA English Anthology. Wordles of the poems were created using the app at www.wordle.net.
Contents 1
From Search for My Tongue Sujata Bhatt
2
From Unrelated Incidents Tom Leonard
3
Half-Caste John Agard
4
Love After Love Derek Walcott
5
This Room Imtiaz Dharker
6
Not my Business Niyi Osundare
7
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan Moniza Alvi
8
Hurricane Hits England Grace Nichols
Search for My Tongue Search for My Tongue is about the conflict between the poet’s first language, Gujarati, and the language that she uses now. She is concerned that she will lose her first language – her mother tongue – but realises that it will always be there for her. The poet uses the image of having “two tongues in your mouth” to show what it is like to speak two languages. She develops this using the metaphor of her first language growing back like a flower.
About the Poet Sujata Bhatt was born and spent her childhood in India. She studied and worked in the USA and now lives in Germany. She is married to German Writer. Her first language is Gujarati but she also speaks other languages including English, Spanish, French and German. In an interview she said: Each language offers a different perspective on life, a different way of organising the world. I find it tiresome and simplistic when people claim that one language is absolutely 'better' than another... I think sometimes I experience my languages like a concrete medium: like different colours of paint, for example. I'm intrigued by the way various languages coexist in one mind, the way they might clash and interfere with each other - but also the way they can enhance one another.
by Sujata Bhatt Lines 1-15 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
What is the question that the poet has been asked in lines 1-2? What does “lost my tongue” mean? What question does the poet reply with? Draw – and label - the image “two tongues in your mouth”? Explain what she means by “two tongues in your mouth” ? What does the poet think will happen if you live in a “foreign place” and have two tongues in your mouth?
Lines 16-30 7. 8. 9. 10.
What happens when the poet dreams? What do you notice visually about the Gujarati written in lines 16-30? Why do you think the poet writes out the phonetic pronunciation of the Gujarati? Why do you think the poet chooses to place the Gujarati lines in the middle of the poem?
Lines 31-38 11. 12. 13. 14.
What does the poet realises has happened to her tongue? What metaphor does she use to describe what happens to her tongue? (Clues = “shoot”, “bud” and “blossoms”.) Draw the last line of the poem. Explain what the poet means when she says: “Everytime I think I’ve forgotten, / I think I’ve lost the mother tongue, / it blossoms out of my mouth”.
Structure The poem is structured into three parts. Write a sentence explaining what happens in a) lines 1-15, b) 16-30 and c) 31-38.
Language Find examples of the three types of language used in this poem: a) conversational (informal, chatty), b) foreign and c) metaphorical language.
Attitudes and Feelings Find examples of the different attitudes and feelings in the poem: a) worry she is forgetting Gujarati, b) concern she is losing her Indian identity and c) joy that she realises her mother tongue and Indian identity will always be part of her.
from Unrelated Incidents Unrelated Incidents is about views towards accents (the way people pronounce words). The poet imagines that a newsreader is explaining that the news has to be read using Received Pronunciation (posh “BBC accent) because if it was read in a regional, working class accent, no one would believe it. The poet writes the poem using Scottish dialect (the words and grammar) in order to try and show how we should not judge people by the way they talk.
About the Poet Tom Leonard was born and brought up in Gasgow. He often writes in Glaswegien accentt as he is proud of speaking it. In an interview he said: From an early age I was aware that I would have to change my voice and I was aware of being corrected (in inverted commas) for using the wrong words. I was aware that, for instance, my mother spoke using a lot of words that were Scottish, but then she would tell me to speak “properly”, as she called it. But I think It's a very common phenomenon, and not just in Scotland: you get it in different cities where the urban accent is looked down on, and there are parents who worry about their children not getting on in jobs or to university if they speak like that. So although they speak with a vernacular accent themselves, they tell their children to speak differently, and sometimes they might even punish their children for speaking the same way as they do themselves.
by Tom Leonard Re-write these lines into standard English: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
“thi reason a talk wia BBC accent iz coz yi widny wahnt mi ti talk aboot thi trooth wia voice lik wanna yoo scruff”. “if a toktaboot thi trooth lik wanna yoo scruff yi widny thingk it wuz troo”. “thirza right way ti spell ana right way ti tok it”. “this is ma trooth yooz doant no thi trooth yirsellz cawz yi canny talk right”. “belt up”.
Answer these questions on the poem: 1. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Who is reading this news broadcast? What type of dialect is being spoken? What is the “scruff” that the newspaper refers to? Why does the newsreader say that the news should not be read by someone with a regional accent? Why do you think that there are no capital letters used in this poem? What do you think is the mood of the last eight lines? Explain why.
Structure The poem is structured into four parts. Explain what the poet is writing about in: a) lines 1-15, b) 15-23, c) 24-30 and 30-38.
Language Find examples of these types of language written by the poet in this poem: a) Scottish accent and dialect, and b) political language.
Attitudes and Feelings Find examples of the different attitudes and feelings in the poem: a) where the poet feels annoyed at BBC accents in the media, b) where the poet mocks snobs who look down on regional accents and c) anger at the way working class people are thought about.
Half-Caste In Half-Caste the poet pokes fun at the term “half-caste” (someone of mixed-race). The poet playfully says that many great things – like art and music – are great because they are mixtures. He writes this in a Carbbean creole (dialect). John Agard challenges people to explain why they use the term “half-caste” and then shows that their ideas have no logic. He mocks their ideas by talking about “halves” of things and tells them that they need to get their ideas sorted out by using the “whole” of their eyes, ears and minds and not being discriminatory.
About the Poet John Agard was born in Guyana, South America. His mother is white and his father is black and he emigrated to Britain when he was 28 in 1977. Agard is a performance poet for whom the sound and performance of the poem is an important part. In an interview he said: In England, some people very casually use the term 'half-caste' to refer to children of mixed race. And in places like Germany and Holland they speak of 'half-blood', or 'half-breed'. If you take these various expressions together, this imposition of half, half, half on a person's total human complexity implies that some sort of 'purity' has been subverted. A child of mixed race is a tangible, loving expression of human beings from different cultural backgrounds getting together - that should be seen not as something threatening, not something to be paranoid and agonised about, but as something enriching...
by John Agard Lines 1-30 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
What effect does the poet make when he says “Excuse me / standing on one leg”? Why does he want the person he is speaking to to “Explain yuself”? Why does the poet use words like “yu”, “yuself”, “dem” , “dah” and “wid”? What is the first example of “half-caste” he gives in lines 7-9? What is the second example of “half-caste” he gives in lines 13-15? “ah rass” shows the poet’s frustration. What do you think it means? What is the third example of “half-caste” he gives in lines 26-30? Why does he give these three examples?
Lines 31-53 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
What is the poet doing to the person he is speaking to when he says “Ah listening to yu wid de keen half of mih ear / Ah lookin at yu wid de keen half of mih eye”? What are the other “halves” that the poet mentions in lines 37-46? What is the point that the poet is making by talking about “halves”? What do people have to do before he will tell them “de other half” of his story (in lines 47-53)? What do you think “de other half” of the story actually is?
Structure The poem is structured into four parts. Write a sentence explaining what he talks about in: a) lines 1-3, b) 4-30, c)31-50 and d) 51-53.
Language Find examples of different types of language used in this poem: a) metaphorical language (paintings, weather, music), b) humour, c) argument and d) Caribbean creole.
Attitudes and Feelings Find examples of the different attitudes and feelings in the poem: a) mocking the term “half-caste”, b) amusement at the thought of being half a person and c) anger that people are not open-minded.
the ENGLISH
ANTHOLOGY Poems from Different Cultures eLearning Guide This eTextbook is a free resource to be used in preparing for the AQA GCSE English examination. It covers the eight poems of Cluster Two. Each poem is presented as a wordle showing the frequency of words, information about the poet, questions on the poem and tasks on structure, language and attitudes.