2. Compare how ‘Search for my Tongue’ and at least one other poem shows how belonging to two cultures can be a positive experience.
3. In ‘Search for my Tongue’ Sujata Bhatt presents language as vital to her sense of cultural identity. The poet begins by explaining that she is afraid that she has lost her mother tongue, or first language, however, when it returns to her in a dream, indicated by the use of the Gujerati script in the poem, she realises that she can never really lose her ‘tongue’ as it ‘blossoms out of my mouth.’ Here, Bhatt’s use of an extended metaphor, where she compares her language to a flower, effectively reinforces the idea that, for her, belonging to two cultures has been enriching as well as a source of conflict. Grace Nichols also uses natural imagery to represent a connection between her cultural roots and the country where she now lives although in ‘Hurricane Hits England’ it is her experience of a hurricane which reminds the poet of her ‘homeland.’
