Literally, a tongue refers to a mammal organ found in the mouth. The organ is very essential in human speech-making. Literarily, it can be referred to as a language or way of speaking.
“New Tongue” refers to the acquisition of a new language which is transformative. It involves a new way of communicating and speaking.
The word “new” in the title indicates that the language is not only foreign, but the people are not familiar with it. It is different entirely from the speaker’s original language.
It thereby emphasizes the challenges and difficulties the people have to face in learning a new language. The poem also captures the effects of the new language on the people.
Analysis of "New Tongue"
The poem opens with the acquisition of the new language and the transformation it brings to the people’s life.
It also emphasizes the rigors the people passed through in learning the language.
“They speak in a new tongue
And dance new dances
Minds battered into new modes and shapes”
It requires a lot of effort to acquire and communicate with the new language. They are not just learning a new language, but also assimilating to a new culture. Through this, they are adapting to new ways of life and custom.
The poem also reflects on the attitudes of the people after the acquisition of the new language. The people are excited about the language which is a new form of colonization.
“Their eyes revel in the wonder of the new
Embraced and bound hearts with impregnable chains
The old songs as disregarded dreams”
The poet stresses the beauty in the original language abandoned by the people. It refers to the language as a symbol that unifies families and brings friends together.
“The old songs as disregarded dreams
Remnants of post.
Ties of family and friendship
Loosened, broken burnt
The ashes strewn into the bottomless sea
As fishes swim by
Careless of the loss
Mindful of where they dare
A new generation
Careless of bonds
Of family
Of tradition
Of heritage”
All these are burnt and the ashes are thrown into a very deep sea. They are all forgotten as a new generation of people is born. There are no more family bonds, respect for tradition and heritage.
They don’t care about giving respect to the elders any longer as we have in the original culture. They cannot think straight again. Their minds are compared to the inside of clothes.
“Nor room for elders
No,
Not even on the edge of their minds
Their ears blocked to the old tongue
And ways of doing things”
They are no more listening to advice from their elders. They don’t even want to speak or hear their original language or ways of life any longer.
They are engrossed in the new language and culture. They promote the newly borrowed language and culture. There is no family bond, it’s every man for himself, by himself and of himself.
The poet metaphorically refers to the new way of life as a strange coldness and compares it to a snow-covered mountain. And the cold one feels while bathing at the back of a house on a rainy July day.
He also describes how fast the new language and the culture spread among the people. It is compared to wind falling trees, carting roofs and shirts away, throwing debris in the air.
In the last part of the poem, the poet describes how the people completely forgot their culture and focused on the new language and culture.
Themes of "New Tongue"
Language and Identity: The poem stresses the importance of language as it serves as the identity of the speaker. When somebody loses his language, his identity is lost.
We see this when the people drop their language and acquire a new language. The new language changed their culture and ways of life.
Cultural Assimilation: The poem establishes the fact that learning a new language is a step towards assimilating a new culture.
It also implies that the process of assimilation is not easy; it can be difficult and painful. Since the new language is totally different from their original language.
Transformation: This poem expresses one of the advantages of the acquisition of a new language, that it is transformative. The acquisition of a new language is transforming them into a new person.
They dropped the old ways of life and embraced new ones. They are now able to interact, communicate and understand people from different cultural backgrounds.
The richness of African Culture: “New Tongue” itemizes the richness of African culture. According to the poem, African culture is capable of uniting the people.
Families, friends and relatives are brought together. The new culture, where the people found themselves after the acquisition of the new language, is totally different. It is “every man for himself, by himself, of himself.”
The Poetic Devices Used in "New Tongue"
The poet makes use of some figures of speech to add beauty to the poem and concretize the subject matter of the poem. The figures of speech are explained below.
Repetition: This is a literary device used to lay emphasis and call the attention of the readers. “New” is repeated from line 1 to line four of the poem.
This is to call the attention of the readers to the changes that take place after the acquisition of the new language. It is also repeated in the other lines of the poem.
There is also the repetition of “of” in lines 16, 17 and 18. “Himself” is also repeated in lines 32, 33 and 34.
Alliteration: This is a literary device whereby a consonant sound is pronounced at the beginning of two or more words in a line of poems. It is a figure of sound and it is used in lines 4, 6, 8, 9, 36 and 44.
Simile: This is a figure of comparison; two things are compared with the use of “as” or “like.” We have this in lines 23, 35 and 36.
Personification: This is when the attributes of the animate are given to the inanimate. This is used in line 24.
“That marry the bodies of mankind”
Parallelism: This is a literary device in which all or parts of the sentence are similar in construction or grammatically the same. This is in lines 16, 17 and 18.
“Of family
Of tradition
Of heritage”
It is also used in lines 32, 33 and 34.
“For himself
By himself
Of himself”
Imagery: This is a literary device in which the readers are perceiving the images of what is being read in a poem. The mental picture is being built in the brain.
This is used in the second to the last stanza.
“A strange coldness descending like snow covered mountain
Or like bathing at the back of the house
On a rainy July day
The guts of wind falling trees
Carting roofs away
Tugging skirts
And swirling debris in the air”