Songs of Ourselves
‘A Different History’
By Sujata Bhatt
• GO!
Look at the images below.
Write 3 bullet points about what you know or
notice about them.
KNOW
Feedback to the class. Does anyone recognise these
figures? What assumptions might be made of them and
how might they relate to the poem?
SHOW Sujata Bhatt
• Follow the link below for information about
the poet:
• http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=1500
SHOW A Different History
• Follow the link below for the text of the poem,
and to hear Sujata Bhatt’s reading of it:
• http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=4671
SHOW A Different History
The title might reflect a sudden change in the way a
society thinks about and revises the past.
The poem addresses the impact of colonialism on the
language, teachings and heritage of the subjugated
culture and so the’ different history’ might represent
the revision of history by the colonisers and the loss of
a history on the part of the colonised.
SHOW A Different History
• The poem appears to represent the poet’s own perspective
as it addresses a common theme in Bhatt’s work: the
relationship between language and identity and the struggle
to reconcile entering into a new culture as an immigrant
whilst remaining true to your own cultural inheritance.
• The viewpoint is in some ways ironic as the poet expresses
disbelief at the fact that the language of the aggressor not
only becomes accepted but even loved by the people whose
culture it sought to eradicate.
• The irony is, of course, that the poem itself is written in this
alien language, English.
SHARE
ALLUSION : The first stanza transplant the Hellenic-Roman god, Pan, to India,
perhaps linking the god of nature and fauna to the animalistic pantheism of
Hinduism in a manner that suggests the veneration of freedom and nature is
something that has been lost to the West.
FORM: Although the poem does not have
Great Pan is not dead; a regular verse from, Bhatt has arranged
he simply emigrated the poem to reflect distance and
movement, notably in the first stanza
to India. with the transplantation of “Great Pan …
Here the gods roam freely, to India”, with ‘to India’ indented.
disguised as snakes or monkeys;
PARADOX – If the gods are free to roam,
then why do they disguise themselves?
SHARE
REPETITION: of ‘sin’ and ‘book’ creates INDENTATION is used to create
a sense of ANTITHESIS. The book (and the kinaesthetic energy with a book
knowledge it represents) is good, treating being shoved aside, “with your
every tree is sacred
it badly: a sin foot,” or slammed down, “hard on a
table,” or thrown, “across a room,”
and it is a sin
all of which are indented to signify
to be rude to a book. movement.
It is a sin to shove a book aside
with your foot,
SIBILANCE - Contrast of the sacred
a sin to slam books down to the sin of shoving, slamming or
hard on the table tossing books. This repeated sound
a sin to toss one carelessly may also indicate the sound of a
disapproving interjection: “Sh!”
across a room.
SHARE
Line length and enjambment stress particular words and phrases in the
poem, such as the repetition of the word, “sin,” in the first stanza and the
line, “You must learn how to turn the pages gently/ Without disturbing
Sarasvati,” to give it prominence.
You must learn how to turn the pages gently
without disturbing Sarasvati,
without offending the tree
from whose wood the paper was made.
ANAPHORA: Gives a feeling of being sanctioned
SHARE
The entire second stanza is indented to signal the shift from the traditional
respect of the language to the effect of the language of the oppressor on the
subjugated culture and its history.
Which language
has not been the oppressor’s tongue? ASSONANCE – ‘oppressor’s
Which language tongue’, ‘someone’, ‘torture’,
truly meant to murder someone? ‘soul’, ‘cropped’, ‘swooping’,
‘conqueror’, ‘unborn’, ‘love’ –
perhaps signifying difficulty in
forming a response – tracking
the inexplicable shift in the
status of the English language
SHARE
METAPHOR – The ‘scythe’ is the English language, cropping the soul of
another language and culture. Interestingly, aside from being a symbol of
death and destruction, the scythe might also connote a harvesting that
makes way for new life in the next cycle, which makes it a fitting metaphor for
the central theme of the poem.
And how does it happen
that after the torture,
In the second stanza, line
after the soul has been cropped length and enjambment are
with a long scythe swooping out employed to highlight the
of the conqueror’s face- poet’s rhetorical questions
and make the central image
the unborn grandchildren of, “the soul … cropped/ with
grow to love that strange language. a long scythe,” salient.
SHARE
• We will complete an example on the Language Chart
Sheet together:
QUOTATION POETIC DEVICE HOW IT WORKS
Allusion
Paradox
Indentation/
kinaesthetic imagery
Sibilance
Rhetorical question
Metaphor
Assonance
SHOW A Different History
• Overall, the reader is invited to empathise with the
poet’s sense of loss in mourning toe decimation of an
indigenous language and culture through the force of
colonialism but also to share her vague sense of
helplessness in explaining the great irony of this
poem how, even with this awareness, this language
of oppression remains one that she loves and has
chosen as the means through which to express her
poetic gift.
PAIR
• Complete the Language Chart Sheet with a partner
QUOTATION POETIC DEVICE HOW IT WORKS
Allusion
Paradox
Indentation/
kinaesthetic imagery
Sibilance
Rhetorical question
Metaphor
Assonance
PERFECT (1)
• Complete the Understanding the Poems sheet
1. What do you think is the significance of the title?
2. What is the tone of the poem? Serious?
Humorous?
3. What type of poem is it? Does it tell a story,
express ideas, or both?
4. What is the central theme of the poem? Is there
more than one theme?
PERFECT (2)
• Complete the Understanding the Poems sheet
5. What is the mood of the poem?
6. How does it make you feel?
7. Do you think that the poet intended you to feel
this way?
8. What would you say is the poet’s viewpoint (the
way he or she sees the issue or idea expressed in
the poem)?
PERFECT (3)
• Complete the Understanding the Poems sheet
9. Does the poem have a particular form?
10. Is the poem in verses? Why has the poet chosen
to arrange the material as it is?
11. Does the arrangement of the poem suit its
subject matter?
12. Is there a rhyme scheme or rhythm, if so, how
does it work?
PERFECT (4)
• Complete the Understanding the Poems sheet
13. Does the poem have a particular form?
14. Is the poem in verses? Why has the poet chosen
to arrange the material as it is?
15. Does the arrangement of the poem suit its
subject matter?
16. Is there a rhyme scheme or rhythm, if so, how
does it work?
PERFECT (5)
• Complete the Understanding the Poems sheet
17. What type of language does the author use?
Give examples. Do you find it effective?
18. Do you like the poem? Why (or why not)?
REFLECT
• Bhatt ends the poem by asking:
how does it happen
that after the torture,
after the soul has been cropped
with the long scythe swooping out
of the conqueror’s face –
the unborn grandchildren
grow to love that strange language?
What would be your response to the poet’s
question?
