STAMMER

ACTIVITY - I (Think And Respond)

1. What does the poet think of stammer primarily?

           The poet thinks primarily that stammer is not handicap. It is a mode of speech.

2. How does the poet link stammer and lameness beautifully to silence?

            The poet beautifully links stammer and lame to silence by saying that stammer is the silence that falls between the word and its meaning. Just as lameness is the silence that falls between the word and the deed.

3. What, according to the poet, is a person doing when he stammers? 

              When he stammers, he is offering a sacrifice to the God meanings. When a whole people stammer, it becomes their tongue.

4. Why does the poet refer to the linguist here?

               The poet refers to the linguist here because in his opinion stammer itself is a language. Linguist is the one who is skilled in the science of language.

5. When does stammer become a social phenomenon?

               Stammer becomes a social phenomenon when a whole people stammer because it then becomes their mother tongue. Stammer here represents the collective inability to do good things, just like persons who stammer can't speak properly and the lame can't walk properly.

6. Pick out the lines you particularly like and discuss them with a partner.

                 I particularly like the lines: " God too must have stammered when He created man". These lines are pregnant with a lot of meaning. It means that God created man not when He was in a state of perfection but when He was in a state of imperfection. That is why man, who is supposed to be the highest creation of God is so imperfect, with somany defects. When the creator is not perfect the creature can't be perfect too.

ACTIVITY - II ( Discuss)

Talk to your partner and write down his/her response to the following questions.

1. Do you think that the words 'just as it is with us now' refer to our response to burning social issues in general? Why?

                 I definitely think that the words 'just as it is with us now' refer to our response to burning social issues in general. We all are stammering unable to bring out our meanings clearly and we all are walking like the lame as we don't do things we ought to do. The country is in the grip of poverty, disease and unemployment, but our leaders stammer when it comes to solutions of these burning issues. They divert people's attention from real things, real problems, by talking about religions, ideologies such invisible things. The lame people follow the lame leaders, who stammer all the way.

2. Which comparison in the poem do you like the most? Why?

                 I like the comparison of man's prayers and commands to poetry. The words of man carry different meanings and so what ever he utters even his prayers and commands carry different meanings to different people. A poem has different meanings to different people. The poet may say something, but the reader interprets it in different ways. Even the Holy Books like the Bible, the Q'ran and the Gita are interpreted in various ways and that is why we have somany sects in each religion. The Catholics, the protestants, the Anglicans and somany other denominations of christianity consider the Bible as their Holy Book. But they all give it a different interpretation. The same is the case with other Religious Books.