She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Poem Analysis

Philip’s She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks recounts the sexist and racists silencing of the colonized from colonizers. Throughout the book, the narrator struggles with regaining her native language, which has been stripped from her. She lost the ability to feel, think, and speak for herself, focuses on finding power through language. Or anguish presented by Philip in “Discourse on the Logic of Language”. Consequently, she finds strength in both English and Caribbean language, both becomes dependent on each other. Philip also brings to light the importance of women 's roles of being a guardian of tradition.
The persona of Philip’s poems tends to take on a mother’s, daughters or a combination of both roles. Throughout the book, the persona of each poem shifts back and forth. In “Testimony Stoops to Mother 's” tongue the persona shifts backs to a motherly role as the narrator addresses her concerns. This poem highlights the resistance from the colonized. It’s the blueprint for how the narrator is going to reclaim her power with language. The narrator begins to realize her tongue, her words, and …show more content…
Philip decides to compare the colonizer’s language to a mythical figure known as a Gorgon. Gorgons can turn people into stone with a glance. Instead of hair, the Gorgon head is covered with snakes. When you chopped off one head another grows in its place, making her immortal. The different sections of this particular poem can also interpret the Gorgon snakes. Every time the colonizers knocks down the narrator, she comes back better, stronger, more willing to fight for the power of her language. To turn my tongue to stone (67) refers to Western Standard English, which is also the narrator 's first language, she cannot escape the use of the English language. Philip using a Western mythological creature paired with her Caribbean culture demonstrates how both languages are important in shaping the narrator 's