Scribd
Upload
190 views1 page

I Lost My Talk - Poetry in Voice

Uploaded by

kt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
190 views1 page

I Lost My Talk - Poetry in Voice

Uploaded by

kt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

I Lost My Talk

R ITA J O E

I lost my talk
The talk you took away.
When I was a little girl
At Shubenacadie school.

You snatched it away:


I speak like you
I think like you
I create like you
The scrambled ballad, about my word.

Two ways I talk


Both ways I say,
Your way is more powerful.

So gently I offer my hand and ask,


Let me Cnd my talk
So I can teach you about me.

DIVE IN
DEF What does this poem mean by “talk”?
JEF Rita Joe was a Mi’kmaq poet from Cape Breton, but with the exception of one speciCc reference to “Shubenacadie school,” the poem is very general, and could
be applied to any number of peoples whose “talk” has been taken away from them. What’s the effect of that one moment of speciCcity in a poem that stays very
general?
SEF At the end of the third stanza, the speaker admits “Your way is more powerful.” What might “power” mean in this poem? Who is the “you” she is talking to? Does
it include you? In what way is your way more powerful?
VEF Two pathways for a writing exercise:
aEF If you, or someone in your class, knows another language, try translating the poem. How does this new translation help you to understand what the poem
expresses about language? Can you try to imitate the alliteration of “scrambled ballad”?
bEF If you don’t speak another language, imagine what it would be like to have English taken from you. How would you order lunch? How would you explain to a
doctor about a stomachache? Tell your children about their family? Express your own feelings? Write about what that might feel like.
YEF Your recitation of this poem will change dramatically depending on how you think the poem feels about “you.” Try it once from a place of anger, so that “you” is
a hateful adversary. Try it again from a place of fear, as if the “you” is a threatening force. And then once more from a place of reconciliation, so that “you” is
someone you might want to befriend. Is there a way to incorporate all three of these responses in your recitation?

Useful Links:

A biography of Rita Joe in the Canadian Encyclopedia, with links to other resources about her: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rita-joe
Here’s an article about some of the abuses that took place at the Shubenacadie Residential School: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/abuse-
residential-schools-nuns-survivors-native-children-1.4171588

D I V E I N W R I T T E N B Y Adam Sol

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFO
Rita Joe, “I Lost My Talk,” from Song of Eskasoni. Copyright © 2007 by the Estate of Rita Joe. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Rita
Joe.

Source: The Blind Man’s Eyes (Breton Books, 2015)

A B O UT US

C O NTACT

LE GAL

M A IL IN G L IS T

© 2023 Poetry In Voice / Les voix de la poésie

You might also like