Stammer, A review by Parvathy Prasad, XII B

          The poem ‘Stammer’ by Satchidanandan speaks about the various perspectives that a man takes. It is a thought inductive poem in which the poet uses stammer as a means to reveal the true nature of the world and the human beings.

          The poet says that most of the people consider stammer as a disability. But from the poet’s cosmopolitan point of view, it is totally different. He says that it is a mode of speech. It is the silence that falls between the word and its meaning just like lameness is the silence that falls between the word and its action. Stammer is just a missing gap not a handicap. A word doesn’t have a fixed meaning, people give it different meanings. The experts too stammer because he would find it difficult to analyse the history of stammer. Here the poet raises a question whether stammer originates before the language or after it. Stammering started when man was created.

          The poet considers stammer as a sacrifice to the god of meanings. If one stammers people consider it as a disability. If everyone stammers, it becomes their mother tongue. It becomes common. Even God must have stammered when He created man, the crest of His creations. That is why all the words and deeds of man have different meanings. Thus sometime our interpretation of words make lot of problems in our society and cause lot of disturbance, disharmony and even destruction.

          Perspectives differ. The same word is uttered differently and have different meanings. Our prayers and commands, all stammer because they are ego centric. Poetry also stammers as different people read and understand it differently according to their own perspectives. Our Gods are incomplete and imperfect and we pray to these Gods. Each time we stammer the imperfection of the creator reflects. Thus it becomes a sacrifice to the God of meanings. The poet compares stammer to the nature of poetry. Some people easily understand it and for others it is difficult to comprehend and decipher. Thus everyone and everything stammers. Thus the central theme, incompleteness and imperfection, is everywhere in the poem. Stammer becomes a universal phenomenon.

Review by Parvathy Prasad, XII B