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“Stammer” is a thought-provoking poem written by K. Satchidanandan. The poet presents stammering as a philosophical and social symbol.
He declares that stammering is not a handicap.
It is simply a different mode of speech.
Stammer is the silence between a word and its meaning.
Words do not always express our thoughts and emotions accurately.
The poet compares stammering with lameness.
Lameness is the silence between words and deeds.
People often fail to practise what they say.
Therefore, imperfection exists in both human speech and action.
The poet asks whether stammer existed before or after language.
He wonders whether stammer is a dialect or a language itself.
These questions are difficult even for linguists.
Ironically, the questions make the linguists stammer.
Every time we stammer, some part of the intended meaning is lost.
The poet calls this a sacrifice offered to the “God of meanings.”
The expression shows the limitations of human language.
Stammer becomes a social phenomenon when an entire community remains silent.
It becomes the people’s mother tongue when fear and hesitation become common.
The phrase “just as it is with us now” criticises contemporary society.
People often remain silent before injustice, violence and discrimination.
The poet imagines that God stammered while creating human beings.
This may explain human imperfection and the ambiguity of language.
Human words often carry different and conflicting meanings.
Everything from prayers to commands contains uncertainty.
The poet finally compares human speech to poetry.
Like stammering, poetry contains pauses, symbols and multiple meanings.
The poem uses comparison, metaphor, irony and rhetorical questions.
The physical stammer of a person should never be treated as a weakness.
The real weakness is remaining silent when society needs our voice.
The poem celebrates the richness and complexity of language.
Its central message is that stammering is a universal human condition connected with speech, meaning, action and society.
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[Prepared by Sindhu P,HSST English,GGHSS Kallai]