[Stammer – Summary
“Stammer” is a thought-provoking poem written by K. Satchidanandan. The poet presents stammering not as a disability or handicap but as a different mode of speech. He gives the word “stammer” a deeper social, philosophical and poetic meaning.
According to the poet, stammer is the silence or hesitation that occurs between a word and its intended meaning. He compares it to lameness, which is the gap between a person’s words and actions. Through this comparison, the poet suggests that everyone stammers in some way when words fail to express thoughts clearly or when actions do not agree with words.
The poet asks whether stammering existed before language or developed after it. He also wonders whether it is merely a dialect or an independent language. These difficult questions confuse even linguists and make them “stammer.”
Whenever people stammer, they offer a sacrifice to the “God of meanings.” This means that some part of the intended meaning is lost when people try to express themselves through words. Language can never communicate thoughts and feelings with complete accuracy.
Stammering becomes a social phenomenon when an entire community remains silent or fails to respond clearly to serious social issues. In such a situation, stammering becomes the people’s “mother tongue.” The expression “just as it is with us now” criticises society’s hesitation, silence and lack of action against injustice.
The poet humorously imagines that God might also have stammered while creating human beings. That may be why human words carry different and sometimes conflicting meanings. Everything people speak—from prayers to commands—contains uncertainty and ambiguity.
The poem ends by comparing all human speech to poetry. Like poetry, language can communicate several meanings and may not always be direct or definite. Thus, “Stammer” celebrates the complexity of language while criticising society’s silence and failure to act. It teaches us that stammering is not simply a speech disorder; it is also a symbol of the limitations of language and humanity.]
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