Think and Write – Answers
1. What does the poet think of stammer primarily?
→ The poet sees stammer not as a defect, but as a different mode of speech. He believes stammer is natural and meaningful.
2. How does the poet link stammer and lameness to silence?
→ He says just like lameness is the silence between thought and movement, stammer is the silence between a word and its meaning.
3. What, according to the poet, does a person do when he stammers?
→ When a person stammers, he is offering a sacrifice to the “God of meanings”—showing respect for how deep or unclear meaning can be.
4. Why does the poet refer to the linguist here?
→ The poet says stammering confuses even the experts in language (linguists), making them stammer too, showing how uncertain language can be.
5. When does stammer become a social phenomenon?
→ When an entire group of people stammers, it becomes normal and accepted—like a mother tongue.
6. Pick out the lines you particularly like and discuss them with a partner.
→ Example:
“Each time we stammer, we are offering a sacrifice to the God of meanings.”
This line is beautiful because it turns stammering into something noble and spiritual.
Activity I – Discuss
1. Do you think the words ‘just as it is with us now’ refer to our response to burning social issues in general? Why?
→ Yes. The line suggests that society hesitates or stammers when responding to important issues. It reflects our collective confusion and inability to act or speak clearly about problems.
2. Which comparison in the poem do you like the most? Why?
→ “Stammer is the silence that falls between the word and its meaning.”
Because it explains so clearly how language often fails to say what we really feel.
Activity II – Blogging (Write-up for Blog Post)
Blog Post: Reflection on the Poem “Stammer”
The poem Stammer by K. Satchidanandan helped me see things in a new way. I never thought of stammering as something poetic or meaningful. But the poet shows how stammering is a part of all language—it shows the difficulty of expressing deep thoughts and feelings. We all “stammer” sometimes when we struggle to say exactly what we mean. I liked the idea that even God may have stammered while creating man, and that’s why language is full of different meanings. The poem made me think of stammering as beautiful, not shameful. It is a part of our human nature.