Stammer By, K. Satchidanandan, Short summary and analysis

 Stammer

By, K. Satchidanandan

A stammer is no handicap.

It is a mode of speech.

A stammer is the silence that falls

between the word and its meaning,

just as lameness is the

silence that falls between

the word and the deed.

Did the stammer precede language

or succeed it'

Is it only a dialect or a

language itself' These questions

make linguists stammer.

Each time we stammer

we are offering a sacrifice

to the God of Meanings.

When a whole people stammer

stammer becomes their mother tongue:

as it is with us now.

God too must have stammered

when He created Man.

That is why all the words of man

carry different meanings.

That is why everything he utters

from his prayers to his commands

stammers,

like poetry.

Short summary and analysis 

* The poem “Stammer” was originally written in Malayalam by K. Satchidanandan with the title Vikku and was translated by the poet himself into English. 

* The poem appreciates stammering and also enlightens its importance in the world and human history.

* According to the poet, stammering is not a defect but a language itself because it is the imperfection that makes human unique and distinguishable. 

* Similarly, it is the way we stammer which makes the language rich in words and meanings.

* The poem has been divided into six stanzas with variable lines. There is no particular rhyme scheme in the poem. The word Stammer has been repeated several times in the poem.

* The Stammer poem aims to enlighten the reader on how imperfections can affect all the facets of life, be it literature or language.

* The poet also stresses how the stammer becomes equivalent to one's mother tongue. It also specifies how these flaws which are specified her as stammer add more 'charm' to one's life. 

* The poet has also played with the word 'meaning' wherein it drastically varies from being the meaning of a 'word' to being the meaning of a 'life'.

* Time and again, the poet adds that stammer can be labelled as a mode of speech wherein silence also becomes something meaningful.

* The poet further stresses that there is a need for the reader to fill in the gaps themselves to derive their own meaning from stammering. 

* The beauty of Stammer is how it basks in its own ambiguity. It is further shown how lameness and stammering both hinder the speech and action in their own way. 

* The poet also relates stammering to the complexed world of imperfections.

* Stammer poem stands out as it is a breath of fresh air because and aims at giving a new perspective to the reader. 

* In today's world, wherein everyone is running behind perfection, Stammer makes the reader understand the importance of embracing one's flaws. 

* The beauty of the Stammer poem is that the reader is free to derive their own assumptions and moral after reading the poem without it imposing anything.

         * “The poet says that the way we see the world makes how we approach the life, people or things

the poem begins by telling the readers that stammer and “handicap” are different.

But most of the people have a tendency to assume that stammer is a disability.

For the poet, it is a kind of speech.

          * Stammer is a kind of gap that comes between word and its meaning. Then the poet compares stammering in speech to lameness in walking. Those people who have lameness could not do need when they talk about some actions or deed. Thus the poet says that most of the people talk a lot. But when it comes to action a very few will do.

         * The poet asks a few confusing questions to the readers. He has a confusion whether ''stammer'' comes before or after language. Another confusion which he tells to the readers is whether “stammer” is a “dialect” or a “language”. The poet believes that even these questions could not be answered by the “linguists” themselves.

         * When a person stammers, he is creating different meanings. For instance, if a stammering person utters “hello”, he will utter it as “he-he-hello”. The word “he” is a pronoun and has a different meaning.  The word “hello” is a noun and is used as a greeting. When all people stammer, stammer becomes “mother tongue”.

* Through this, the poet says that everyone stammers. Most of the people think and tell something. Hence it is very difficult to understand what is inside a person. No one can understand a human being through his words.

          * The poet opens the last stanza in an ironic way. He tells his readers that when God had created man, he must have stammered. Through this, the poet tries to tell that since human beings are not perfect, the God, who is the creator of them, will also be an imperfect one.

* Since humans are imperfect, they utter words which have different meanings. That is why whatever he is telling from prayer to command have so many meanings like poetry. 

 * According to the poet, a poem evokes so many meanings. When a critic deconstructs a poem, he gets different layers of meaning from a single poem. Likewise, if one deconstructs a person's talk, one will get different layers of meaning. 

* Though the poem, Stammer, Satchidanandan tells his readers to develop a multiple perspective nature for everything.

Themes 

* How imperfections can affect all the facets of life, be it literature or language. 

The Stammer poem aims to enlighten the reader on how imperfections can affect all the facets of life, be it literature or language. The poet also stresses how the stammer becomes equivalent to one's mother tongue.

* Weakness as a power

The Stammer poem speaks about that how a weakness can be turned into a positive and powerful attitude. 

*Social evils

In the poem 'stammer' has a figurative meaning. Here stammer is the silence that the society keeps even when social evils are rampant.In this poem the poet takes stammer as the main theme. He treats stammer not as a handicap but as a mode of speech.