The piece I choose to analyze is a song entitled MOTHER EARTH’S DYING CRIES written by Samal Duggins, from St.Kitts. This
song is directed to the entire world population. It is written as though Mother Earth and the writer had a consultative conversation in which she asked him to share her views to the world.
LANGUAGE REGISTERS
The over all language register of the song was in formal. Examples of this formal register include the consultative tone. An example of this consultative tone can be found in the chorus, lines 1 to 3 “last night mother earth came to talk to me she was crying … she said… help me please I’m dying. This shows where Mother Earth confides in the writer and asks him for help.
Another example of the language tone is intimate. Examples of this can be found in Verse 1 line 8 “now as I looked in her eyes …” this shows the writer and Mother Earth had an “up close and personal” relationship and conversation.
DIALECTAL VARIATIOINS
There were no instances in the song where the writer had dialectal variations. This is because the song was written in a way that is very easy to under stand. The song was written in Standard English and this made the song easy to comprehend.
THE ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE
With in the song ‘Mother Earths Dying Cries’ there are a number of words used as Verbs/ adverbs. “Help me please I’m dying”, line 3 was used to shock and insult the reader /
listeners of the song on the impact and effect of
pollution to ‘mother earth’. “They’re dying from hunger… darken their smiles” in lines 14 and 15 was used to scare the listeners about the magnitude of the effects that pollution has on society.
THE COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOURS
Through out much of the song the non-verbal reactions were indicative of sorrow and pain. Words such as “dying”, “crying”, “suffering” were used to promote the sorrowful theme of pollution and its effects on earth. This is suggestive of the fact that the author wanted readers/ listeners to understand the severity and seriousness of the problem. For example “ she was crying … she said” was used to indicate the point that pollution has an outrageous effect on earth to the extent to which that if “Mother Earth” was a person that she would indeed be in so much pain and agony to the extent to which she would be crying. Both examples of nonverbal reaction were used with the intention of changing the life style of its readers and listeners to promote a clean and healthy environment.
Overall, the poem is an emotional cry for help, pleading with humans to care for the environment.