The Full Text of “I Lost My Talk”
The Full Text of “I Lost My Talk”
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“I Lost My Talk” Introduction
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"I Lost My Talk" is a poem by Mi'kmaq poet and songwriter Rita Joe, published in her first collection, Poems of Rita Joe, in 1978. The poem, which is autobiographical, focuses on the speaker's time at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Canada, a boarding school where Indigenous children were punished for speaking in their native tongue. Losing her "talk," or her ancestral language, left the speaker isolated from her heritage, community, and even her identity itself. The poem highlights the important link between language and culture, and also condemns the way in which colonialist governments may use the oppression of Indigenous languages to oppress Indigenous peoples themselves.
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“I Lost My Talk” Summary
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You stole my native language from me. This happened when I was a child at the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.
You seized my language, and now I talk like you, I think like you, and I make things the way you do—things like the muddled story about my language.
I speak in two different ways, but I understand that your way (English) is stronger.
As such, with tenderness, I reach out my hand and ask you to let me rediscover my native language so that I can tell you who I am.
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“I Lost My Talk” Themes
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Language and Cultural Identity
“I Lost My Talk” presents language as an essential part of cultural identity and expression. The poem’s speaker is someone who was forced to abandon her native tongue while attending “Shubenacadie school,” part of a network of residential schools in Nova Scotia, Canada, designed to stamp out Indigenous culture. In being forced to adopt English in place of her own language, the speaker argues that she lost not only a vital connection to her past and her people, but also to her identity itself.
The speaker wasn’t just taught a new language at “Shubenacadie school”; she was forced to replace her native tongue. This, the speaker, says, was akin to erasing her heritage. By forcing her to not only “speak” but also to “think” and “create in English, the dominant culture drowned out the speaker’s connection to her own “word”—to her people’s traditions, beliefs, and values. She was forced to abandon her people’s ways of thinking and being and to instead adopt those of her oppressors.
Now, the speaker can’t even talk about where she comes from without the “ballad” (or story) getting “scrambled,” which suggests that she will never be to fully understand or capture her “word” in English (and, perhaps, that her English will never be easy and fluent). This isolates the speaker, who is can neither fluidly communicate with her own people nor “teach” people outside of her own culture about herself.
The speaker thus asks that she be allowed to “find [her] talk”—that is, relearn her native language and reconnect with her culture—so that she can truly know, and share, who she is. Language is so intimately linked to culture, the poem implies, that it can be used as a tool of cultural oppression and of preservation and liberation. Without access to her own language, an important part of her—and her culture—will be forever lost. But by reclaiming her native tongue, the speaker knows she can reclaim her connection to her people and thus reclaim an essential part of herself.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-15
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I Lost My Talk”
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Lines 1-2
I lost my ...
... you took away."I Lost My Talk" begins with the speaker stating that she has lost her native language, which she calls her "talk." This language, she says, didn't just disappear: it was stolen from her—by the very people she is addressing.
The repetition of the word "talk" (which in this case is more specifically anadiplosis) immediately emphasizes what is at the heart of this poem: language. The choice to use the word "talk" rather than "language," however, is important.
On the one hand, this makes the poem feel less formal, and it might evoke the way losing a native language hinders the ability to express oneself. The phrase "I lost my talk" has a certain strangeness to it that suggests a lack of ease with English, or that the speaker is trying to say something that doesn't quite translate.
This, in turn, draws attention to the fact that, though the speaker has lost her own native language, English hasn't entirely replaced it; instead, she is stuck somewhere in between, unable to freely speak her own language, and uncomfortable with the language of her oppressor.
At the same time, the actual sounds of word "talk" add to the poem's intensity. Note how the /t/ and /k/ consonance and /aw/ assonance work together to create a rather sharp, staccato rhythm:
I lost my talk
The talk you took away.The lines don't feel free-flowing; instead, they feel abrupt and quite direct.
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Lines 3-4
When I was ...
... At Shubenacadie school. -
Lines 5-8
You snatched it ...
... create like you -
Line 9
The scrambled ballad, about my word.
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Lines 10-15
Two ways I ...
... you about me.
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“I Lost My Talk” Symbols
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Talk
The speaker uses the word "talk" to refer to literal language, but "talk" also becomes symbolic in the poem of power and identity. When the speaker says she "lost [her] talk," she is saying that she lost both her native language and the power that language affords: the power to fully express herself, to connect to her history and culture, and to know who she is.
Because she lost her "talk," the speaker can only mimic the language and ideas that are forced upon her; she "speak[s]," "think[s]," and "create[s]" like her oppressor. She can't remember her own language, and when she speaks English, she is only proving her oppressor to be "more powerful" because she's been forced to accept the oppressor's language as her own.
When when the speaker asks that she be allowed to "find [her] talk" so that she can "teach" her oppressor about who she is, she is not just asking to be reconnected to her language: she is seeking to reconnect with her lost sense of self. Being able to share herself and her culture is a source of strength in a world that has tried to erase her people and her heritage.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “I lost my talk / The talk you took away.”
- Lines 5-9: “You snatched it away: / I speak like you / I think like you / I create like you / The scrambled ballad, about my word.”
- Lines 10-11: “Two ways I talk / Both ways I say,”
- Line 14: “Let me find my talk”
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“I Lost My Talk” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Parallelism
The speaker uses parallelism in the second stanza in order to add emphasis and intensity to the list of all the ways in which she has been forced to become like her oppressors:
I speak like you
I think like you
I create like youNotice how each statement follows the exact same grammatical structure (and also features anaphora of the word "I" and epistrophe of the phrase "like you"). The uniformity of these lines reflects the fact that the speaker and other children at Shubenacadie school were forced to conform to the dominant culture. Not only was the speaker's language stolen, but her sense of identity was as well: all she can do is parrot back what she is told. The repetitive lines here also suggest the way the children are made to fall into line rather than embrace and express their authentic selves.
The speaker turns to parallelism again in lines 10-12, when she says:
Two ways I talk
Both ways I say
Your way is more powerful.The parallelism here echoes the speaker's point: regardless of whether she tries to speak in her own tongue, fluency in which the school robbed her of, or in English, which doesn't allow her to articulate her true self, the school has weakened her by forcing her into a shape that isn't her own. The repetition of these lines again points to the way the speaker can only echo what's been given her.
Where parallelism appears in the poem:- Lines 6-8: “I speak like you / I think like you / I create like you”
- Lines 10-11: “Two ways I talk / Both ways I say,”
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Repetition
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Allusion
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Metaphor
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"I Lost My Talk" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- My talk
- Shubenacadie school
- Ballad
- Scrambled
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(Location in poem: Lines 1-2: “I lost my talk / The talk you took away.”; Lines 13-15: “So gently I offer my hand and ask, / Let me find my talk / So I can teach you about me.”)
The speaker is referring to her native language, Mi'kmaq.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Lost My Talk”
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Form
"I Lost My Talk" has 15 lines broken up into four short stanzas of varying lengths (ranging from three to five lines apiece). It doesn't conform to any traditional poetic form, which is fitting for a poem that points out the harmfulness of forced conformity and assimilation.
The poem is also quite small and spare, which emphasizes the idea that the speaker has "lost [her] talk"—that for her, communication is quite difficult because she can't access the words she needs to tell others who she is.
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Meter
"I Lost My Talk" is written in free verse, meaning it doesn't follow a set meter. This feels like a very intentional choice: the speaker isn't interested in following prescribed rules, but rather is looking for what feels authentic to her and her culture.
That being said, there are isolated moments of meter in the poem that are worth exploring. The meter that shows up most often in the poem is iambic dimeter. This is when a line contains two iambs (a foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The first line of the poem, for example, is in iambic dimeter:
I lost | my talk
This provides the line with a sense of rhythm (da-DUM da-DUM), which actually remains the same in the following line (though there are three feet instead of two here, making it trimeter):
The talk | you took | away.
Pushed together, these two lines would have amounted to iambic pentameter, which is a line made up of five iambs—the most commonly used meter in traditional English poetry. As such, the speaker briefly nods toward the history of the language she's been forced to learn, while also subtly making that tradition her own.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem does not follow a rhyme scheme or use rhyme at all for that matter. This makes the poem feel more conversational and straightforward, more stripped-down, and even more vulnerable. The speaker isn't risking the possibility of what she has to say being obscured by fancy poetic devices; it is really important to her to communicate her loss and have it be understood by a broad audience.
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“I Lost My Talk” Speaker
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The speaker is someone whose "talk," or native language, was taken away from her while she attended "Shubenacadie school." The allusion to the poet's real life—Joe herself actually spent several years at this specific Canadian Indian residential school—indicates that the speaker may be understood as some version of the poet herself.
More importantly, though, the speaker is a voice for all Indigenous people who were cut off from their native languages and cultural identities by colonialist policies. Joe and thousands of Mi'kmaq children like her (not to mention Indigenous children all over the world) were punished for speaking their own language or practicing their own cultures. The speaker recognizes that if she doesn't find a way to reconnect with her own language and culture and "teach" others about it, her people's way of life is in danger of being eradicated.
The speaker doesn't want to "think," "speak," and "create" like her oppressor; she wants to find out who she is, and express that.
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“I Lost My Talk” Setting
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The poem doesn't have a physical setting. The speaker isn't observing the world or remembering a specific scene but rather is making a statement about her experience as a Mi'kmaq person who attended a Canadian Indian residential school. "Shubenacadie school" is the only part of the poem which references a physical place in the world. It was located in Nova Scotia, Canada, and operated from 1930 to 1967.
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Literary and Historical Context of “I Lost My Talk”
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Literary Context
"I Lost My Talk" was published in Rita Joe's first book of poems, The Poems of Rita Joe, in 1978. The poem is autobiographical, referring to the poet spent at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia, Canada. This school's primary purpose was the forced assimilation of Indigenous people into the dominant Canadian culture.
In addition to grappling with abusive tactics from the school's nuns and a racist curriculum, Joe was forced to abandon her native tongue, the Mi'kmaq language, and adopt English instead. Joe began writing to herself to counter the negative voices of the nuns, and to cope with the reality of marginalization. When she was 16, she finished school and began to relearn her native language.
Beginning with her first book, and most notably in her autobiography, Song of Rita Joe, Joe wrote extensively of the impact of residential schools and the loss of her language, culture, and identity. She would eventually be known as a kind of unofficial Poet Laureate of the Mi'kmaq, as through her writing she acted as an ambassador for her people and their interests.
Joe expressed that her greatest wish was that there would be more writing from her people, and indeed her legacy is one of empowerment not only for the Mi'maq, but for Indigenous writers and artists everywhere. Both the Rita Joe National Song Project, hosted by the National Arts Centre of Canada, and the Rita Joe Memorial Literacy Day, celebrated by Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni First Nation, Nova Scotia, attest to Joe's profound influence on future generations of Indigenous people.
Historical Context
The first Indian residential school was opened in the United States in 1860, on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington. Residential schools soon became standard practice in the United States and Canada, where they would persist for the next century. These schools, run by Christian churches and funded by the government, existed with the express purpose of removing Indigenous children from their native cultures and assimilating them into the dominant culture: that of white people of European descent.
The Shubenacadie school, which Joe attended, was essentially an orphanage for Mi'kmaq (a First Nations people indigenous to parts of what is now northeastern Canada and Maine) children, many of whom were removed from their families by state officials. It operated in Nova Scotia from 1930 to 1967.
By assimilating Indigenous children—that is, teaching them to adopt the language, beliefs, and behaviors of the dominant culture in place of their own—the government hoped to eradicate Indigenous ways of life without necessarily killing Indigenous people. This concept was famously and explicitly articulated in a speech by the American general Richard H. Pratt, who said residential schools would "kill the Indian" while "sav[ing] the man."
"I Lost My Talk" speaks directly to this history, illustrating the terrible impact of forced assimilation and suggesting a path forward in which Indigenous people are able to reconnect to their cultural heritage.
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More “I Lost My Talk” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Watch a competitive performance of "I Lost My Talk" by Gabrielle Nebrida-Pepin for Poetry in Voice.
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Rita Joe Song Project — A project hosted by the National Arts Centre, which invited students and teachers across Canada to create a song based on Rita Joe's “I Lost My Talk."
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Mi'kmaq Identity — One of a series of OpenLearn videos on Mi'kmaq identity and culture.
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The Harmful Legacy of Shubenacadie School — An article for CBC news recounting the abusive practices of nuns at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.
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The Importance of Culture, Language, and Identity — An article about the importance of culture, language, and identity from RacismNoWay, an anti-racist educational resource for Australian schools.
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