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” Summary
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“I Lost My Talk” Themes
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Language and Cultural Identity
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. -
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
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
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
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “my talk”
- Line 2: “talk,” “away”
- Line 5: “away”
- Line 6: “I,” “like you”
- Line 7: “I,” “like you”
- Line 8: “I,” “like you”
- Line 10: “ways,” “I”
- Line 11: “ways,” “I”
- Line 12: “way”
- Line 14: “my talk”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “lost,” “talk”
- Line 2: “talk,” “took,” “away”
- Line 3: “When,” “was,” “little,” “girl”
- Line 4: “Shubenacadie,” “school”
- Line 5: “snatched”
- Line 6: “speak,” “like”
- Line 7: “think,” “like”
- Line 8: “create,” “like”
- Line 9: “scrambled,” “ballad,” “about,” “word”
- Line 10: “Two,” “talk”
- Line 12: “way,” “powerful”
- Line 14: “talk”
- Line 15: “can,” “teach,” “about”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “lost,” “talk”
- Line 2: “talk”
- Line 11: “ways,” “say”
- Line 14: “find my”
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Lines 3-4: “When I was a little girl / At Shubenacadie school.”
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 9: “The scrambled ballad, about my word.”
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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.”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Lost My Talk”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“I Lost My Talk” Speaker
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“I Lost My Talk” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “I Lost My Talk”
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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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