“On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed: A Critical Analysis

Bismillah is my first memory.

I became a bird in the Qur’an

at hardly eight years old.

I opened the dark green cover

and revealed the slippery

two hearts: Arabic

and its English translation.

On Saturdays, I learned to repeat

passages in Arabic,

to recite the Qur’an

in its truest language—

otherwise are the locusts

really locusts?

I read and read, and yet

I struggled to recite in Arabic.

This was not a problem

with my memory.

I learned in a week how

to recite the first verse in English.

Sometimes I think every Qur’an

has a dark green cover.

Sometimes I think I still

become a bird

when, in my mind, I remember

Bismillah, ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim.

This must be the reason I

​continue to love.

On my tongue, there is

a short-horned grasshopper.

Bismillah, I reach for you again.

🌿 Theme 1: Memory and Origins: “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed begins with the evocative recollection, “Bismillah is my first memory.” This opening situates the poem within the realm of origins, both personal and spiritual. The poet anchors her earliest consciousness not in a material object or domestic scene but in the sacred invocation, Bismillah. This moment of remembrance is more than autobiographical—it is archetypal, linking her identity to a language of divine beginnings. The Qur’an becomes a repository of memory as well, with its “dark green cover” symbolizing continuity across time and place. Thus, the theme of memory in Pirmohamed’s poem underscores how spiritual utterances shape identity, binding childhood impressions to eternal meanings.

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📖 Theme 2: Language and Translation: “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed foregrounds the duality of expression through the “two hearts: Arabic / and its English translation.” The poet confronts the struggle between authentic recitation and the limitations of translation. She questions whether without Arabic, “are the locusts really locusts?”—a line that highlights the precarious transformation of meaning when sacred text is rendered into another language. The poem thus dramatizes the tension between memory and articulation, the original and the translated. By acknowledging her difficulty—“I struggled to recite in Arabic”—the poet emphasizes how diasporic identity often negotiates between inherited tongues and adopted linguistic realities, revealing the fragility and necessity of both.

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🕊️ Theme 3: Faith and Spiritual Transformation: “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed presents faith as both struggle and transcendence. The speaker recalls becoming “a bird in the Qur’an / at hardly eight years old,” a metaphor of transformation that suggests flight, purity, and spiritual ascent. The act of reciting—even imperfectly—becomes a way of embodying sacred language. The repeated invocation of Bismillah ties faith not merely to ritual, but to love and endurance: “This must be the reason I / continue to love.” Through this intertwining of divine remembrance and personal emotion, the poem illuminates faith as a lived experience that shapes identity and sustains inner growth, even in the midst of linguistic difficulty.

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🍃 Theme 4: Diaspora, Identity, and Continuity: “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed also speaks to the diasporic condition—the negotiation between heritage and present identity. The poet imagines that “every Qur’an / has a dark green cover,” a projection that reflects both a longing for universality and an acknowledgment of displacement. Her inability to fully master Arabic does not sever her from her roots; instead, it transforms her connection into metaphor and memory. The grasshopper “on my tongue” at the poem’s close becomes an image of persistence, survival, and the ongoing attempt to bridge gaps between languages and worlds. The title itself, On My Tongue, signals this tension—language as both burden and blessing, a site where identity is continuously re-forged in diaspora.

🌿 Question 1: How does “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed explore the tension between language, memory, and faith?

“On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed situates language at the heart of religious and cultural memory. The poem illustrates how faith is preserved not only through belief but also through the act of recitation. The speaker struggles with Arabic—the sacred language of the Qur’an—yet finds fluency in English, exposing a tension between inherited faith and personal linguistic capacity. Memory plays a crucial role: the first word, Bismillah, becomes a lifelong anchor, showing how sound and word transcend language barriers. This duality highlights the immigrant and diasporic experience, where sacred traditions must be navigated through translation. The poem acknowledges the difficulty of embodying faith across languages, yet insists that the divine essence can still dwell “on my tongue.” Thus, Pirmohamed presents language as both a bridge and a barrier, where memory of faith transforms imperfection into enduring spirituality.

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✨ Question 2: What role does imagery of birds and insects play in “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed?

“On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed uses the recurring bird and insect imagery to represent transformation, struggle, and the imperfect beauty of faith. The metaphor of becoming a bird in the Qur’an symbolizes spiritual ascent, purity, and the imaginative power of childhood learning. It reflects the speaker’s innocence and the liberating potential of sacred recitation. Later, the short-horned grasshopper represents difficulty and imperfection—the awkward, stumbling tongue that cannot fully master Arabic pronunciation. The contrast between bird and insect highlights the duality of aspiration versus reality: faith elevates, but human limitation constrains. This imagery also reinforces the natural world as a spiritual metaphor, echoing Islamic symbolism where creatures often embody divine order. By ending with the grasshopper, Pirmohamed underscores that faith is not about flawless recitation but about persistence and devotion. These images ultimately dramatize the embodied, fragile, yet deeply authentic nature of belief.

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📖 Question 3: How does “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed reflect the diasporic Muslim experience?

“On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed reflects the challenges of practicing faith within a diasporic context, where language and cultural distance complicate spiritual traditions. The speaker learns to recite Arabic passages every Saturday, suggesting formal religious education within a Western setting. The Qur’an’s “two hearts”—Arabic and English—symbolize the split identity of diasporic Muslims who balance ancestral language with the dominant tongue of their adopted homeland. The struggle to recite Arabic faithfully underscores the feeling of partial belonging: connected to tradition but distanced from fluency. Yet the poem avoids despair. Instead, it emphasizes persistence and love, showing that devotion transcends perfect pronunciation. The diasporic believer, though imperfect in linguistic mastery, remains spiritually whole. By weaving in both childhood memory and adult reflection, Pirmohamed captures the continuity of faith across time and space, embodying how Muslim identity survives translation and thrives in hybrid cultural forms.

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🐦 Question 4: Why does “On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed begin and end with “Bismillah,” and what is its significance?

“On My Tongue” by Alycia Pirmohamed frames the entire poem with Bismillah, the Arabic phrase meaning “In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.” Beginning with this memory and ending with its repetition emphasizes the centrality of divine invocation in the speaker’s life. The cyclical structure suggests that faith is not linear but recurring, continually renewed through memory and utterance. Even when language falters, returning to Bismillah affirms devotion and spiritual resilience. The phrase operates as both anchor and refuge, allowing the speaker to connect to God despite linguistic limitations. By closing with “I reach for you again,” Pirmohamed underscores faith as a continuous striving—never complete, always in process. Thus, the repetition of Bismillah becomes not just ritual but resistance against forgetting, a sacred rhythm that sustains identity across cultural and linguistic disjunctions, embodying both struggle and love.

• “Arabic” by Naomi Shihab Nye 🗣️
  • Similarity: It explores the spiritual power and emotional intimacy achieved only through accessing the Arabic language.

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• “If They Come for Us” (The title poem) by Fatimah Asghar 🕌
  • Similarity: The poem grapples with the fragmented self resulting from navigating Muslim faith and identity across two cultures.

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• “Immigrant Blues” by Li-Young Lee 🍎
  • Similarity: It addresses the sense of displacement and the loss of linguistic rootedness when identity is split between homelands.

📚 Books

1. Pirmohamed, Alycia. Another Way to Split Water. Polygon, 2022.
2. Pirmohamed, Alycia. The Ghosts That Visit Us as We Dream: Figurative Homelands: Second-generation Immigrant Experiences in North American Contemporary Poetry. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2020.

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📖 Academic Articles / Chapters

3. Pirmohamed, Alycia, and Jennifer Cooke. “On the Creation of New Ecological Writing.” On the Creation of New Ecological Writing, Taylor & Francis, 2024. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003399575-6/creation-new-ecological-writing-alycia-pirmohamed-jennifer-cooke
4. “Review Round-up: The Body of Language.” Poetry School, 2022. https://poetryschool.com/theblog/review-round-up-new-poetry-collections-pirmohamed-gao-kinshasa/

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✒️ Poems (Websites)

5. Pirmohamed, Alycia. “On My Tongue.” Poetry In Voice / Les voix de la poésie. https://poetryinvoice.ca/read/poems/my-tongue
6. Pirmohamed, Alycia. “Two Poems.” Granta, 2021. https://granta.com/two-poems-alycia-pirmohamed/

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