This New Tongue poem summary explains Elizabeth Kamara’s poem in clear, simple English. In the poem, a speaker watches young Africans abandon their language, their elders and their traditions for borrowed foreign ways. She does not approve. Instead, she mourns what they have thrown away.

The poem has five stanzas and 46 lines, and line numbers follow the official WAEC text. Keep your textbook open, read each stanza, then read the explanation below it. For an overview of the whole poem, visit our complete study guide.

New Tongue poem summary at a glance

Kamara’s poem moves in three broad steps. First, stanza 1 describes the young generation’s love of everything new. Then stanzas 2 and 3 criticise their selfishness and disrespect for elders. Finally, stanzas 4 and 5 picture the cold disorder that follows and the young people’s final break with the past.

Stanza 1 (lines 1–13): A new language and burnt ties

The poem opens with a young generation that speaks a new tongue and dances new dances (lines 1–2). New ways of thinking have battered their minds into fresh shapes, and everything new fills their eyes with wonder (lines 3–4).

They hold these new ways close, as if chained to their hearts (line 5). In contrast, the old songs now mean little to them. Those songs survive only as forgotten dreams, the leftovers of a past they no longer value (lines 6–7).

Next, the speaker turns to relationships. Ties of family and friendship loosen, then break, and finally burn (lines 8–9). Someone scatters the ashes into a bottomless sea, where nothing can recover them (line 10). Fishes swim past, careless of the loss (lines 11–13). Their indifference mirrors the young people’s own lack of concern.

Stanza 2 (lines 14–24): A generation that looks only inwards

Here the speaker names the problem directly: a new generation that cares nothing for the bonds of family, tradition or heritage (lines 14–18). They show no respect for the old (lines 19–20).

Instead, their minds turn inwards, and only inwards (lines 21–22). The speaker compares this to the inside of clothing, which touches nothing but the body of its wearer (lines 23–24). In other words, the young think only about themselves.

Stanza 3 (lines 25–29): No room for elders

Elders have no place in this new world (line 25). As the speaker stresses, they do not even sit at the edge of young people’s minds (lines 26–27).

The young have also closed their ears to the old language and the old ways of doing things (lines 28–29). This short stanza captures the generation gap at the heart of the poem.

Stanza 4 (lines 30–41): Borrowed pride and a cold, stormy society

The young take pride in a tongue and culture borrowed from elsewhere (line 30). As a result, life becomes every man for himself, by himself and of himself (lines 31–34).

A strange coldness then settles over the community. The speaker compares it to a mountain covered in snow (line 35). She adds a second, very African picture: bathing behind the house on a rainy July day (lines 36–37).

Gusts of wind knock down trees, carry off roofs, tug at skirts and whirl debris through the air (lines 38–41). Through this storm, the poem shows a society thrown into disorder.

Stanza 5 (lines 42–46): No turning back

In the closing lines, borrowed shoes dance on (line 42). Long ago, the young crossed their own Red Sea, leaving the old world behind for good (line 43).

Finally, they hang the last lock on their culture (line 44). Then they glide into the future without a single backward glance (lines 45–46). The poem ends on this sad note of complete and final separation from the past.

Putting the New Tongue poem summary together

Read as a whole, this New Tongue poem summary shows a journey away from home. It begins with excitement about new things and ends with a locked door and no backward glance. Along the way, family ties burn, elders disappear from view, and society grows cold.

Want to go deeper? Explore the themes of the poem, study its poetic devices, or test yourself with our questions and answers.

Frequently asked questions

How many stanzas and lines are in New Tongue?

There are five stanzas and 46 lines. The stanzas have 13, 11, 5, 12 and 5 lines.

Who are they in the poem?

They refer to the young generation that has abandoned its own culture for borrowed ways.

What happens at the end of the poem?

The young lock away their culture and move into the future without looking back.

Does the poem end on a hopeful note?

No. It closes with a sense of loss, since the break with the past seems final.