Published Paper Details:

Abstract Esther Morgan's poem "The Lost Word" is from her first collection ,Beyond Calling Distance. The very first line sets the theme and tone of the poem - "She's lost a word."The woman is desperately searching for a word she had used once upon a time, but now despite exerting much pressure on her brain, she cannot recall it; a powerful two-letter word the letter referred to here is "No."In a very subtle manner, the poem depicts a woman's powerlessness, even within the domestic space. The poem showcases her inability and inefficacy to say "no" to suggest how women are made to submit to patriarchal authority through gender conditioning. This paper focuses on how, through a short poem, Morgan draws attention to the desperation and helplessness a woman faces because she has lost her ability to say "no." She has forgotten to use the power to say "No" --a woman's struggle to find her tongue and language. The poem points out how women have been subjugated and suppressed everywhere due to patriarchy and its notions about not allowing women to have opinions and the freedom to deny. Gender inequality takes many forms, to fill a woman's mouth with someone else's language;(language is not just words, but within language lies one's nativity, dignity and culture), so much so that she forgets her language and, in the process, loses her capacity to refuse, refute and reject. The paper Esther Morgan's "The Lost Word": A Frantic Quest for a Feminist Identity" attempts to assert the need for a gender-neutral language where women can respond in negation and forging an identity for themselves.