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Transcript

Language

The paper in 'Tissue' is described as 'thin' and 'transparent'

The speaker emphasises the delicacy of the paper by using adjectives throughout the poem. The paper is described as 'fine', 'thin' and 'transparent'. The effect of light is also emphasised with 'luminous', 'daylight' and the way the 'sun shines through'.

References to the thin paper used by architects, shopkeepers and bookbinders are made to connect the practical uses of paper. These images provide an extended metaphor for human skin and life.

Form and structure

Tissue is mainly constructed in unrhymed, irregular quatrains. This form can be seen to represent the irregularity of life and the flimsy nature of the tissue paper the poem refers to.

The poem consists of ten stanzas. The first nine stanzas are each four lines long. The final stanza, however, is one line in length, drawing our attention to it. Separating out this line emphasises the connection between paper and skin, showing the significance of human life.

The poem lacks regular rhyme and its rhythm is unsteady, as if to mirror the fluttering of tissue paper. The poet uses enjambment, running meaning between lines and across stanza breaks. This adds to the flowing, delicate nature - both of paper and of the human lives the poet compares the tissue to. The use of quatrains that are disrupted be enjambement perhaps represents the attempt by man to employ control and order onto nature, and its inevitable futility - the verse itself breaking away from these attempted restrictions in the way that nature 'breaks through' the things constructed by man.

Some Close Analysis

Tissue by Imtiaz Dharker

Ideas and Themes

Tissue explores the varied uses of paper and how they relate to life itself. This poem first appeared in Dharker's collection called 'The Terrorist at my Table' published in 2006. It is the first poem in that collection.

In the final stages of the poem, the poet links the idea of a building being made from paper to human skin, using the words 'living tissue' and then 'your skin'. This is quite a complex idea, and the meaning is open to interpretation. I have suggested one interpretation in the last slide. Alternatively, she may be suggesting that the significance of human life will outlast the records we make of it on paper or in buildings. There is also a sense of the fragility of human life, and the fact that not everything can last.

Themes and Ideas

The speaker in this poem uses tissue paper as an extended metaphor for life. She considers how paper can 'alter things' and refers to the soft thin paper of religious books, in particular the Qur'an. There are also real life references to other lasting uses we have for paper in our lives such as maps, receipts and architect drawings. Each of these items is connected to important aspects of life: journeys, money and home. These examples demonstrate how important but also how fragile paper is. Is the poet suggesting that the world would be better if those things that divide us - religion, nationhood - would 'fly our lives like paper kites'? This would mean that all people could be able to feel the gentle intimacy suggested by image in the last line, using the second person possessive pronoun, where these barriers have been turned into 'your skin.'

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