2.4.12 Tissue

Question 1

Poet

Answer 1

Imtiaz Dharker

Question 2

Theme Code

Answer 2

ABOUT-K

Question 3

Themes

Answer 3

Power of Man, Power of Nature, Misguided Notions of Human Power, Power of Art, Fragility, Identity

Question 4

Quotes

Answer 4

• ‘back of the Koran’
• ‘Maps too’
• ‘Fine slips from grocery shops’
• ‘might fly our lives like paper kites’
• ‘but let the daylight break Through’
• ‘turned into your skin’

Question 5

Main Structural Points

Answer 5

• Free verse
• Enjambment
• Repetition

Question 6

Explain the quote ‘might fly our lives like paper kites’

Answer 6

Simile
Simile – again emphasises how our lives are not always in control. Suggests money dominates us, controls us and has power over us, receipts ‘might fly our lives’ like a paper kite suggesting that money and receipts have the power to determine your life depending on how much you have of it but ‘might’ empathises with the uncertainty. Kites are fragile, easily destroyed, and receipts are man-made, the suggestion is that man-made power is not permanent while the power of nature is greater, man doesn’t have power but we think we do.

Question 7

Explain the quote ‘Maps too’

Answer 7

Short Sentence and metaphor
A short sentence adds emphasis, it’s declarative and creates a blunt tone to the poem. Maps are a metaphor for our life’s journeys and the direction we will take. It could also be suggesting as humans we give maps power in terms of borders and dividing nature. Maps segregate with man’s power, mankind chooses how to divide the natural world into borders, countries and civilisations. Maps are a great example of men trying to exert their power over nature, creating divides that aren’t naturally there.

Question 8

Quotes for the Main Structural Point

Answer 8

• ‘transparent’

Question 9

Simplified Main Structural Point

Answer 9

The poem is written in free verse, it lacks rhyme and rhythm reflecting the lack of power man has, they try to enforce control but it’s pointless. Enjambment shows the disorder. Transparent is repeated it means see-through like paper and honesty, power should be used honestly.

Question 10

Main Structural Point

Answer 10

Dharker has written the poem in free verse, the poem lacks rhyme or regular rhythm, this reflects the lack of power man has. Man tries to order and enforce control but the structural choices made by Dharker undermine this and suggest man’s efforts are futile. This is further complemented by the use of enjambment, sentences flow on to the next line and next stanza. The final line of stanza one is the beginning of a new topic about using the paper to write down family histories, breaking the stanzas is a deliberate choice by the poet, the forced break at an odd time, emphasises the lack of control, defies restrictions and the freedom of the lines, it reflects the lack of control or power mankind truly has. Dharker also uses repetition, repeating the word ‘transparent’, just like the title and the poem itself, the word is ambiguous, quite literally the word means it is see-through, referring to how the Indian paper used in old bibles and paper, in general, is thin, fragile and are see-through but it also means honest and clear, the repetition draws the importance to the word. It suggests that power should be honest, open and clear but it isn’t. All these structural techniques show that although humans try to impose power and control, due to them not using power honestly and nature’s power being far more superior, man’s power is fragile, finite, and weak when compared to the power of nature.