Living space Flashcards
Summary
The poem describes the slums of Mumbai where people migrate from all over India in the hope of a better life
Context
- Dharker is a contemporary poet born in Pakistan and raised in Scotland, she draws on her multi-cultural experiment in her work.
- She has an intimate knowledge of Mumbai because she has scripted many documentaries in India and splits her time between Mumbai and London.
- She is a poet, film-maker and artist.
Structure/form
- The second stanza is squeezed in between the first and the third, which mirrors the way ‘someone has squeezed a living space’.
- The last 5 lines get progressively shorter to build up pace and the final line is longer to mark a conclusion.
- There is no rhyme scheme or poetic metre, the lack of formal structure mirrors the haphazard and chaotic slums the speaker describes.The random link breaks add to the disorder and mirror the chaos of the slums.
- There are lots of enjabments used and the sentences spill over the lines, mirroring the way the slum structures lean over and on top of each other.
- The lines of different lengths jut out into the page like the crooked beams the poet presents.Link all this to Dharker being a graphic artist.
- The first half of the poem describes the structure of the ramshackle living space and the second half is hopeful and hints at the power of faith and optimism regardless of difficulty.
Themes
- People/Place
- Faith
- Fragility
‘not enough/straight lines’
-The first line introduces the setting of the slums and directly addresses the key problem in the slums. The line is literally a description of the crooked and slanting unstable structure of the buildings in the slums, but the phrase ‘not enough’ alludes to the poverty and deprivation the inhabitants are experiencing. They are lacking basic things needed for human life.
‘even dared to place/ these eggs in a wire basket’
- The speaker takes a tone of awe and wonder at the notion that people have managed to live in the slums.
- The verb ‘dared’ implies a boldness in the people, to carve a place for them to live in the apparent danger.
- Dharker uses the eggs to symbolise new life and hope but also the people’s daring and boldness.Eggs are very fragile, and can easily break, but by placing the eggs in the basket one must have faith that the fragile walls of the egg will survive any danger posed by the ‘dark ledge’.This can be compared to the people’s fragile lives in the slums and the faith they have in their situation.
‘nails clutch at open seams’
- This describes the unstable buildings with loose fixings. The whole structure is exposed.
- The verb ‘clutch’ personifies the nails and implies they are desperately reaching for something to grasp, but there are only ‘open seams’. It reflect the desperation of the citizens, wanting for a better life by migrating to the slums but grasping at negative. This creates quite a negative tone. Link to people migrating to Mumbai.
- The adjective ‘open’
‘structure leans dangerously / towards the miraculous’
- This is the longest line in the poem echoing the way the whole structure is leaning over
- The adverb ‘dangerously’ juxtaposes the the adjective miraculous’ showing that it is almost a miracle these unstable buildings manage to stay upright
- Ending the stanza with the adjective ‘miraculous’ also suggests that there is still hope
‘the bright, thin walls of faith’
-The brightness of the walls implies positivity but they are ‘thin’ which suggests ‘fragility’. Dharker could be suggesting that there is hopefulness and faith but it is also quite precarious and fragile, like the egg. By ending the poem on this overall positive line Dharker could be concluding that it is faith and hope that allows people to live in these dangerous seemingly unliveable conditions.
‘fragile curves of white / hung over the dark edge’
-There is a contrast between light (the eggs symbolising life) and dark (the edge symbolising the dangers the people face in their precarious environment and the world). The ‘white’ stands out as something pure and whole in a broken dark world. It shows that the hopeful future symbolised by the eggs, is warring with and made uncertain due to the dangers of the slums and poverty, shown by the ‘dark edge’.
‘Squeezed a living space’
- The second stanza is squeezed in between the first and the third, which mirrors the way ‘someone has squeezed a living space’.
- The verb ‘squeezed’ suggest the people have had to force fully make a space for themselves, and are being crushed by the other buildings around them but also factors such as poverty.
- The use of the phrase ‘living space’ indicates that the residents of the slums have no real stable home just an area for them to exist in.
Comparison
- London
