Living Space Flashcards
Poet?
Imtiaz Dharker
About?
Opens describing a building that’s poorly built and falling apart.
The speaker reveals that someone lives in there despite the danger.
The narrator notices a basket of eggs hanging outside the window and how fragile they are representing hope.
Context?
Dharker was born in Pakistan, raised in Glasgow and now lives in Britain and India. She wrote this about housing in Mumbai, India.
Form:
Irregular form
Lines of different lengths
Enjambment
Structure:
Two parts -
The unstable building and the optimism for the future
Q - Start, Unsteady building, Overpopulation
‘There are just no enough straight lines’
Q - Direct address of the issue - Poor building and overpopulation links
‘That is the problem’
Q - First stanza ending - Hope
‘The whole structure leans dangerously towards the miraculous.’
Q - Second Stanza end - Hope
‘squeezed living space’
Q - Final Stanza end - Hope
‘bright, thin walls of faith.’
Q - Antitheses, Light and Dark suggests hope
‘fragile curves of white hung out over the dark edge’
‘gathering the light into themselves’
