Poem - Tissue Flashcards
Paper is shown to be very important because
it (in the form of books) can carry powerful ideas which have changed the world.
This comparison may be suggesting that life is like tissue paper: it is valuable and significant but also fragile and fleeting.
‘living tissue’ and ‘your skin’
Fragility of the paper is shown by repeatedly using adjectives such as…
“Fine” “thin” and “transparent”
Light is repeatedly referred to with words such as
“Luminous” and “daylight”
Twice the poet refers to buildings being made of paper. Why?
This contrasting image of solid structures made of a fragile material conveys the idea of paper as something that is both simultaneously powerful and fragile
What sort of structure is in the stanzas?
Irregular quatrains which don’t rhyme. The first nine are 4 lines long. The last stanza is one line to emphasise its importance.
The poem’s rhythm is uneven and gives it a fragility. Why?
To show that the poem could collapse at any moment – similar to the buildings made of paper referred to in the fourth and ninth stanzas.
Why does Dharker use enjambement?
It emphasises the fluid and breakable nature both of paper and of the human lives it is compared to.
Dharker refers to paper like this to show it is important but very fragile
“Thinned by age” and “living tissue”
