Tissue Flashcards
Themes (3) and comparable poems
- Power of humans - London: humanity creating its own boundaries and internal conflict
- Power of nature
- Identity: - Checking Out Me History: heritage, conflict with culture, The Emigrée: heritage, resolving boundaries between culture and nations
About
Tissue is about the value of paper in our lives and the way our lives are shaped and controlled by something so fragile in paper or in human tissue. Tissue paper is used as an extended metaphor of life
Big ideas (3)
- Light and transparency (honesty) are positive forces and enable people to understand one another
- Paper lets through some light but not all, it is thin and fragile but important so it should be treated with care
- Tissue also means the skin and fragility of human life
“Paper thinned by age or touching”
Identity
Well used: something good about it, wisdom, precious – keep coming back to it
So worn is it “thinned”, passed down through multiple family generations, heritage
“Koran”, “written in the names and histories, who was born to whom”
Identity
Koran = Muslim religious prayer book
A proof of identity – birth certificates, religion (Koran)
Importance of paper – records health, birth, death, so many events in our lives
“Pages smoothed and stroked and turned”
Identity
Human contact – passed down through generations
“Stroked” – caring, loving nature towards paper, high personal value
Sibilance, reflective of happy times
Repetition of light imagery
“Transparent”
Power of humans
Honesty, not hiding anything, avoids conflict, open way of life, care free
“If buildings were paper, I might feel their drift”
Power of humans
“Were”, “Might”, “If” = Modal verbs, show how she wishes for a future of freedom and less value of paper but as of the present day it is only a dream
If buildings were not so expensive or meaningful maybe there would be less conflict e.g. twin towers or palaces or the White House.
“the sun shines through their borderlines”
Power of humans
“Borderlines” – borders between countries or territories
Territory creates conflict, the human need to belong somewhere is ironic as it creates divide
Greater transparency and therefore freedom means less division
“Sun” – light/sun overcomes manmade borders, they are actually insignificant
“Sun” – means positivity, freedom, happiness breaks through the territorial boundaries
“never meant to last”
Power of humans
Identity, humankind
It is inevitable that humans will die after some time as we (our human tissues) are fragile and destructible
We sometimes need to let go of the things that restrict us e.g. buildings, borders, status, pride as we all die eventually
Human beings are “grand” but create so much that divide and restrict us
“turned into your skin”
Identity, humankind
Structure: separated from the rest of the organised poem – breaking free from restraint of paper
Emphasises connection between paper and skin, significance of human life
“Your” speaks to the reader, makes them question their part in this restriction and paper in their lives
Structure (3)
- Free verse: irregular quality, unrhyming – unsolved questions/interpretations of life and paper
- Enjambment – lacks regular rhyme and rhythm just as the poem lacks regular ways of thinking, out of the box
- Unrhymed, irregular quatrains
• All add to the unpredictability of the poem – hypothetical principles – Modal verbs indicate the poet is thinking through thoughts in an unstructured way – like a day dream
Context (3)
- Dharker is a Pakistani poet who grew up in Scotland
- She uses her multicultural heritage to explore the way that war oppresses and harms the innocent
- Her poetry celebrates freedom and peace
