Tissue

Question 1

What is the poem about?

Answer 1

• first 3 stanzas talk about the importance of paper regarding its means of recording our history
• stanzas 4-6 are the paradox that paper is fragile (like human life) but it controls our lives (e.g. money).
• the final thirteen lines look at creating things
• Life is more complex than other things we create and its also temporary

Question 2

How does Imtiaz Dharker create a sense of freedom and openness and what effect does this have?

Answer 2

• the lack of regular rhythm or rhyme
• the enjambment across lines and stanzas
• free verse
  ^ reflects the narratord desire for freedom and clarity

Question 3

“the height and weight, who died where and how, on which sepia date”

Answer 3

• asyndetic listing is used here to emphasise the significsnce of the Koran on humanity

Question 4

What is significant about “Maps too.”?

Answer 4

• Short, blunt sentence, which may reflect the fixed nature of maps and borders.
• Creating division rather than freedom.

Question 5

Form of poem and significance?

Answer 5

Allegory - has a hidden meaning of revealing the transcience of life.
- this causes rhe reader to let go of a materialistic life and instead focus on the people around them and God.
- ends with direct address “your skin” to cement this message in the readers’ mind that they should consider their own actions.

Question 6

“Might fly our lives like paper kites”

Answer 6

• money is given too much power, governs our lives

Question 7

“The sun shines through their borderlines”

Answer 7

Overpowering nature