Tissue Flashcards
Key quotes tissue
Paper that ‘lets the light/ shine through’ – rather than being opaqu-Idea that it is God who has power not humans (links to her Calvinist beliefs)
‘Tissue’ – more than one meaning-fragility of human life; undermining our sense of the importance of paper/ documents
Language of fragility – eg ‘transparent’, ‘thinned by age’, ‘drift’,-But she then makes us question why we are valuing things that are so fragile. Nothing lasts forever
Image of things shifting with the wind-we are in little control
Key quotes stanzas 5-10
Simile to describe receipts as having the ability to ‘fly our lives like paper kites’.-How we allow money/ financial matters to rule our lives
Repetition of ‘layer over layer’; metaphor of building-image of layers of paper in contrast to ‘brick/ or block’ allows us to question the apparent solidity of human structures; makes our use of paper seem solid – like a building block
Image of daylight ‘break[ing]’ through ‘capitals and monoliths’-idea of God being far more powerful than any structure humans can build
Personification of pride- exaggerates the sense of power humans think they have
Form/structure
• 9 four line stanzas (quatrains)+1 single line stanza, runnover stanzas enjambment with free verse-The regular 4-line stanzas look like ‘brick[s]’ and ‘block[s]’ – the poem looks solid, but this is undermined by enjambement, free verse form, and final single line stanza. This could be a metaphor for the way humans think (in their ‘pride’) that they have power, but, actually, when looked at closely this is merely as fragile as paper that has been ‘thinned’, and ‘never meant to last’
-1st 3 stanzas – human history as recorded in precious texts such as the Koran; 5&6 – examples of human uses of paper; 4,7,8,9 – points out fragility of human life-shows how we think our lives are important, but it turns out they are not – they are merely temporary/ fragile
-Final stanza is only one line long-makes the final line ‘thinner’, more ‘transparent’ – a call for our human ‘tissue’/ ‘skin’ – ourselves to be more transparent in terms of letting God’s light shine through
