tissue

Question 1

Paper that lets the light

shine through

Answer 1

-Enjambment, creates ongoing monologue tone.
-Symbolic, suggest hope,
positive tone.

Question 2

Paper thinned by age or touching

Answer 2

Tactile, language, suggests a

very familiar concept.

Question 3

the back of the Koran

Answer 3

Koran, symbolic of culture and religion and also emphasizing a major conflict in modern society
and the perceived war on Islam.

Question 4

where a hand has written in the names and histories,

Answer 4

• Juxtaposes to something done on the machine, continues tactile.
• Emphasis on ‘history’ as central to the theme., emphasize that this has been handed down.

Question 5

on which sepia date,
pages smoothed and stroked and turned
transparent with attention

Answer 5

• Sepia meaning faded or yellowed with age. The suggestion of handed down.
• Tactile verbs suggest this is not so much a religious book but a treasured heirloom and connection to family.

Question 6

If buildings were paper, I might

feel their drift,

Answer 6

Metaphor a paper structure would drift, but also ‘drift’ as in purpose, what they stand for. What they are for.

Question 7

see how easily
they fall away on a sigh, a shift
in the direction of the wind.

Answer 7

• Transient verbs, reflect movement and change.
• Personified with ‘sigh’.Suggests it is a good thing that they are could be changeable. They adjust ‘with the wind’.winds of change.

Question 8

The sun shines through
their borderlines, the marks
that rivers make, roads…

Answer 8

• Listing, encompasses the man and nature made aspects of the world and how the ‘sun shines’
• representing hope and how transparent these things become rather than the permanent object we see them to be.

Question 9

Fine slips from grocery shops
that say how much was sold
and what was paid by credit card

Answer 9

Metaphor the familiar and everyday image of groceries represent larger scale socioeconomics. Our reliance on money and material wealth.

Question 10

might fly our lives like paper kites

Answer 10

Flying Kites connotes a childlike innocence and ease. Suggesting perhaps that if we changed our approach to material ownership we would regain that childhood peace
of mind.

Question 11

An architect could use all this,

Answer 11

Symbolic not just of someone who designs buildings but also anyone who
makes anything. Metaphor for us all.

Question 12

place layer over layer, luminous

script over numbers over line,

Answer 12

Enjambment and semantics of written script listed here gives a tone of excitement and exploration.

Question 13

or block, but let the daylight break

Answer 13

Pathetic fallacy , gives the hopeful aspect to the message of the poem
through the reuse of light and shining.

Question 14

through the shapes that pride can make,

Answer 14

Personify, pride given a form, suggestion that we, or society as a
whole is this ‘pride’.

Question 15

find a way to trace a grand design

Answer 15

Biblical reference, suggestive of the bigger picture and a sense of spiritual fulfillment.
Suggests that we could be building things that improve our life, not hold us back.

Question 16

with living tissue, raise a structure

Answer 16

Metaphor, for people or society

Question 17

never meant to last

Answer 17

Ominous, can be an allusion to thehorrors of war and terrorism. 9/11, Berlinwall?

Question 18

thinned to be transparent,

Answer 18

Repetition from stanza 3, reminding us of the tactile intimacy of the book but
now on a larger scale.

Question 19

turned into your skin.

Answer 19

Direct address, suggesting that instead of being at conflict with the world around
us we create a sense of ownership and shared identity