Tissue

• overview

  • tissue is a commentary on humanity’s enduring obsession to immortalise itself with impressive feats of monolithic architectural structures and wealth
  • tissue paper used as an extended metaphor for life to show that despite its fragility, humans can change
• Title tissue

  • human tissue; existence of documents can reveal the complexities of one’s identity within life
  • denotes to tissue paper which is used for recording all variation of information
• Form

  • written as an allegory which reveals the transience of life
  • free verse and enjambment reflects freedom found within a restrictive institution
• Structure

  • quatrans; provides consistency to show the constant restrictive power of humans
  • implies that even the most powerful presentations of mankind are undermined by chaos and the unpredictable course of life
• “paper that lets light sine through”

  • symbolism of light is a religious allusion (reflects dharkers background)
  • ”light” connotes to truth and enlightenment; has religious associations as his is described as both light in the muslim and christian holy books
  • lack of reference to a god reflects dharkers exploitation and criticism of fundamentalism
• Metaphor of building being able to “fall away on a sigh”

  • symbolism of buildings used to delineate the permanence of made concept which should be abolished
  • dharkers view reinforces in “turned transparent”
  • harsh alliterative consonants reinforces the ideology that society cannot be reliant on these transient concepts of life
• Context

  • dharkers poetry concentrated on her conflicting identity due to her multicultural upbringing
  • comes from her collection “the terrorist at my table” which focuses on terrorism politics and fundamentalism
  • poem is the preface of the collection and serves to explore fundamentalism (abuse of power)
• Tone

  • contemplative tone stabilisers through the narrators observations of the transformative qualities of paper
  • reflective and philosophical tone when discussing the interdependence humans hold most on our own constructs rather than eachother
• Themes

  • fragility of life; man made constructs which are fundamentally made of tissue paper as just as fragile as it’s original form
  • human connection to materialism
• Themes in questions

  1. power of man
  2. identity
• Comparison poems

  1. london
  2. emigree