Tissue

• Tissue paper is use and extended metaphor to show that although fragile, humans have a large amount of power to change things.
• Dharker was born in Pakistan but grew up in Glasgow. Most of her poetry concentrates on identity and home. This may be related to her conflicting identities and dividing her time between Wales, India and London.
• Tissue is part of the 2006 collections "The terrorist at my table" which is focused on global politics, terrorism, extremism, religion and fundamentalism. Dharker presents the idea in 'Tissue' that humans do not have the right attitude to life, we shouldn't view life as an opportunity to gain power. This may be related to Dharker seeing her husband fight cancer for 11yrs before dying. So she wants to illustrate the temporary nature of life.
• "The height and weight, who died where and how, on which sepia date, pages smoothed and stroked and turned transparent with attention"

  • Asyndetic listing used here to emphasis the significance of the Quran on humanity
• "What was paid by credit card / might fly our lives like paper kites"

  • Metaphor
  • Criticises the significance humanity places on money
• "Let the daylight break through capitals and monoliths"

  • Metaphor demonstrates the overwhelming power of daylight, something people can't control.
• "with living tissue, raise a structure that was never meant to last"

  There is a turning point here when it is revealed the poem is infact about living flesh. It also shows that humans do not live forever, our bodies are not made to last.
• "turned into your skin"


  The final line is left separate to make it clear to the listener that they are meant to consider the meaning of the poem in relation to their life.
• The poem takes the form of an allegory which has the hidden meaning of revealing the transience of life. This could cause the reader let go of a materialistic life and instead focus on the people around them and God. It ends with the direct address "your skin" to cement this message in the readers' minds that they should consider their own actions.
• The whole poem is written in quatrains which provides a consistent structure to how restrictive human power and control can be.
• The final line is only a single line to emphasise and isolate its meaning. This shows its breaking free from controlling structure and implies there is a need to break free from the control of human power.
• The regularity of a fixed stanza length is undermined by the use of free verse and enjambment. This could show that freedom can be found even within a restrictive institution.
• It can pretty much only be compared to london