tissue

• Author's name


  Imtiaz Dharker
• 1954


  when Imtiaz Dharker was born
• country of origin


  born in Pakistan but brought up in Scotland
• common themes in Dharkler's poetry

  geographical and cultural displacement, communal conflict, identity and gender
• publishing context


  comes from the collection 'The Terrorist at my Table
• overarching concept in Dharker's collection 'The Terrorist at my Table'


  poems about a world stricken by fundamental extremism
• self-proclaimed identity


  Scottish Muslim Calvinist
• the main concept of the poem

  man's creation (money, maps and building's) vs God's creation (living tissue)
• tissue definition


  types of material of which humans, animals or plants are made, consisting of specialised cells; also a thin, light paper used for cleaning or wrapping delicate things
• cell biological definition


  the smallest basic unit of a plant or animal that performs all of life's functions
• cell biological function


  considered in biology to be the fundamental unit of life
• an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design ... a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity'

  Michael Denton's description of cell complexity
• the central theme


  the power of books, paper to change the world
• books can change reality


  Paper that lets the light / shine through, this / is what could alter things.
• human creation vs God's creation

  we create money, maps and even capital cities with architecture but ultimately we cannot create anything nearly as 'grand' as the 'design' even of human tissue
• the power of God


  the complexity of God's design illustrates His power
• the fragility of human control

  the erratic rhyme scheme and metrical patterns suggest humanity lack control even though it tries to order and control everything
• God's guidance


  all of the same mind, / so all three of us open fire.' - not only does war dehumanise those who are killed, it dehumanises the soldiers so they are not able to think for themselves
• The power of propaganda

  the recurrent image of 'light shining through' could be a reference to old religious manuscripts, in this case, the Koran (The Qur'an)
• appearance vs reality


  despite the negative press Islam has received since 9-11, Dharker is offering a defence of Islam, suggesting that it has the potential to guide humanity
• the limits of human creativity


  Dharker juxtaposes human creations, 'capitals and monoliths' and God's creation, 'living tissue' to force us to recognise our limitations as human beings
• chaos and control


  the poem's free form, pararhyme and general lack of structure could suggest man wants to be free of his limitations and be more like God, but it could also reflect chaos and man's inability to establish control
• Form of Tissue


  most likely to be an interior monologue or free form, or a hybrid between the two
• interior monologue definition


  a narrative technique that shows the flow of thoughts going through a character's head that other characters aren't privy to
• effects of interior monologue characteristics in Tissue

  might suggest that the speaker finds their thoughts difficult to share
• general definition of free form poetry

  poetry that does not adhere strictly to any traditional form, is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms.
• effects of free form characteristics in Tissue

  could suggest man wants to be free of his limitations and be more like God; free form can also reflect chaos and man's inability to establish control
• quantitative metre


  The dominant metrical system in Classical Greek and Italian poetry, in which the rhythm depends not on the number of stresses, but on the length of time it takes to utter a line, taking into account the number and length of syllables contained in the line
• effect of quantitative metre Tissue

  not as restrictive as more defined metrical patterns such as iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, etc so perhaps gives the poem a sense of flexibility or lack of control
• free verse definition


  poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms.
• effects of free verse in Tissue


  suggest humanity lack control even though it tries to order and control everything
• effect of variation in syllable count in the lines

  reflect the lack of power man has - as much as mankind tries to order, arrange and control, ultimately God has true control
• literal meaning of the title 'Tissue'


  types of material of which humans, animals or plants are made, consisting of specialised cells; also a thin, light paper used for cleaning or wrapping delicate things
• symbolic meaning of the title 'Tissue'

  paper is both powerful and fragile but referring to is as tissue suggests that there is more of a focus on its fragility than its strengths
• most prominent technique in the poem

  symbolism
• Dharker's general linguistic style


  the language of the text is both straightforward and complex
• symbol definition


  characters, settings, images, or other motifs that stand in for bigger ideas
• effects of Dharker's style

  reflects the fragility and power of paper, as well as the good and the bad
• major symbols in remains

  paper, books, light
• asyndetic list definition


  a list where there are no conjunctions between each item, eg, 'The sun shines through / their borderlines, the marks / that rivers make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds, ...