tissue

• Tissue

  Imtiaz Dharker

  Power, instability, human essence, spirituality, identity
• SUMMARY

  • Tissue is an extended metaphor for life - fragile, vulnerable, all connected

  • Valuing the fragile human condition & the inevitability of death

  • Tissue may be old & deteriorating, but there is beauty & power in the love & knowledge it holds

  • 'Light' is a metaphor for religious or natural power

  • If we let the light through, like tissue, we can be enlightened & liberated

  • Urges us to consider that things we might see as permanent are not any more so than our own human tissue
• 'Paper that lets the light shine through, this is what could alter things'

  • 'Light' Dharker Calvinist - in Bible jesus says 'I am the light of the world' & the Qur'an says 'Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth' - spiritual light, comment on the power of religion & god

  • 'Alter things' - God has the power to alter things
• 'the kind you find in well-used books, the back of the Koran'

  • 'Well' - being used is a positive thing,

  • Qur'an - holy book of Islam - something that is so highly valued, contains love, tradition, memory handed down through generations - thinness is not a sign weakness but power
• 'Maps too. The sun shines through their borderlines'

  • 'Maps' - man-made construct, segregate countries / the natural world. Humans try to control borders, civilisations, exert their power of nature

  • But the sun 'shines through their borderlines' - nature & spirituality transcends boundaries. Man-made power is not permanent
• 'turned into your skin'

  • Single line stanza - draws our attention, breaks regular quatrains. Emphasises the connection between

  • Pronoun 'your' speaks directly to reader, feels personal. Asks reader to consider how we value human life & its vulnerability

  • Human skin & tissue paper linked

  • Metaphor highlights how human power is fragile like the tissue paper
• STRUCTURE

  • Free verse - unrhymed, irregular rhythm - irregularity of life & the flimsy nature of tissue

  • Enjambes stanzas - flowing, delicate nature. We are all connected
• CONTEXT

  • Dharker born in Pakistan, raised in Scotland

  • Describes herself as a Muslim Calvinist, referencing two religions - Islam & Christianity
• Compare

  • Ozymandias - impermanence of humans

  • Prelude - power of nature