Detailed analysis and contextual notes about Tissue, a poem written by Imtiaz Dharker. These notes can be used for revision purposes and aid when answering AQA English GCSE questions about the portrayal of power and conflict in poems. It includes key quotes and their significance
Imtiaz Dharker presents conflict through her critique of human nature throughout the poem.
She uses the fragility of paper in comparison to the fragility of human minds. She explores
the idea that humans put the most important things on paper, such as; the ‘Koran’, ‘Maps’,
and ‘Fine slips from grocery shops’. By pointing out these seemingly random things, she
shows the trivial nature of human power. Imtiaz also uses alliteration and caesuras to slow
the pace and show the insignificance she sees in human power; ‘the sun shines through
their borderlines, the marks, that rivers make, roads, railroads, mountain folds’. By slowing
the flow of the poem it presents the idea that these little things are so insignificant that she
is just thinking about them in the moment, it creates the pace of her thoughts. Asyndetic
listing is also used in this phrase which shows her lack of respect for these human
structures that are admired by others. In comparison to human power, Dharker presents
natural power. She shows that humans are significantly weaker than nature, with nature
breaking all man-made boundaries. ‘The sun shines through their borderlines’. This shows
that the sun has a powerful force over humans and won’t succumb to their petty displays of
power. Whilst humans have drawn a border between countries, the sun refuses to partake
in the separation. The idea that humans can’t control nature shows a lack of power that is
constantly dismissed by humans.
Throughout the entire poem, the paper is used as a metaphor for how humans allow their
lives to be controlled by little things. Words such as ‘if’ and ‘might’ are used to show the
powerlessness paper actually has. It is worth nothing without its markings. Arguably, you
could say that this is a similarity to human life. Without our scars, good and bad, humans
are worth nothing. The individual identity that humans each hold is built over time, which is
linked to her phrase ‘an architect could use all of this, place layer over layer’. In the
penultimate stanza, the link between tissue paper and human tissue is written down. To
describe the paper, Dharker uses the phrases ‘never meant to last’ and ‘thinned to be
transparent’. These show the acceptance of the inevitability of human deaths. Just like
paper, humans aren’t meant to last.
The final stanza is one line; ‘turned into your skin’, this phrase presents the idea that even
the weakest people can leave markings behind. The phrase could be a link to the historical
usage of animal skin for marking. Whilst you may not be able to live forever you have a
small amount of power within you, which is what you can leave behind after death. Just like
paper, you may not be physically worth much but your markings can leave powerful
messages behind way after death. That is the power we all have within us.
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