Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker
- 1. Tissue Throughout the poem, Dharker uses an extended metaphor, comparing life to tissue. For example, she has described the tissue paper as ‘turned into skin’ which shows how the idea behind the image of the tissue is that it will be interpreted as a living thing by the reader. This is also shown in the line ‘trace a grand design’, which seems to be used to show how life (Which the tissue is a metaphor for) is a complex and beautiful thing, and this shows the reader Dharker’s message – the entire meaning of the poem is that the reader will see that we should not try to last forever, like the money or the buildings, but just live and not block or hurt anything, like the tissue. Throughout the poem, the tissue is shown in a positive way whereas the buildings and money are not. The use of ‘well-used’ to describe the books and so the tissue is just one way Dharker makes the tissue seempositive; ‘well-used’ items are usually good as otherwise they would not be used. ‘Grand’ is used to describe the design made with tissue also, and this has another, positive effect. The structure of the poem is not completely regular, with four line stanzas that have a varied rhythm and no rhyme scheme, but seems more so than irregular until the final stanza. This stanza is one line long and this draws attention to it – so emphasising the message by drawing attention to the relationship between the tissue and life. Enjambment is used at the end of lines which describe the problem of trying to become permanent is one that (in the current situation) will not end soon. This is shown in the way Dharker shows the problem going over two lines, showing how it carries on. By doing this, she has made the problem easier to address as it becomes more obvious that it is a problem.