Conflict & Power Poetry - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Conflict & Power Poetry

Poem #2: Tissue, by Imtiaz DharkerSlide2

Tissue

MoneyReligionPoliticsWar

History

BodySlide3

Tissue Context

Imtiaz Dharker is a Pakistan-born British poet, artist and documentary filmmaker. She has won the Queen’s Gold Medal for her English poetry.

She moved to Glasgow when she was a year old.

A great number of her poems look at issues such as religion, terrorism and global politics/identity.Slide4

Paper that lets the light

shine through, this is what could alter things. Paper thinned by age or touching, the kind you find in well-used books, the back of the Koran, where a hand

has written in the names and histories,

who was born to whom,

the height and weight, who

died where and how, on which sepia date,

pages smoothed and stroked and turned

transparent with attention.

If buildings were paper, I might

feel their drift, see how easily

they fall away on a sigh, a shift

in the direction of the wind.

Maps too. The sun shines through

their borderlines, the marks

that rivers make, roads, railtracks, mountainfolds, Fine slips from grocery shops that say how much was sold and what was paid by credit card might fly our lives like paper kites. An architect could use all this, place layer over layer, luminous script over numbers over line, and never wish to build again with brick or block, but let the daylight break through capitals and monoliths, through the shapes that pride can make, find a way to trace a grand design with living tissue, raise a structure never meant to last, of paper smoothed and stroked and thinned to be transparent, turned into your skin.

Sepia

: a reddish-brown colour associated particularly with old photos/ paper.

Luminous

: bright/ shining

Monoliths

: a large single upright block of stone, especially one shaped into or serving as a pillar or monument.Slide5

Paper that lets the

light shine through, this is what could alter things. Paper thinned by age or touching,

the kind you find in well-used books,

the back of

the Koran

,

where a hand

has written in the

names

and histories,

who was born to whom,

the height and weight, who

died where and how, on which sepia date,

pages smoothed and stroked and turned transparent with attention.

What are the connotations of ‘light’? What might Dharker be suggesting? ‘Paper’ is repeated twice. Why might this be? What could be ‘altered’? Both literally and metaphorically? Why does the poet mention the Koran- a religious text- here? What are the connotation of these words? What is the message here? Slide6

If buildings were paper, I might

feel their drift, see how easily they fall away on a sigh, a shift in the direction of the wind.

Maps too.

The

sun

shines through

their

borderlines

, the marks

that rivers make, roads,

railtracks

,

mountainfolds

, Fine slips from grocery shops that say how much was sold and what was paid by credit card might fly our lives like paper kites. What are the connotations of this image?

Why has the poet rhymed ‘drift’ and ‘shift’? What is the effect of caesura? What are the connotations of ‘sun?’ Could this be linked to an earlier image in the poem? What do maps tell us? What point could she be making here? What is she describing here? Why mention this use for paper? What language technique is being used here? What are its connotations? Slide7

An architect

could use all this, place layer over layer, luminous script over numbers over line, and never wish to build again with brick or block, but let the

daylight

break

through

capitals

and

monoliths

,

through the shapes that

pride

can make, find a way to trace a grand design with living tissue, raise a structure never meant to last, of paper smoothed and stroked and thinned to be transparent,

turned into your skin.What are the connotations of this line here? Can ‘luminous’ be linked elsewhere in the poem? How could you compare an architect with a writer/ poet? What point might she be making here? Another image of light here. What are its connotations? Connotations of ‘capitals’ and ‘monoliths’? How can they be linked to ‘pride’?What could she mean by a ‘grand design’ here? How has she used the word ‘tissue’ here? What language techniques is this? Repetition of ‘smoothed’ and ‘stroked’. Why might she have done this?

Why do you think this line is by itself? Slide8

Conflict & Power Poetry

Poem #3: The Emigrée, by Carol RumensSlide9

There once was a country... I left it as a childbut my memory of it is sunlight-clear

for it seems I never saw it in that Novemberwhich, I am told, comes to the mildest city.The worst news I receive of it cannot breakmy original view, the bright, filled paperweight.It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants,but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.

The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes

glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks

and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves.

That child's vocabulary I carried here

like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar.

Soon I shall have every

coloured

molecule of it.

It may by now be a lie, banned by the state

but I can't get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.

I have no passport, there's no way back at all

but my city comes to me in its own white plane.It lies down in front of me, docile as paper;I comb its hair and love its shining eyes.My city takes me dancing through the city of walls.They accuse me of absence, they circle me.They accuse me of being dark in their free city.

My city hides behind me. They mutter death,and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.Tyrants: a cruel and oppressive ruler.Branded: Burned with a mark. Frontiers: a line or border separating two countries.Molecule: a group of atoms bonded together.Docile: Easily controlled. Slide10

Language Techniques

Look out for the following techniques:AlliterationPersonificationMetaphor

Enjambment

Caesura

Connotations of language

Semantic fields

Simile

Any other techniques you notice.

As well as labelling the techniques, think about the reasons

why

Rumens has included them, and what

effect

they have. Be ready to feed back. Slide11

There once was a country... I left it as a childbut my memory of it is sunlight-clear

for it seems I never saw it in that Novemberwhich, I am told, comes to the mildest city.The worst news I receive of it cannot breakmy original view, the bright, filled paperweight.It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants,but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.Slide12

The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes

glow even clearer as time rolls its tanksand the frontiers rise between us, close like waves.That child's vocabulary I carried herelike a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar.Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it.It may by now be a lie, banned by the state

but I can't get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.Slide13

I have no passport, there's no way back at all

but my city comes to me in its own white plane.It lies down in front of me, docile as paper;I comb its hair and love its shining eyes.My city takes me dancing through the city of walls.They accuse me of absence, they circle me.They accuse me of being dark in their free city.My city hides behind me. They mutter death,

and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.Slide14

Exploring the Poem

Look at one of the following quotes and discuss the technique used, the implied meaning and the effect on the reader:

‘the bright, filled paperweight’

‘I am branded by an impression of sunlight’

‘the graceful slopes / glow even clearer’

‘frontiers rise between us, close like waves’

‘my city takes me dancing through the city of walls’

‘

they

accuse me of absence, they circle me. / They accuse me of being dark in their free city

.’