“Tissue” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Tissue”

“Tissue” Summary

“Tissue” Themes

• 

  Human Power and Fragility

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-37
• 

  Human Connection

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 4-12
  • Lines 17-24
  • Lines 25-29

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Tissue”

• Lines 1-3

  Paper that lets ...
  ... could alter things.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-8

  Paper thinned by ...
  ... born to whom,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  the height and ...
  ... transparent with attention.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  If buildings were ...
  ... of the wind.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Maps too. The ...
  ... railtracks, mountainfolds,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  Fine slips from ...
  ... like paper kites.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-29

  An architect could ...
  ... or block,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-33

  but let the ...
  ... with living tissue,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-37

  raise a structure ...
  ... into your skin.

  

  

  

  

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“Tissue” Symbols

• 

  Paper

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “Paper that lets the light / shine through”
  • Line 4: “Paper thinned by age or touching”
  • Lines 5-6: “the kind you find in well-used books, / the back of the Koran”
  • Lines 11-12: “pages smoothed and stroked and turned / transparent with attention”
  • Lines 13-14: “If buildings were paper, I might / feel their drift”
  • Line 17: “Maps too.”
  • Lines 21-22: “Fine slips from grocery shops / that say how much was sold”
  • Lines 26-27: “layer over layer, luminous / script over numbers over line”
  • Lines 35-36: “paper smoothed and stroked / and thinned to be transparent”
• 

  Light

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “Paper that lets the light / shine through”
  • Lines 17-18: “The sun shines through / their borderlines”
  • Lines 29-30: “let the daylight break / through capitals and monoliths”

“Tissue” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “lets,” “light”
  • Line 2: “through, this”
  • Line 3: “things.”
  • Line 4: “thinned”
  • Line 5: “kind,” “books”
  • Line 6: “back,” “Koran,” “hand”
  • Line 7: “has,” “histories”
  • Line 8: “who,” “whom”
  • Line 9: “height,” “who”
  • Line 10: “died,” “how,” “sepia,” “date”
  • Line 11: “smoothed,” “stroked,” “turned”
  • Line 12: “transparent”
  • Line 14: “feel”
  • Line 15: “fall”
  • Line 17: “The,” “through”
  • Line 18: “their,” “the marks”
  • Lines 19-20: “that rivers make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds”
  • Line 21: “Fine slips from”
  • Line 22: “say,” “sold”
  • Line 23: “what was,” “credit card”
  • Line 24: “lives like,” “kites”
  • Line 26: “layer over layer, luminous”
  • Line 27: “over numbers over line”
  • Line 28: “never wish,” “build,” “with brick”
  • Line 29: “block, but,” “break”
  • Line 30: “through,” “monoliths”
  • Line 31: “through the ,” “that,” “make”
  • Line 35: “smoothed,” “stroked”
  • Line 36: “transparent”
  • Line 37: “turned,” “skin”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “light”
  • Line 2: “shine,” “this”
  • Line 3: “is”
  • Line 4: “Paper,” “age”
  • Line 5: “kind,” “find”
  • Line 6: “Koran,” “hand”
  • Line 7: “written in,” “histories”
  • Line 8: “who,” “to whom”
  • Line 9: “height,” “weight”
  • Line 10: “died,” “date”
  • Line 11: “pages”
  • Line 13: “If,” “buildings,” “I might”
  • Line 14: “feel,” “drift, see,” “easily”
  • Line 15: “they,” “away,” “shift”
  • Line 16: “in,” “direction,” “wind”
  • Line 17: “too,” “shines through”
  • Line 18: “borderlines”
  • Lines 19-20: “make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds,”
  • Line 21: “grocery”
  • Line 22: “say,” “sold”
  • Line 23: “paid”
  • Line 24: “might fly ,” “lives like paper kites”
  • Line 25: “this”
  • Line 26: “place layer over layer”
  • Line 27: “script over,” “over”
  • Line 28: “wish,” “build,” “brick”
  • Line 29: “daylight break”
  • Line 31: “shapes,” “make,”
  • Line 32: “way,” “trace”
  • Line 33: “with living tissue, raise”
  • Line 34: “never meant”
  • Line 35: “paper”
  • Line 36: “thinned”
  • Line 37: “skin”

• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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  Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

  • Lines 5-11: “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”
  • Lines 14-16: “their drift, see how easily / they fall away on a sigh, a shift / in the direction of the wind.”
  • Lines 18-21: “their borderlines, the marks / that rivers make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds, / Fine slips from grocery shops”
  • Lines 26-27: “layer over layer, luminous / script over numbers over line,”
  • Lines 29-34: “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,”

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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  Where caesura appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “through, this”
  • Line 6: “Koran, where”
  • Line 9: “weight, who”
  • Line 10: “how, on”
  • Line 13: “paper, I”
  • Line 14: “drift, see”
  • Line 15: “sigh, a”
  • Line 17: “too. The”
  • Line 18: “borderlines, the”
  • Lines 19-20: “make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds,”
  • Line 26: “layer, luminous”
  • Line 29: “block, but”
  • Line 33: “tissue, raise”

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where consonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1
  • Line 2
  • Line 3
  • Line 4
  • Line 5
  • Line 6
  • Line 7
  • Line 8
  • Lines 9-10
  • Line 11
  • Line 12
  • Line 13
  • Line 14
  • Line 15
  • Line 16
  • Line 17
  • Lines 18-20
  • Line 21
  • Line 22
  • Line 23
  • Line 24
  • Line 25
  • Line 26
  • Line 27
  • Line 28
  • Lines 28-29
  • Line 30
  • Line 31
  • Line 32
  • Line 33
  • Line 34
  • Line 35
  • Line 36
  • Line 37

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “light / shine”
  • Lines 2-3: “this / is”
  • Lines 6-7: “hand / has”
  • Lines 9-10: “who / died”
  • Lines 11-12: “turned / transparent”
  • Lines 13-14: “might / feel”
  • Lines 14-15: “easily / they”
  • Lines 15-16: “shift / in”
  • Lines 17-18: “through / their”
  • Lines 18-19: “ marks / that ”
  • Lines 21-22: “shops / that”
  • Lines 22-23: “sold / and”
  • Lines 23-24: “card / might”
  • Lines 26-27: “luminous / script”
  • Lines 29-30: “break / through”
  • Lines 32-33: “design / with”
  • Lines 33-34: “structure / never”
  • Lines 35-36: “stroked / and”

• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where extended metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-37

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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  Where simile appears in the poem:

  • Lines 21-24: “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.”

“Tissue” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Koran
• Sepia
• Fine Slips
• Fly Our Lives
• Luminous
• Monoliths

• (Location in poem: Line 6: “Koran”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Tissue”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Tissue” Speaker

“Tissue” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Tissue”

More “Tissue” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Reading of "Tissue" — The poem read by the poet herself. 

  • The Invention of Paper — A short video exploring one of humankind's most vital materials. 

  • An Interview with Dharker — An informal chat with the poet.  

  • More Poems by Dharker — A valuable resource from the Poetry Archive.  

  • Dharker's Website — The poet's own website, with details of Dharker's other poems and films. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Imtiaz Dharker

  • A century later

  • Blessing

  • Living Space

  • These are the times we live in (I)