'Presents from My Aunts’ Moniza Alvi

Context Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, in Pakistan, the daughter of a Pakistani father and an English mother. She moved to Hatfield in England when she was a few months old. She didn't revisit Pakistan until after the publication of her first book of poems, The Country over my Shoulder, from which this poem comes. The poet says: 'Presents from My Aunts... was one of the first poems I wrote - when I wrote this poem I hadn't actually been back to Pakistan. The girl in the poem would be me at about thirteen. The clothes seem to stick to her in an uncomfortable way, a bit like a kind of false skin, and she thinks things aren't straightforward for her. I found it was important to write the Pakistan poems because I was getting in touch with my background. And maybe there's a bit of a message behind the poems about something I went through, that I want to maybe open a few doors if possible.'

The story The speaker in the poem, who is of mixed race, describes the gifts of clothes and jewellery sent to her in England by her Pakistani relatives. She is drawn to the loveliness of these things, but feels awkward wearing them. She feels more comfortable in English clothes - denim and corduroy. She contrasts the beautiful clothes and jewellery of India with boring English cardigans/from Marks and Spencer. She tries to remember what it was like for her family to travel to England. Her knowledge of her birthplace, which she left as a baby, comes to her only through old photographs and newspaper reports. She tries to imagine what that world might be like.

Structure The poem is written in free verse: the phrases are arranged loosely across the page. It is divided into stanzas of varying length. Try reading the poem aloud. How does the arrangement of the lines influence your reading? When there is no set pattern to a poem, the writer can always break a line to create emphasis. Listen to the difference, for example, between: I longed for denim and corduroy and I longed for denim and corduroy Explain how the arrangement of I... tried to glimpse myself in the miniature glass circles... helps us to picture what the girl is doing.

Imagery and Sound The poem is a sequence of personal memories. I is repeated a lot in the poem. When we are remembering things, our minds often drift from one image to another, in the way that the poem does, and sometimes surprise us by fixing on odd details - like the tin boat, perhaps (line 54). The poem is full of associated, sometimes contrasting, images. Here are two lists of words that describe things to do with Pakistani culture and things associated with English culture. Pakistani A salwar kameez peacock-blue Glistening like an orange split open The presents were radiant in my wardrobe English denim and corduroy cardigans from Marks and Spencer Add to the lists and think about the words that the poet has chosen.

Tone Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader. How do you think this poem should be read? In a confused voice, as if the girl cannot decide whether she is more Pakistani or English? Wistfully, as if she regrets having lost her original culture? Gratefully, as she thinks about the beautiful, exotic gifts? Select a short quotation to justify your choice.

Imagery and Sound What strikes you most strongly about the way the clothes from Pakistan are described in the first stanza? How are the colours described? Why are English things referred to in such an ordinary way? How does the England she knows contrast to the fractured land throbbing through newsprint of Pakistan? How else does life in England differ from life in Pakistan (especially for a woman)? Does the girl feel that all the Pakistani objects 'fit' into an English way of life? The final image in a poem tends to carry a particular significance - it's the one our imagination is left with. The speaker imagines herself there in Lahore - somewhere she has been only in her thoughts. However, she is of no fixed nationality. This sounds a slightly threatening phrase (there's a similar one - 'of no fixed abode' - which is used in law courts when the defendant is homeless). Can you link this phrase with other words earlier in the poem? The speaker imagines herself staring through fretwork at the beautiful Shalimar Gardens. Why is this such an effective image to end on?

In an interview Moniza Alvi has said: 'Growing up I felt that my origins were invisible, because there weren't many people to identify with in Hatfield at that time, of a mixed race background or indeed from any other race, so I felt there was a bit of a blank drawn over that. I think I had a fairly typically English 50s/60s upbringing. When I eventually went to Pakistan I certainly didn't feel that was home, I'd never felt so English. But I never feel entirely at home in England, and of course I'm not part of the Asian community at all. And it feels a bit odd sometimes that because of the group of poems that I've written about my Asian background, I sometimes tend to be identified as a black writer. I tend to think of England as being very culturally mixed now. But it's important to know where you come from, which is perhaps what I was lacking as a child. I think it's important to know what has gone into your making, even quite far back, I think it gives you a sense perhaps of richness.

glistening like an orange split open The girl in the poem doesn't quite know what to think about the presents. The way she describes them makes them sound beautiful peacock-blue and glistening like an orange split open but also slightly dangerous, because the bangle 'drew blood', and she felt 'aflame' when she put them on. They make her feel 'alien in the sitting room', when your sitting room should be where you feel at home. The clothes remind her that she is 'half-English', which makes her feel uncomfortable. At the same time, she says the clothes are 'radiant in the wardrobe' - even though she isn't wearing them, they seem full of light and beauty compared with her other things. She is drawn to the rich colours, the same as she is drawn to her mother's jewellery and her parents' camel-skin lamp marvel at the colours like stained glass She realises that all this is part of her own family's past, and another side of her identity. At the end of the poem, she tries to imagine how it might have been if she'd lived in Lahore instead, and wonders would she have been more or less at home in the other half of her background?

Exam response Examiner's Note develops the ideas describes carefully the contrasted emotions connects the clothes to broader feelings about identity suggests an A grade candidate?