1. ‘The Emigree’ VS ‘Tissue ’
Power and Conflict Anthology

2. Structural Analysis
The poem, ‘The Emigree’ follows a 3 stanzas structure. Within the poem, there is pathetic fallacy due to the continuous mention of the ‘sunlight’ within the poem. The mention of this noun brings ideas of new hope and happiness.
The opening of the poem seems to depict the speaker recounting her memories of her city. The second stanza builds the increasing level of details. The third and final stanza shows the poem to becoming darker.
The poem also uses some enjambment which reflects the natural speak tones of the speaker as well as creating a flowing pace to the work of the narrator.
The poem, ‘Tissue’ is written as an internal monologue with some internal rhyme throughout the course of the poem. The poem also has enjambment which creates a calm tone. It is essentially a stream of consciousness.
The poem begins by looking at the joy of simple things such as well used paper and wonders about what if the world has the same qualities as papers. The final stanza of the poem is buoyant and sends out a warning.

3. Language Analysis
‘Paper thinned by age or touching,’ The tactile language used by the writer shows that paper is powerful despite its fragility. This highlights its importance.
‘the borderlines, the marks, that rivers make, roads, rail tracks, roads, rail tracks, mountain folds,’ The listing employed by the writer encompasses the man-made and the natural parts of the world. The aforementioned, ‘sun shines though’ implies a sense of hope and the fact that these stated items have become rather than the permanent object we can see.
‘An architect could use all this place layer over layer, luminous’ This could elicits to the idea that we withhold the ability and power to transform paper into anything which meets our humanly desires and needs.
‘might fly our lives like paper kites,’ The mention of ‘paper kites’ connotes to the idea of almost a child like innocence and ease. Possibly the poet could be eliciting to the idea that if we were to change our approach to materialism we could all regain our childhood innocence.
The title of the poem, ‘The Emigree’ actually means emigrant in French, which implies that the speaker is actually a woman. Additionally, it has also connotations of exile for political reasons. It could elicit to the idea for leaving behind a new life for a new one.
There is also the mention of ‘paperweight’ which shows the fragility of the her memories of her previous homes. Once again, they are precious like her emotional connection with her country.

4. Themes & Context
‘The Emigree’ has a deep sense of internalised conflict between the speaker and her homeland. This can be seen within the final line within in the poem where the speaker notes how ‘my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.’ The juxtaposition of the two contrasting ideas of lightness and darkness, is similar to their innate battle of the two identities of their city. The lightness is symbolic of their memories and overall happiness whilst the darkness could be representative of the now war-torn state that the city is now within.
The conflict is depicted within the poem through the use of hard-hitting nouns and adverbs such as ‘banned’ suggests that the now corrupted and fascist image of the actual real life within the speaker’s country.
The poet explores the memories of the speakers as there is a harsh contrast between the happy child to the truths as an adult today.
‘Tissue’ explores the idea of conflict in terms of destruction and politics. It hints at maybe we make our conflict by holding too tightly onto the grip of power and actually need to remember that we are all humans.
Imtiaz Darker, the poet of ‘Tissue’, has Pakistani origins and was raised in Glasgow. The following poem is supposed to be meet from the perspective of a someone today looking at the world problems today, the troubles of the modern day world such as war, politics and money.