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Tissue
described—seeing in this humble material nothing less than a
SUMMARY symbol for all of human existence.
Translucent paper like this could change everything. Paper The poem begins by stressing the majestic power of
made thin by time and human touch. paper—which might go unnoticed or unacknowledged in daily
life. This paper, “thinned by age or touching,” represents one of
The sort of paper you might find in an old book. Like the Koran,
humankind’s most miraculous achievements: the ability to store
for example—like this one, in the back of which someone has
and transfer knowledge. Paper grants humanity power because
written out people's names and family trees.
it allows knowledge to survive outside of people’s minds,
Their weights and heights are recorded there too, and how and facilitating an ever deeper understanding of the world—as well
where people died, and on what day long ago. These pages have as the ability to change the world; “this / is what could alter
been worn down by decades of reading, so that they have things,” the speaker says. This ability is emphasized by the
become thin enough to let light through. almost heavenly light that shines through the paper.
Imagine if buildings were made out of paper. Then I would be Indeed, paper as initially presented in the poem is in a way less
able to feel the way they sway in the wind, watch them easily fragile than human life, because it records details about people
get caught up in the air of a sigh or a change in the wind's who are no longer around—their births, deaths, family
direction. histories, even heights and weights. The paper, thin and weak as
And maps—think about the way the sun shines through them it is, outlives these people, emphasizing its power and the
and all their different markings: borders, rivers, roads, railways, comparative transience of human life. But this is where it gets
mountains, and so on. complicated. Just as paper symbolizes human power—the same
And how about receipts from stores—they tell a story about power that has made humanity the dominate species on the
what we bought, how we paid. These bits of paper fly away planet—it also stands in for the way that this power is a kind of
from us like kites. illusion.
An architect could make buildings out of layers of paper. These In the fourth stanza, the speaker imagines what it would be like
buildings would shine with light and display their texts. In fact, if “buildings were paper":
that architect would probably never want to use bricks or
concrete ever again. [...] I might
feel their drift, see how easily
Instead, the architect would prefer paper buildings that
they fall away on a sigh, a shift
daylight shines through—translucent cities and statues, the
in the direction of the wind.
types of buildings put up to mark humankind's power. This
architect could create a great new design.
Buildings are obviously not, and probably never will be, made of
This design would be made with living material. The architect paper—but here they presented as being just as fragile as paper.
would build something not meant to last—make it out of paper It may take longer, but even buildings—which seem
that was smoothed until it became translucent. permanent—are prone to collapse, dilapidation, and
The paper would be transformed into your own skin tissue. destruction. Nothing about humanity, not even the creations it
leaves behind—so the poem argues—is truly permanent.
The poem expands on this idea by turning to maps. These
THEMES symbolize the human ability to adapt to the environment, while
also remaining vulnerable to the extreme conditions that might
HUMAN POWER AND FRAGILITY come about in the natural world. Receipts from grocery stores,
“Tissue” is about human power and fragility. The meanwhile—falling out of people’s pockets or thrown into
“Tissue” referred to in the title is, at the beginning at bins—represent the illusion of money (another way that
least, a reference to paper. The poem begins as a kind of hymn humankind imposes its power on the world).
of praise to this material, before imagining what a human world The speaker imagines a civilization in which the buildings are
made out of paper would be like. The poem uses this metaphor made out of paper, suggesting that this would somehow be a
to highlight both the power and fragility of human civilization, more truthful world because it would acknowledge the fragility
two traits that the speaker perceives in the material of paper of life while also allowing life’s beauty to shine clearly (again
itself. The speaker is in awe of the thin, translucent paper represented by light traveling through the paper). The truth and

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beauty of human life, argues the poem, is that it is “never meant
to last.” The poem circles back on itself with this thought, • Lines 17-24
returning to the subject of human life itself. Paper is • Lines 25-29
transformed in the speaker’s imagination into “your
skin”—which could be the skin of the reader but equally could
apply to any human life. The poem thus ends by emphasizing LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
both the fragility and the power of being alive—with all the
possibilities and risks that living brings. LINES 1-3
Paper that lets ...
Where this theme appears in the poem: ... could alter things.
• Lines 1-37 The poem begins by establishing its focus on paper (and thus
putting the title into context). Though it isn't explicitly said that
this is the case, it seems like the speaker is holding paper in
HUMAN CONNECTION their hand, contemplating what this humble material says about
"Tissue" explores not just the fragility of human life, life, society, and humanity. The speaker perceives a kind of
but also the importance of human connection. The power in the paper, saying in line 3 that this "is what could alter
poem is in fact partly inspired by a real event in Dharker's life. things." Paper could change the world, somehow, though the
She found an old copy of a Koran, in the back of which her speaker's meaning is still to be explored.
father had written various information about people's Light functions as a symbol in this poem. Traditionally a symbol
birthdays, deaths, and so on (similar to what is described in the for human knowledge (which, in the poem, depends on paper),
poem). Of this event, she said, "Looking at it, I felt a connection it also suggests the fragility of that power—after all, paper is
to him, that we had lost for years." Paper, in other words, allows thin enough for light to pass through it! The enjambment
for connections between different points in time and between lines 1 and 2 after the word "light" visually represents
space—and this connection, the poem implies, is part of what the translucence of paper, as if light shines through the line
gives life meaning. break.
The poem also looks briefly at how paper connects humankind There is also a delicate consonance at play in these lines (and
to its environment. Maps allow for graphic representation of throughout the poem) which suggests the fragility of paper
rivers, roads, railways, mountains, and so on, which in turn help (and, by extension, human life):
people to navigate the world more easily—and, in doing so, to
connect with people far and wide. Of course, paper also forms
Paper thatt letts the lightt
connections on a smaller scale in an individual's day-to-day life,
shine th
through, th this
the paper trail of receipts leaving behind a picture of where
is whatt could altter th
things.
that person was and what they did.
Perhaps that's why the speaker seems to like the idea of a city "Things" here is an ambiguous word, but it allows the poem to
built out of paper—because it would foreground the set itself up on quite general terms. Indeed, the poem's subject
importance of interconnectedness. In fact, it's in this section of is both specific and extremely broad: paper on the one hand,
the poem that the speaker talks most generally about paper, and nothing less than the meaning of life on the other.
thinking how these imaginary paper buildings would lay "script
over numbers over line." These three nouns emphasize the LINES 4-8
incredibly wide-ranging importance of paper—from religious Paper thinned by ...
scripture, to mathematics and science, to art and culture. These ... born to whom,
things, the poem ultimately suggests, are of the highest Lines 4 to 12, from the end of the first stanza to the end of the
importance, because they are the things that structure culture, third, seem to describe a specific and memorable encounter
society, and life itself—more so than any "brick // or block." between the speaker and a piece of paper. Indeed, here it's
Whereas "capitals and monoliths" are the products of "pride" worth learning a bit more about the context of the poem's
and "grand design," it's the connection between people and composition. Dharker was inspired to write the poem after
across generations, however physically insubstantial, that really looking in an old copy of the Koran—her father had written her
matter. date of birth on the fragile paper on the back (Bibles and
Korans are often printed on tissue-like paper due to their
Where this theme appears in the poem: length).
• Lines 4-12 Dharker explains how "Looking at it, I felt a connection to him,

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that we had lost for years." This supports the poem's theme of especially in line 11, a plethora of ands emphasize how full of
interconnectedness: evocative qualities these pages seem: "pages smoothed and
stroked and turned / transparent."
And in this poem I wrote, I was really trying to think The poem uses sonic devices to accomplish a similar feeling of
about what matters, what's worth writing in books, interconnection. The gentle shared /t/ consonance in "heightt
birth, death, family, relationships, and how the scraps and weightt" links these two words together as things recorded
of paper that we throw away are the things that tell at the same time. Line 10 uses subtle /d/ alliter
alliteration
ation between
the real story of our lives. And also how something as "d
died" and "d date" to suggest marks on a page. (Also note that, in
fragile as tissue, tissue paper, human skin, can be this line, the color "sepia" evokes how long ago this information
more precious than all the things we build to try and was recorded in "the back of the Koran.")
make ourselves feel safe and secure, the temples and
Line 11 picks up on this /d/ sound, transforming it from
churches and mosques, and the monuments.
alliteration into consonance (/s/ consonance is present too):
The poem expands on Dharker's initial inspiration, exploring
pagess ssmoothed
d and stroked
d and turned
d
the way that paper records important facts about life. Indeed,
by recording births and deaths, in a way it records all life (from
Notice the smoothness of the /d/ sound, suggesting how the
first moments to the last). So while the paper is physically
pages have been made softer by human touch over the years.
fragile, it also possesses a strength by virtue of its contribution
All of this forms part of the way that the poem strikes a delicate
to knowledge and its ability to survive for a long time despite
balance between the fragility and enduring power of paper. The
how easy it is to destroy.
enjambment at the end of this line ("and turned / transparent")
Indeed, paper—and the way it records knowledge and also contributes to this feeling of smoothness, as though the
thoughts—connects people across time and space. Someone punctuation at the end of the line has been eroded away by a
can pick up a book and read the thoughts of someone else from page-turning thumb.
a completely different era. The poem emphasizes this powerful
interconnectedness through sound in the second stanza: LINES 13-16
If buildings were ...
the kiind you fiind in well-used bookks, ... of the wind.
the backck of the Korann, where a han
hand
The fourth stanza marks the first main shift in the poem's
ha
has written in the names and histories,
direction. It picks up on the sentiment expressed in the opening
who was born to who whom,
lines—that paper "could alter things." Now, the speaker
wonders what it would be like "if buildings were paper." The
Assonance
Assonance, consonance and alliter
alliteration
ation here connect different
speaker imposes the characteristics of paper onto the built
words together, mirroring the way that words themselves
urban environment, imagining how "paper" buildings would
connect people, and require paper to do so.
have a more obvious "drift" than those made out of bricks and
LINES 9-12 concrete. The point here, though, is not really the difference
between paper and bricks—but the way that, over the long
the height and ...
passage of time, even things as seemingly permanent as
... transparent with attention.
buildings are fragile too.
The third stanza continues the sentence started all the way
/F/ and /n/ consonance in these lines has a delicate, gentle
back in line 4. The flowing grammar—aided by enjambment and
sound, as though the lines are being blown by the wind:
caesur
caesuraa—creates a sense of interconnectedness between lines
and across stanzas. This supports the poem's focus on the way
Iff buildings were paper, I might
that the paper connects people across time and space.
feel their drifft, see how easily
With that in mind, then, the third stanza continues where the they fall away on a sigh, a shifft
previous stanza left off. It's worth noting the mix of asyndeton in
n the direction n of the win
nd.
and polysyndeton in this stanza (and the previous). Asyndeton
is a lack of conjunction words—like "and"—while polysyndeton And, once again, the lack of conjunction words (such as "and")
is the use of many such words. While at first the combination of creates an up-close sense of interconnectedness in the lines,
these devices might seem paradoxical, a quick glance at stanza which relates to the way paper connects different people and
three reveals how it's done. First, the lack of conjunction words cultures. (This device is called asyndeton
asyndeton.) The three
brings the individual clauses of the long sentence closer enjambments also create the sense that a wind is blowing
together, again supporting the theme of interconnection. Then, through these lines. Finally, three consonant /n/ sounds

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(highlighted above) combine with /i/ assonance in line 16 ("iin Fine slipss from groccery shopss
the directio
ion of the wiind"), clumping together as if blown by the that say how much wass ssold
wind. and what wass paid by credit card
miight flyy our liivess liike paper kiitess.
LINES 17-20
Maps too. The ... This consonance gives the stanza a delicate sound, helping to
... railtracks, mountainfolds, convey the smallness of these throwaway bits of paper. Indeed,
The fifth stanza marks another shift in the poem, moving from the /s/ sounds are also suggestive of wind, fitting nicely with the
"buildings" to "maps." It's not clear what the "too" in "Maps too" simile in line 24—that these papers fly away from people "like
refers to—it probably means "maps in addition to buildings," but paper kites."
obviously maps are actually made of paper. At any rate, this This stanza is really made of the stuff of everyday life, and
short sentence acts as an emphatic introduction to the next demonstrates how human life leaves a kind of paper trail
section of the poem. behind it. The kite image simultaneously speaks to the fragility
The full-stop caesur
caesuraa after this short sentence marks the shift and the beauty of being alive, with the enjambment throughout
in focus. The rest of the stanza lists the kind of information the stanza suggests the freedom of something flying on the air.
found on a map: The /i/ assonance in line 24 (also highlighted above) weaves
through the line as if caught on the wind.
Maps too. The sun n shin
iness through
LINES 25-29
their borderlin
iness, the marks ks
that riverss makke, roadss, An architect could ...
railtracks
cks, moun ntainnfoldss, ... or block,
The seventh stanza marks another key shift in the poem. The
As with earlier in the poem, these lines use sound patterning to speaker now imagines paper as a kind of building material, and
suggest interconnectedness—which relates to the way that how a skilled architect could put it to use. This architect, says
maps help make sense of the world, turning it into a the speaker, could "use all this" (the world's paper) and create
comprehensible whole. something beautiful.
The sun shining through the map, like the light in the first line, is This beauty is suggested by the sound of these lines, and the
suggestive both of the metaphorical light of knowledge and the use of the word "luminous":
fragility of paper—the fact that light can pass through paper in
the first place. Asyndeton
Asyndeton—the lack of conjunctions like An arcchittectct could usse allll thiss,
"and"—draws these clauses together, again suggesting the way plac
lace la
layyerr overr la
layyerr, lum
minnouss
human knowledge, as facilitated by paper, connects people, scrript overr num mbers rs overr lin
ne,
places, and times. an
nd neverr wish to builld again n with br
brick
ck
Additionally, the manmade aspect of the land—"borderlines," or bl
block
ck,
"roads," and "railtracks"—can be read as a kind of metaphorical
representation of writing. That is, humans treat the earth like As highlighted above, these lines are full of sound patterning
paper, covering it with borders and roads, as if writing on the through consonance
consonance, alliter
alliteration
ation, and assonance
assonance. The delicate
land. /l/ sound in particular helps to conjure a sense of beauty. Other
sounds include the /c/, /n/, /s/, /b/, /r/ and /t/ sounds. Generally
LINES 21-24 speaking, the use of sound patterning reminds the reader that
Fine slips from ... poem is a constructed object. In turn, this fits with the image of a
... like paper kites. city built out of paper—both represent ways of building.
In the sixth stanza, the poem shifts from maps to receipts As the speaker imagines it, this hypothetical architect would
without giving the reader any warning. This abruptness actually never want to return to brick and concrete—they would love
adds to the sense of interconnectedness, the way that paper building with paper too much. The enjambment across stanzas
plays a more important—and wider—role in daily life than also highlights the poem's internal sense of construction. In a
people might generally acknowledge. The speaker highlights way, the speaker is describing how human knowledge
the way that even something as frivolous as a grocery shop functions—layers get built on top of other layers, with one
receipt can tell a kind of human story (as did the pages at the generation's knowledge building on that of the past.
back of the Koran in the second stanza). Indeed, it is appreciation for the role of paper in this
These lines are full of /s/ consonance
consonance: development of knowledge that forms one of the poem's key

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ideas. Religious writing ("script," as in scripture), mathematics/ the way that paper gets eroded over time, especially through
science ("numbers"), and art/literature ("line," as in visual art as human touch.
well as poetry) are all gestured to. Paper is the common But the poem here is also talking about the physical body, and
element in all of these different types of knowledge and ways of skin in particular. Skin is also like a kind of paper, "smoothed and
understanding the world. stroked," "thinned" over the years by aging—it even allows a
LINES 29-33 degree of light to pass through it. This final focus on human skin
foregrounds the way that the poem has been talking about
but let the ... humanity—and the experience of being human—throughout its
... with living tissue, thirty-seven lines.
After the caesur
caesuraa at the start of stanza 8 ("or block, but let"), The "your" in the last line is an interesting twist. It's the only
lines 29-33 sing the praises of this hypothetical use of the second-person throughout the poem (the other
architecture—buildings made out of paper. The speaker occurs in line 5: "the kind you find in well-used books"). This
imagines the way paper buildings would "let the daylight break "your" is both intimate and general. That is, it could be a specific
/ through" them, the enjambment between "break" and "you," one whose skin is familiar to the speaker. Or, it could be
through" creating the poem's own break on the page. more general and apply to the reader, any reader—who, it's
These lines are pretty open to interpretation, but one point the worth remembering, is probably looking at the poem on paper.
speaker seems to make is that paper structures would
showcase the fragility of human civilization, while also
celebrating it. That is, paper "monoliths" (large structures) SYMBOLS
would commemorate human achievement and remind the
viewer that such achievements are temporary (and perhaps
PAPER
more beautiful for being so). Capital cities, with their air of
importance, would demonstrate the same thing if they were Paper is a constant presence in the poem, referred to
made out of paper. The speaker perceives a kind of "pride" in from the title onwards. In part, the poem is a kind of
these "shapes" that humans make through their hymn to paper—praising its usefulness and subtle beauty.
buildings—perhaps even a kind of vanity. Broadly speaking, paper comes to symbolize both the power
and fragility of human life.
Paper, then, highlights a kind of deeper truth about human
power and fragility. With another sudden line and stanza break, The poem emphasizes paper's—and humanity's—power by
the poem enjambs into its final significant shift—switching from focusing on paper's role throughout human civilization. Paper
focusing on buildings to the human body itself. has played and continues to play a vital role in humankind's
relationship with knowledge and the storage of that
LINES 33-37 knowledge. Essentially, it is a media device that allows
raise a structure ... information to transcend the confines of the specific time and
... into your skin. space in which it is written (the way that 21st century readers
can get a sense of Elizabethan language in the works of
After line 33's caesur
caesuraa ("with living tissue, rraise
aise a structure"),
Shakespeare, for example). The power to externalize
the poem turns its attention to the human body itself. In a way,
knowledge influences all kinds of aspects of human civilization,
the poem is using paper as a way to get to the core of what it
from the understanding of the natural world (through maps) to
means to be human, arguing that it is human fragility that makes
commerce (e.g. receipts). Of course, it also plays a vital role in
life beautiful, not the ability to create vast structures out of
religion and culture too.
"pride."
At the same time, paper is a fragile material—easily crumpled
The speaker returns to paper's own delicateness—it is "never
and torn, and often rather transparent. It must be treated
meant to last" (yet does)—and to its smoothness, thinness, and
gently and taken care of to survive. When the speaker argues
transparency:
for buildings made out of paper, rather than brick, this isn't
meant literally; rather, the speaker is using paper as a stand-in
[...] paper smoothed d and stroked
d for the best aspects of humanity itself—connection, shared
and thinned d to be transparent, knowledge, and so forth. This helps highlight paper's central
turned d into your skin. role in human civilization and another important aspect of its
symbolic power—paper is fragile, and so too is human
The soft /d/ consonance here has been encountered before, civilization.
almost word for word in line 11 ("pages smoothed d and
d stroked
d
and
d turnedd"). Like that point in the poem, the /d/ here captures

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This delicate /l/ sound is associated with light throughout the
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
poem, which is an important part of the discussion of paper's
• Lines 1-2: “Paper that lets the light / shine through” translucence. Additionally, because the lines are so short,
• Line 4: “Paper thinned by age or touching” alliteration also occurs between lines. "[T
T]hhrough," "th
this, "
• Lines 5-6: “the kind you find in well-used books, / the "th
things," and "th
thinned" all chime together in the first stanza,
back of the Koran” another soft sound conveying the delicateness of paper.
• Lines 11-12: “pages smoothed and stroked and turned / The second stanza uses alliteration too: "kkind" chimes with
transparent with attention” "K
Koran," "b
books" with "bback," and "h
hand" with "h
has." Here, the
• Lines 13-14: “If buildings were paper, I might / feel their poem discusses writing in the back of a book which records
drift”
births, deaths, height, weight and so on (based on a true
• Line 17: “Maps too.”
discovery made by Dharker). The prominent alliteration
• Lines 21-22: “Fine slips from grocery shops / that say
accentuates this description of the markings in the back,
how much was sold”
drawing the reader's attention to the way that the words of the
• Lines 26-27: “layer over layer, luminous / script over
poem are selected with intention and purpose, just like those at
numbers over line”
the back of the speaker's Koran.
• Lines 35-36: “paper smoothed and stroked / and thinned
to be transparent” In the third stanza, /s/ alliteration creates a smooth sound:
"ssepia," "ssmoothed," "sstroked." This helps bring to life the way
that paper is smoothed over time by human touch. The /s/
LIGHT sounds in the sixth stanza ("sslipss," "ssay," "ssold") are delicate, and
Light is mentioned in a few instances throughout support the speaker's focus on store receipts—all the bits of
"Tissue." It's closely linked to the other main symbol paper that human beings don't really value. The /s/ sounds
in the poem: paper. If paper symbolizes humanity, then light suggest the fragility of this paper, and also evoke the wind that
symbolizes the power of nature. Note how the poem forms part of the line 24's simile
simile: "[these papers] might fly our
repeatedly depicts light as shining through paper, at once lives like paper kites."
underscoring how delicate this material is and metaphorically In the fifth stanza, "rrivers," "rroads," and "rrailtracks" alliterate.
suggesting that nature is more powerful than any human These /r/ sounds cut a route through the stanza like the things
accomplishment or creation. Light doesn't care about the they describe—the way humans cut through a landscape with a
arbitrary lines people have drawn up on maps, for instance. road, for example.
The speaker doesn't present this as a negative thing, however. The seventh stanza returns to the link between the /l/ sound
Rather, the speaker wishes for a world in which buildings were and light, imagining a city made out of paper. The speaker
made of paper and as such could let the light through. Perhaps conceives of this translucent metropolis as something
this suggests a desire for a world in which humanity better beautiful, and the /l/ sounds help convey that beauty: "place
understood its limitations and essential fragility—that it, too, is layer over layer, luminous" (line 26). In this stanza and the next,
subject to the whims of the natural world and the passage of the poem also uses /b/ alliteration:
time.
and never wish to build again with brick
Where this symbol appears in the poem: or block, but let the daylight break
• Lines 1-2: “Paper that lets the light / shine through”
• Lines 17-18: “The sun shines through / their This alliteration draws the reader's attention to the poem's
borderlines” construction. Foregrounding the fact that the poem is made out
• Lines 29-30: “let the daylight break / through capitals of language mirrors the way that an architect uses bricks. As
and monoliths” throughout the poem, the speaker highlights the constructive
power of language and paper.

Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem:
POETIC DEVICES
• Line 1: “lets,” “light”
ALLITERATION • Line 2: “through, this”
Alliter
Alliteration
ation is used here and there throughout "Tissue." The • Line 3: “things.”
first instance is in the first line: • Line 4: “thinned”
• Line 5: “kind,” “books”
Paper that lets the light • Line 6: “back,” “Koran,” “hand”

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feel their driift, see how easiily
• Line 7: “has,” “histories” they fall away on a sigh, a shiift
• Line 8: “who,” “whom” in the direction of the wiind.
• Line 9: “height,” “who”
• Line 10: “died,” “how,” “sepia,” “date” The short /i/ sound filters down the stanza, and gives the last
• Line 11: “smoothed,” “stroked,” “turned” line a kind of uniform sound, as though it is itself heading in one
• Line 12: “transparent” direction. The speaker's point is that paper buildings would
• Line 14: “feel” sway easily in the wind—and the use of assonance captures a
• Line 15: “fall” similar kind of sway. Something similar happens at the end of
• Line 17: “The,” “through” the sixth stanza, when the speaker vividly imagines how
• Line 18: “their,” “the marks” grocery bills "miight flyy our liives liike paper kiites." A single long
• Lines 19-20: “that rivers make, roads, / railtracks, /i/ sound dominates the line, perhaps evoking small bits of
mountainfolds” paper borne on a breeze.
• Line 21: “Fine slips from”
• Line 22: “say,” “sold” Line 26, in the seventh stanza, uses assonance to pointed effect
• Line 23: “what was,” “credit card” as well. The speaker imagines an architect constructing a city
• Line 24: “lives like,” “kites” out of paper. The architect would "plaace laayeer oveer laayeer." The
• Line 26: “layer over layer, luminous” similar vowel sounds draw the reader's attention to the poem
• Line 27: “over numbers over line” as a constructed object, mirroring the way that buildings—like
• Line 28: “never wish,” “build,” “with brick” sentences—are made out of smaller units.
• Line 29: “block, but,” “break”
• Line 30: “through,” “monoliths” Where Assonance appears in the poem:
• Line 31: “through the ,” “that,” “make”
• Line 1: “light”
• Line 35: “smoothed,” “stroked”
• Line 2: “shine,” “this”
• Line 36: “transparent”
• Line 3: “is”
• Line 37: “turned,” “skin”
• Line 4: “Paper,” “age”
• Line 5: “kind,” “find”
ASSONANCE • Line 6: “Koran,” “hand”
Assonance is used throughout "Tissue." This often adds to the • Line 7: “written in,” “histories”
poem's musicality, imbuing the lines with a gentle sense of • Line 8: “who,” “to whom”
rhythm and cohesion. Take the first stanza, where the long /i/ of • Line 9: “height,” “weight”
"liight" links it to "shiine" at the start of line 2, and the short /i/ of • Line 10: “died,” “date”
"thiis" then sonically links line 2 to "iis" at the start of line 3. The • Line 11: “pages”
shared long /ay/ of "Paaper" and "aage" in line 4 suggests a • Line 13: “If,” “buildings,” “I might”
connection between these words, subtly reflecting the poem's • Line 14: “feel,” “drift, see,” “easily”
thematic idea of paper itself as a testament to the ages, in a • Line 15: “they,” “away,” “shift”
way—a physical means of ensuring connection between on • Line 16: “in,” “direction,” “wind”
generation and the next. • Line 17: “too,” “shines through”
• Line 18: “borderlines”
In the next stanza, assonance is part of the internal rh rhyme
yme
• Lines 19-20: “make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds,”
created by "kiind" and "fiind." "Koraan" and "haand" chime as well, • Line 21: “grocery”
as does the phrase "wriitten in [...] hiistories." Altogether, then, • Line 22: “say,” “sold”
assonance adds to the lyricism of the stanza. The third stanza is • Line 23: “paid”
yet again made musical by its assonance: • Line 24: “might fly ,” “lives like paper kites”
• Line 25: “this”
the hei
eight and wei
eight, who • Line 26: “place layer over layer”
die
ied where and how, on which sepia daate, • Line 27: “script over,” “over”
paages [...] • Line 28: “wish,” “build,” “brick”
• Line 29: “daylight break”
The long /i/ and /ay/ sounds trickle down the lines, linking them • Line 31: “shapes,” “make,”
together and making the stanza feel cohesive. Yet another • Line 32: “way,” “trace”
subtle example of assonance appears is in the fourth stanza: • Line 33: “with living tissue, raise”
• Line 34: “never meant”
If bui
uildiings were paper, I might

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• Line 35: “paper” smoothed”

• Line 36: “thinned” • Lines 14-16: “their drift, see how easily / they fall away
• Line 37: “skin” on a sigh, a shift / in the direction of the wind.”
• Lines 18-21: “their borderlines, the marks / that rivers
ASYNDETON make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds, / Fine slips from
grocery shops”
Asyndeton is used extensively in "Tissue." One of the poem's • Lines 26-27: “layer over layer, luminous / script over
main aims is to represent the way that paper provides humanity numbers over line,”
with a kind of interconnectedness. Paper connects different • Lines 29-34: “let the daylight break / through capitals
eras and cultures with each other, it links individuals, and it and monoliths, / through the shapes that pride can make,
keeps a society glued together. The poem for the most part / find a way to trace a grand design / with living tissue,
does away with conjunction words like "and" in order to make raise a structure / never meant to last,”
its individual clauses feel more connected, and to make the flow
of the poem somewhat unpredictable. The reader doesn't know CAESURA
where sentences will come to a stop, giving them an open-
ended feeling. Take, for example, the second and third stanzas: Caesur
Caesuraa is used throughout "Tissue." The poem's sentences and
phrases rarely conform to the individual line lengths, making
the kind you find in well-used books, for an unpredictable poem full of turns and abrupt stops.
the back of the Koran, where a hand Generally speaking, this also helps the poem subtly build its
has written in the names and histories, argument for interconnectedness, the way that paper links
who was born to whom, different people, spaces, and times together.
the height and weight, who Individual caesurae also have more localized effects. The
died where and how, on which sepia date, caesura in line 2, for example, evokes the way that light travels
pages smoothed [...] through paper, emphasizing the word "through":

The asyndeton allows for the reader to feel something of the Paper that lets the light
speaker's own feeling of discovery while reading the writing in shine through, this
the back of the Koran. The lack of conjunctions seems to mimic
the way that the eye scans down the page. Asyndeton can also The caesurae in the second and third stanzas have an
create a sort of piling up effect, which here reflects the piling up altogether different effect. Whoever has written in this "Koran"
of information as more and more details are jotted down onto has done so meticulously and methodically, recording facts
these pieces of paper. about people—their births, deaths, and measurements. The
caesurae help get this across, making each phrase feel carefully
In the following stanza, the asyndeton has a slightly different
and deliberately placed.
effect:
In the fourth stanza, the caesurae help to bring the speaker's
[...] I might imagery to life:
feel their drift, see how easily
they fall away on a sigh, a shift If buildings were paper
paper,, I might
in the direction of the wind. feel their drift, see how easily
they fall away on a sigh, a shift
Here the lack of conjunction words helps convey the stanza's in the direction of the wind.
image of paper buildings. The lines have a kind of swaying
unpredictability to them because it's hard to know when they The caesurae give these lines a sense of "drift" and "shift[ing]"
will come to a stop. The last stanzas achieve a similar effect in unpredictability.
its use of asyndeton. In stanzas seven, eight, and nine, (from "An architect" all the
way down to "never meant to last") caesurae draw attention to
Where Asyndeton appears in the poem: the poem as a constructed object—something made. They are
like the glue between bricks. This ties in with the discussion of
• Lines 5-11: “well-used books, / the back of the Koran,
architecture, during which the speaker imagines an architect
where a hand / has written in the names and histories, /
building a city made out of paper.
who was born to whom, / the height and weight, who /
died where and how, on which sepia date, / pages

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The next key example is in the sixth stanza, with its clear /f/ and
Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem:
/s/ sounds:
• Line 2: “through, this”
• Line 6: “Koran, where” Fine slipss from groccery shopss
• Line 9: “weight, who” that say how much was sold
• Line 10: “how, on”
• Line 13: “paper, I” This is technically an example of sibilance
sibilance, which adds a sense
• Line 14: “drift, see” of whispering quiet to the line. This, in turn, reflects the ease
• Line 15: “sigh, a” with which these delicate slips of paper—despite in fact
• Line 17: “too. The” conveying a great deal of information—may indeed "fly" out of
• Line 18: “borderlines, the” our purses and pockets unnoticed. The consonance evokes the
• Lines 19-20: “make, roads, / railtracks, mountainfolds,” sound of the wind as these throwaway bits of paper that people
• Line 26: “layer, luminous” tend to ignore in daily life—receipts, etc.—flutter away.
• Line 29: “block, but”
The last two lines use /n/ and /t/ consonance:
• Line 33: “tissue, raise”
an
nd thinn
nned to be trannsparentt,
CONSONANCE
turn
ned int
nto your skin
n.
Consonance is used throughout "Tissue." Some of this is
alliter
alliteration
ation (occurring at the start of words), and there is a These gentle sounds evoke the way that paper becomes
separate entry to cover these examples. thinner through human touch. Because the speaker also relates
In the first stanza, delicate /th/ and /t/ sounds (among others) this "tissue paper" to human "tissue"—i.e., skin—this perhaps
run throughout: suggests the fragility of human life more generally.

Paper th
that letts the lightt Where Consonance appears in the poem:
shine th
through, th this
• Line 1
is whatt could altter th
things.
• Line 2
Paper th
thinned by age or touching,
• Line 3
• Line 4
The /th/ sound and the /t/ here are both gentle, subtly evoking • Line 5
the fragility of paper (which also comes to stand for the fragility • Line 6
of human life more generally). • Line 7
Another next key example of consonance appears in the third • Line 8
stanza, during which the speaker discusses the different • Lines 9-10
information recorded in the back of a copy of the Koran: • Line 11
• Line 12
died
d where and how, on which sepia datte, • Line 13
pages smoothed d and
d sttroked
d and
d turned
d • Line 14
transparentt with att
ttention. • Line 15
• Line 16
• Line 17
Notice the way that the /d/ and /t/ sounds fill the lines, making
• Lines 18-20
them feel interconnected. The repetition of sound is insistent
• Line 21
and inescapable; these sounds build upon each other just as the
• Line 22
information builds up on these pages.
• Line 23
The fourth stanza uses a gentle /f/ sound: • Line 24
• Line 25
Iff buildings were paper, I might • Line 26
feel their drifft, see how easily • Line 27
they fall away on a sigh, a shifft • Line 28
• Lines 28-29
The softness of this sound helps convey the fragility of the • Line 30
image—buildings made out of paper. • Line 31

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quicker, mirroring the way in which these papers easily come
• Line 32 and go.
• Line 33
• Line 34 Where Enjambment appears in the poem:
• Line 35
• Line 36 • Lines 1-2: “light / shine”
• Line 37 • Lines 2-3: “this / is”
• Lines 6-7: “hand / has”
ENJAMBMENT • Lines 9-10: “who / died”
• Lines 11-12: “turned / transparent”
Enjambment is used all the way through "Tissue." Broadly • Lines 13-14: “might / feel”
speaking, it works with caesur
caesuraa to create two main effects. First • Lines 14-15: “easily / they”
of all, the enjambment and caesurae make the poem very • Lines 15-16: “shift / in”
unpredictable—it's hard to know when sentences will start or • Lines 17-18: “through / their”
end. But this also gives the poem a kind of interconnected feel, • Lines 18-19: “ marks / that ”
preventing the sections from feeling too separate from one • Lines 21-22: “shops / that”
another. • Lines 22-23: “sold / and”
Enjambment also has more specific effects on individual lines. • Lines 23-24: “card / might”
Take, for example, the first and second lines: • Lines 26-27: “luminous / script”
• Lines 29-30: “break / through”
Paper that lets the light • Lines 32-33: “design / with”
shine through • Lines 33-34: “structure / never”
• Lines 35-36: “stroked / and”
Notice the way that the enjambment here seems to allow the
light to shine through the line itself. It would feel very different EXTENDED METAPHOR
if, for example, it was written like this: "Tissue" is a somewhat impressionistic poem that uses
metaphor throughout, though there isn't always one single
Paper that lets the light shine through, obvious interpretation. Speaking generally, the poem uses
paper—which it discusses in all of its thirty-seven lines—as an
This would have created a duller, more leaden line. Instead, the extended metaphor that relates to both human power and
speaker keeps the lines short and dynamic. fragility. Obviously, paper is a fragile material—but it's also
The fourth stanza uses enjambment in every line: powerful, allowing knowledge to be preserved across time and
space, an ability which is essential to the way human civilization
If buildings were paper, I might has evolved.
feel their drift, see how easily The poem opens fairly literally, though the relevant qualities of
the
theyy fall away on a sigh, a shift paper—its ability to record information and its
in the direction of the wind. translucence—are present from the start. The translucent
quality of the paper stands in metaphorically for the light of
Here, the speaker imagines buildings made out of paper—how knowledge and truth, as well as the way that these are
delicate they would be, and how they would "drift" and "shift" in ultimately fragile.
the wind. The enjambment is the poem's way of conveying that
In the last three stanzas (and the last line), running from "an
motion, refusing to settle into a steady shape.
architect" to "your skin," the speaker imagines a city built out of
The next key example is in the sixth stanza in which, once again, paper. This becomes a metaphor that compares buildings and
all of the lines are enjambed: statues to the fragility paper. This seems to be the speaker's
way of highlighting their impermanence. In the last line, paper
Fine slips from grocery shops becomes a metaphor for human skin too. This speaks to the
that say how much was sold way that the experiences of life are written onto people's
and what was paid by credit card skin—through wrinkles and smile lines, for instance.
might fly our lives like paper kites.
Where Extended Metaphor appears in the poem:
Here the speaker imagines all the tiny bits of paper that pass
through people's hands during their lives (such as receipts). The • Lines 1-37
lack of punctuation at the ends of the lines makes them flow

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SIMILE (intentionally). The way that sentences seem to disregard the
"Tissue" uses one simile
simile, which occurs in line 24 (quoted with box shape that contains them—an effect built using caesur
caesuraa and
the rest of the stanza for context): enjambment
enjambment—suggests the fragility of paper, as though the
poem itself could be easily torn apart.
Fine slips from grocery shops The poem is fairly free-form in the sense that it shifts from one
that say how much was sold aspect of its subject to another almost without warning. The
and what was paid by credit card first stanza is a general statement, while the second and third
might fly our liv
lives
es lik
likee paper kites. deal with a specific encounter with paper (one which is based
on real-life events). Then, the speaker starts imagining paper
This likens the small, ephemeral bits of paper that pass through buildings, before discussing maps and receipts. Finally, the
people's hands on a daily basis to "paper kites." speaker returns to these paper buildings, before ending with a
mention of skin. All in all, this makes for a wide-ranging and
The implication, of course, is that these bits of paper are
unpredictable poem that effectively demonstrates the various
constantly flying away from people—partly because they aren't
uses of paper and its essential importance to human life.
valued. But the speaker is subtly suggesting that these papers
tell more of a story than people might realize. They show where METER
people were, and when, and perhaps even something about
"Tissue" is not a metered poem, and uses free vverse
erse instead.
their personalities (in terms of the kind of things they might
The lines are short throughout, which helps give the poem a
buy).
literal thinness on the page that reflects the actual thinness of
The reference to kites also links to line 16's description of paper pages. The lack of meter helps make the poem more
paper buildings falling "in the direction of the wind"—all in all unpredictable, which seems to be an intentional
creating a picture of the fragility of paper. This in turn forms effect—especially given the way that the lines are so frequently
part of the poem's argument that, in fact, all human life is disrupted by caesur
caesuraa or joined together by enjambment
enjambment.
fragile—even the huge buildings in capital cities.
RHYME SCHEME
Where Simile appears in the poem: "Tissue" doesn't have a rh rhyme
yme scheme
scheme, though there are a
handful of rhymes here and there. Note how "things" in line 3
• Lines 21-24: “Fine slips from grocery shops / that say
how much was sold / and what was paid by credit card / basically rhymes with "touching" in line 4 (though the fact that
might fly our lives like paper kites.” the "-ing" of touching is unstressed makes this rhyme pretty
subtle). There are some internal rh rhymes
ymes throughout as
well—note the rhyme between "kind" and "find" in line 5, and
how "weight" in line 9 rhymes with "date" in line 10. There's
VOCABULARY nothing particularly significant about the link between these
words, but, broadly speaking, these moments of internal rhyme
Koran (Line 6) - The holy text of Islam.
add to the poem's musicality. The fact that the poem's few
Sepia (Line 10) - A reddish-brown color. Books often turn this rhymes don't typically appear at the end of lines might also
color over the years, and many antique photographs have the suggest a kind of internal connectedness. This, in fact, is one of
color. the themes of the poem—the way that paper brings people,
Fine Slips (Line 21) - Receipts from shops. times, and places together. The same thing occurs in lines 14
Fly Our Lives (Line 24) - Disappear from us. and 15 with "drift" and "shift," with the added effect of making
the stanza feel like its structural integrity is wavering, in
Luminous (Line 26) - Shining with light. keeping with the image of paper buildings.
Monoliths (Line 30) - Tall, imposing, man-made structures.

SPEAKER
FORM, METER, & RHYME
The speaker in "Tissue" is unspecified. Dharker herself has
FORM stated that the poem was inspired by her discovery of her
father's old Koran, in the back of which he had recorded similar
For the most part, "Tissue" is written in quatr
quatrains
ains (four-line
information to that referenced in lines 6-10. But that doesn't
stanzas). In addition, one line stands on its own right at the end.
mean that the poem itself has to be equated with Dharker as
The poem isn't written using a traditional form, and the the speaker.
quatrains are pretty much stretched to breaking point
The speaker undoubtedly sees paper as a material worthy of

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praise, perhaps something that is too often neglected. Talking in syllabus in the U.K. and earning Dharker a Cholmondeley Prize
the first-person, the speaker shifts between different aspects in 2011 and a Queen's Gold Medal in 2014. She is also a
of paper, referring to its role in religion, culture, geography, and member of the Royal Society of Literature. In addition to her
commerce. This praise of paper reaches it imaginative heights poetry, Dharker also works as an artist and a documentary
when the speaker imagines a civilization in which the buildings maker.
are made out of paper, not bricks and concretes—and how that
would allow for beautiful light to shine through, in addition to HISTORICAL CONTEXT
reminding everyone about the inherent fragility of human life. "Tissue" doesn't really have a specific historical context. Indeed,
part of its point is to hit at the way that paper—this humble yet
miraculous material—can connect different points in space and
SETTING time together. In other words, paper brings various historical
contexts into common understanding.
"Tissue" doesn't really have a specific setting. Instead, it is a
sequence of thoughts that unfold quite unpredictably. In this Paper is thought to have been invented in China in 105 AD,
way, then, the setting is the speaker's mind. though other forms of writing (and knowledge storage) predate
paper as a specific material. Paper is made out of pulp from
Part of the poem's main argument is that paper has the ability wood or grasses, and its invention had a significant impact on
to connect different settings, both in time and space. Paper almost every aspect of human civilization. From the 17th
facilitates the storage of knowledge, allowing people to have an century onwards, European innovations in the paper-making
experience of places and times in which they were not present. and printing processes allowed for mass production of paper-
Within this discussion, the poem travels from religion (the based products, ultimately leading to the paper-filled world
Koran) to maps, to receipts, and to imagined cities of paper that we now live in. The dominance of paper, of course, is under
buildings. threat from newer storage mediums like the internet and
The poem makes an interesting shift at the very end with its computers.
reference to "your skin," suggesting a more intimate The Koran, first mentioned in line 6, is the central religious text
relationship between the speaker and the addressee. It's as if of Islam and, like the Bible in Christianity, is considered the
the giant, wide-ranging setting that the poem has conjured word of God in that religion. It was written around 609-632
collapses to the space between two people. The nature of this AD.
setting, however, is left up to the reader's imagination.

MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
CONTEXT
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
LITERARY CONTEXT
• A Reading of "Tissue
"Tissue"" — The poem read by the poet
Imtiaz Dharker is a British poet who was born in Pakistan in herself. (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/
1954. Though born in Lahore, the Pakistani capital, Dharker watch?v=DfYX15PwvW
watch?v=DfYX15PwvWg) g)
mostly grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, where her family moved
when she was one year old. Dharker studied at the University • The In
Invvention of P
Paper
aper — A short video exploring one of
of Glasgow, graduating with an M.A. in English Literature and humankind's most vital materials.
Philosophy. She divides her time between London and Mumbai, (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=A
outube.com/watch?v=AUm7Ia4P9NI)
Um7Ia4P9NI)
with the slums of the latter city providing part of the inspiration • An Interview with Dhark
Dharker
er — An informal chat with the
for this poem. poet. (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=RpdeqEzAKJg
Dharker has published numerous books of poetry, mostly with )
the publisher Bloodaxe Books. This poem is taken from
• More PPoems
oems bbyy Dhark
Dharker
er — A valuable resource from the
Dharker's 2006 collection The Terrorist at My Table, which Poetry Archive. (https:/
(https:///poetryarchiv
poetryarchive.org/poet/imtiaz-
e.org/poet/imtiaz-
focuses on questions of identity, home and exile, cultural dhark
dharker/)
er/)
displacement, and community. Communication as a theme is
also central to Dharker's work—for example, in "Text" from the • Dhark
Dharker's
er's W
Website
ebsite — The poet's own website, with details
same book, or the poems of the earlier collection Postcards from of Dharker's other poems and films.
God. Other contemporary poems that specifically feature paper (http:/
(http://www
/www.imtiazdhark
.imtiazdharker
er.com)
.com)
as a subject include David Ferry's "In the Reading Room" and LITCHARTS ON OTHER IMTIAZ DHARKER POEMS
"Paper Aeroplane" by Simon Armitage.
• Living Space
Dharker's poetry is well-established, featuring on the GCSE

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HOW T
TO
O CITE
MLA
Howard, James. "Tissue." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 1 Aug 2019.
Web. 22 Apr 2020.

CHICAGO MANUAL
Howard, James. "Tissue." LitCharts LLC, August 1, 2019. Retrieved
April 22, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/imtiaz-dharker/
tissue.

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