Tissue

summary

• paper is presented as having the power to change things, despite its fragility
• paper is used in religious texts and to record large family history but wears thin over time
• other items of paper record large and small details of life: maps, receipts, plans of buildings
• the speaker suggests that lives could eb constructed or reconstructed out of paper or 'with living tissue', making a connection between paper and human skin

key aspects

• dharker chooses to name the poem 'tissue', although paper is its focus
• this poem uses a neutral viewpoint, with a first person perspective
• dharker presents paper, despite being thin and worn, as possessing power
• the poem is complex and ambiguous, its meanings difficult to grasp. could dharker be making a point about meaning itself as fragile and insubstantial?

key theme: the power of paper

• dharker presents paper as powerful int he world because of the ways it can be used, even though the first quality that she emphasises is its thinness and…