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 imageimage: A visual representation of something; a mental picture; a persona that is presented to the world. 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

Picture courtesy of Subhash Chandran

• 'A salwar kameez peacock-blue'
• 'Glistening like an orange split open'
• 'The presents were radiant in my wardrobe'

English

Picture courtesy of Jason R. Kessenich

• 'denim and corduroy'
• 'cardigans from Marks and Spencer'

Add to the lists and think about the words that the poet has chosen.

• What strikes you most strongly about the way the clothes from Pakistan are described in the first stanzastanza: A group of lines of poetry that make up a unit - like a paragraph in a piece of prose; a verse.? 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 imageimage: A visual representation of something; a mental picture; a persona that is presented to the world. in a poem tends to carry a particular significance - it's the one our imagination is left with.

Picture courtesy of Faisal Jamil

• 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?