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 13. 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.

Moniza Alvi

Subject matter

Picture courtesy of Hala Bashir Malik

• What is 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' about?

• 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.

Glossary

Structure and language

The poem is written in free versefree verse: Poetry that has little or no rhyme scheme, regular pattern of rhythms, or line lengths.: the phrases are arranged loosely across the page. It is divided into stanzasstanzas: Lines of poetry that make up a unit; verses. 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

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 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?

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.

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 1950s/1960s 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.

Moniza Alvi

Sample question

Read this question carefully. It is similar to the type of question you will be asked in the exam

Teacher's note

If you are ready to practise writing a full answer, you should spend 40 minutes on this, and write about two poems. In the exam itself, you will only have 30 minutes for this question.

For each poem:

• Make it clear what the poet is writing about.
• Refer to anything you know about the context of the poem which helps you to understand the poems.
• Remember to comment in detail about how the poem is written, referring to particular words and phrases.
• What do you think the poet has to say about the past, and the way it relates to the present?

If you would prefer to concentrate on just Moniza Alvi's poem at this stage, write for 20 minutes.

In writing about John Agard's poem, you could include short paragraphs about:

• The poet's personal history, and how this links with the situation described in the poem.
• The imagery of Pakistan and the imagery of England.
• What the poem says about the girl's thoughts and feelings.

If you want to practise writing a full answer, you could also write about the poem by Sujata Bhatt, Grace Nichols, Fiona Farrell or Edward Kamau Brathwaite.

When writing about two poems, you should try to end by making a connection between the two. In what ways are the poems similar - in the style of language, or in ideas? In what ways are they different?

Sample answers