An Unknown Girl By Moniza Alvi
In the evening bazaar
Studded with neon
An unknown girl
Is hennaing my hand
She squeezes a wet brown line
Form a nozzle
She is icing my hand,
Which she steadies with her
On her satin peach knee.
In the evening bazaar
For a few rupees
An unknown girl is hennaing my
hand
As a little air catches
My shadow stitched kameez
A peacock spreads its lines
Across my palm.
Colours leave the street
Float up in balloons.
Dummies in shop-fronts
Tilt and stare
With their western perms.
Banners for Miss India 1993
For curtain cloth
And sofa cloth
Canopy me.
I have new brown veins.
In the evening bazaar
Very deftly
An unknown girl
is hennaing my hand
I am clinging
To these firm peacock lines
Like people who cling
to sides of a train.
Now the furious streets
Are hushed.
I’ll scrape off
The dry brown lines
Before I sleep,
Reveal soft as a snail trail
The amber bird beneath.
It will fade in a week.
When India appears and
reappears
I’ll lean across a country
With my hands outstretched
Longing for the unknown girl
In the neon bazaar.
Themes:
1. Natural identity and the effects of its loss.
2. The beauty and the vibrancy of Indian Culture, and the effects of the imposition of western culture has had on it.
3. The personal feelings of being and stranger to its culture.
Techniques:
1. Free verse language
2. Metaphor
3. Simile
4. First person narration
5. Refrain
6. Symbol
7. Imagery
8. Westernization of India – Superficial lightning may reveal her inner-self
9. Eastern identity
10. Repetition
11. Ironic consideration the value of the experience
12. Personification – sense of unease
13. Negative connotation
14. Contrast of artificial western influence to traditional henna
15. Setting – reflects poverty, urbanization
16. Run-on-lines
17. Tone - Anxious
Refer to more details about the poetic techniques using the link bellow.
References:
AL resource book provided by NIE, www.poemanalysis.com, www.owlcation.com
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