pmcpresents from my aunts in pakistan
TRANSCRIPT
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Presents from my Aunts in
Pakistan
Learning Objectives:1. Note context
2. Consider key images andthemes
3. Annotate the poem
Slide 6 contains a link to BBC Bitesize video
NB: This presentation does not contain a copy of the text
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Pakistan
Islamic CountryTemperatures can reach up to 45C
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Context
Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore in Pakistan, the daughter of aPakistani father and an English mother. She moved to Hatfield inEngland when she was a few months old. She didn't revisit Pakistanuntil after the publication of her first book of poems - 'The Countryover my Shoulder' - from which this poem comes.
The poet says:"Presents fromM
y Aunts... was one of thefirst poems I wrote. When I wrote this poem, I hadn'tactually been back to Pakistan. The girl in the poem wouldbe me at about 13. The clothes seem to stick to her in anuncomfortable way, a bit like a kind of false skin, and shethinks things aren't straightforward for her.
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Glossary
salwar
kameez
Loose trousers and tunic, traditionally worn by Pakistani
women.
sariThe traditional dress worn by women in India and some
parts of Pakistan.
mirror-workAsian clothing is often decorated in lots of tiny roundmirrors.
prickly heat Severe itching caused by the heat.
Lahore The poet's birthplace in Pakistan.
fretworkDecorative panelling, with cut-outs so you can partly see
through it.
Shalimar
GardensAn ornamental park in Lahore.
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Listen to the poem
Add these notes to the poem:
The speaker in the poem, who is of mixed race, describes the giftsof clothes and jewellery sent to her in England by her Pakistanirelatives.
She is drawn to the loveliness of these things, but feels awkwardwearing them. She feels more comfortable in English clothes -denim and corduroy.
She contrasts the beautiful clothes and jewellery of India with boringEnglish 'cardigans/fromMarks 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 toher only through old photographs and newspaper reports.
She tries to imagine what that world might be like.
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Structure and Language
The poem is written in free verse: the phrases are arranged loosely
across the page. It is divided into stanzas of varying length.
What might this suggest seeing as this was written by a thirteen
year old girl?
Look at the way the lines are arranged on the page. How does this
force the reader into reading it?
e.g.
Listen to the difference, for example, between:
'I longed for denim and corduroy'
and
'I longed
for denim and corduroy'
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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 image 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).
On the next slide are two lists; one for Pakistani imagery
and one for English imagery.
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'A salwar kameez peacock-
blue'
'Glistening like an orange
split open''The presents were radiant
in my wardrobe'
Pakistani English
Picture courtesy of Jason R. Kessenich
'denim and corduroy'
'cardigans fromMarks and
Spencer'
Add to the lists and think about the words that the poet
has chosen
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