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1 About the Author

2 Moniza Alvis about the poem

3 The story of the poem

4 Structure and meaning of the

poem

5 Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author Introduction:

Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan 2ndFeb. She

was born to a Pakistani father and a British Mother her

father moved to Hatfield Hertfordshire in England when

she was a few months old she did not revisit Pakistan
until after the publication of one of her first book of

poems- the country at my shoulder she worked for

several years as a high school teacher but is now a free

lance writer and tutor living in norfalk she and her

husband, Robert have a daughter named Alice.

Peacock luggage a book of poems by moniza Alvi

and Peter Doniels was published as a result of the two

poets wining together the poetry business prize in 1991

in alvis case for presence aunts in Pakistan that poem

and an unknown girl have featured on Englands GCSE

exam syllabus for young teenagers.

Since, then Moniza Alvi has written four poetry

collections the country at my shoulder (1993) lead to

her being selected for the poetry societys new

generation poets promotion she also published a series

of short stories how the stone found its voice (2005)

inspired by kiplings just so stories.

In 2002 she received a chalmondeley award for her

poetry was published in a bilingual Dutch and English

edition a selection from her earlier books splid word

poems 1990 – 2005 was published in 2008 on 16th

January 2014 Alvis participated in the BBC Radio three

series “The essay letters to a young poet” taking Rainer

moaia Rilke’s classic text, letters to a young poet as

inspiration, leading poets wrote a letter to protégé.

Selected Works

Poetry :-

 Carrying my life (2000)

 Souls (2002)
 How the stone found its voice (2005)

 Splid world : Poems (1990-2005)

Moniza Alvis says about the poem

Alvi says “Presents from my aunts in Pakistan”,

was 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 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 straight forward for her. I found it was

important to write the Pakistan poems because I

was getting in touch with my background. And

may be there is a bit of a message behind the

poems about something I went through that I want

to may be open a few doors if possible.

The Study of the Poem :

A young girl of mixed race, half English, half

Pakistani, is sent very careful clothes as presents

for her birthday by her aunts whose still live in

Pakistan although she appreciates the beauty of the

clothes she does not fell she can wear them she

wants to wear ordinary clothes like her school

friends and feels embarrassed when she has to

wear her Pakistani clothes. She is reminded of her

birth place, Lahore and her journey from there to

England where her family had now where to stay

but her English grandparents once they arrived she

remembers her ‘factured land’ a reference to

Bangladesh was for independence in1971 when

she was 3 years old.

At the end of the poem she is forced to

conclude that she feels that she doesn’t belong any

where and is of ‘no fixed nationality.

Structure and making of the poem

We know who they are from the title of the

poem, but calling her aunts they in this manner is

impolite and sets the tone for her negative altitude

towards the gifts she is sent, ‘peacock blue’ and

glistening orange’ are vibrant clauses and are the

first examples of the use of colour imagery in the

poem, and colour imagery dominates this stanza-

blue, orange, gold, black, canal striped, and blood

red. The bangles drawing blood is a more sinister

use of colour imagery but how did the bangles

snap? I don’t I think it happened accidently, I

think she snapped them and in doing so cut

herself. If this is so then the question is, why.

Note the shape of the poem. The poet has set it

out on a sort of spiral form, not left justified as

most poems are :

They sent me a salwar kameez

Peacock blue

Candy striped glass bangles

 Snapped, draw blood and another

Glistening like an orange split open

Ambarred slippery, gold and black points

culing.

This is the first reference to her overday

life and the effect that fashion is having on her and

her cultural identity. Note the enjambment on the

two lines and the emphasis it places in pakstan.

The poet then details the changing fashions in

Pakistan, ironically these mirrar the changing

fashions in the UK. She then describes the sari she

got for her thirteenth birthday, which may have

been appropriate for her like at school fashions

changed in Pakistan.
 In Pakistan the salkar battoms were broad

and stiff, then narrow. My aunts chose an

apple-green sari, silver- bordered for my

teens.

She dries on the clothes she is sent more out of

deity than because she wants to wear them…, because

they make her feel alien. They don’t belong in them.

Ironically she does recognize their beauty but does not

feel that she is beautiful enough to wear them. What she

wants is the dull blue, black, or brown clothes that

ordinary English people wear. She describes the clothes

she has been sent as a costume like something she

wears when he has to act being Pakistani. They

embarrass her so much she feels like she is on fire when

she wears them and she feels she cannot escape from
this metaphorical and literal torment. Interestingly she

feels half- English not half – Pakistani. Again

enjambment allows attention to this line giving it

importance.

Note: the rhyme/ alliteration on satin – silken an

costume clung and the fire metaphor.

Half English, unlike aunt Jmila.

I tried each satin- silken stop was an alien in the sitting

soon,

I could never be as lovely as those clothes

I longed for demin and cordeeroy

My costume cleeng to me and I was aflame,

I couldn’t rise up out of its fire.

 Decorated camel skin lamps are a traditional

handicraft item given asgift in Pakistan. Proximally her

parents would have brought their with them when they

left Pakistan so it must be valuable or have some

sentimental value. In the same way as the is attracted to

end simultaneously spelled by the clothes her aunts

send her, she responds in a similar way to her parents

camel skin lamp : she recognizes its beauty, but is

appalled by the cruelty involved in its creation. The

importance of these lines to the poem is they are

metaphor for her own experience and the cruelty of her

own transformation from an Pakistani maiden. Also

there is a sense have that the skin belongs on the camel

so wrong; in the same way she belongs in her English

clothes not transformed by those her aunts send her.

I wanted my parents camel skin lamp

Switching it on in my bed room,

To consider the cruelty and the transformation from

camel to shade marvel at the colours.

Her mother was English but seems at home with

her deal nationality as she chesishes her Indian

jewellery and does not reject it on the culture it

represents, unlike her daughter. , ironically the

jewellery is stolen, perhaps this a metaphor for identity

stolen, it is also a reminder of the seality of life in

England. Another reference to the colour and the beauty

of the clothes her aunts send her…, yet ironically it is

boring, dull M&S cardis they want in return !

My mother cherished her jewellery

Indian gold, dangling , filigree

But it was stolen from our car.,

The presents were sadiant in my wardrobe.

My aunts requested cardigans

From marks and spencers

Another season for her to reject her cultural looks

her Pakistani clothes do not impress her father friends;

and peer acceptance is very important at this age as

teenagers shy to establish their own, unique identity. In

the week she would presumably wear school uniform

but at the weekend she is free to wear what she wants;

and what she wants is it be a normal English girl, has

some freak decked out in multi coloured saris. One

again she finds something to admire in the clothes she

has been given. This time it is the tiny mirrors that are

sown into some of these garments. But her selection

would not be whale, it would be fractured as she would

not be able to see all of herself in anyone of these

mirrors. This notion also reflects her own view of

herself and her cultural identity.