Sl.noContent

1About the Author

2MonizaAlvis about the poem

3 The story of the poem

4 Structure and meaning of the poem

5 Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author Introduction:MonizaAlvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan 2nd Feb. 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 monizaAlvi 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 MonizaAlvi 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 splidword 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 Rilkes classic text, letters to a young poet as inspiration, leading poets wrote a letter to protg.Selected Works Poetry :- Carrying my life (2000) Souls (2002) How the stone found its voice (2005) Splid world : Poems (1990-2005)

MonizaAlvis 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 hadnt 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 arent 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 doesnt belong any where and is of no fixed nationality.

Structure and making of the poemWe 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 dont 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 salwarkameezPeacock blueCandy striped glass bangles Snapped, draw blood and another Glistening like an orange split open Ambarred slippery, gold and black pointsculing.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 salkarbattoms 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 dont 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 clothesI longed for demin and cordeeroyMy costume cleeng to me and I was aflame,I couldnt 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 lampSwitching 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 spencersAnother 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.My salwarkameez didnt impress the school fiendsBut often I do mired the mirror workTried to glimpse myself in the miniatureGlass circles, recall the storyWho sat on my bed, asked to see my weekend clothes.Looking at her fracture reflection reminds her of her early childhood and to journey to England by boat ( not by air). This is the first hint that they left, or were evacuated from Pakistan in a rush, she remembers the physical pain the journey caused her, but the emotional pain has probably been much greater she ends up in a cat in her grandmothers dining room. More evidence that the journey had been rushed and unplanned because her parents hadnt even had time to find somewhere to live before they arrive. She finds herself alone, but this is just the beginning to what well be her cultural isabtion .this is quite a strong image to end the stanza.Glass circles, sec all the storyHow the thru of us sailed to end land Prickly heat had me scamming on the wayFound myself along, playing with a tin loatO ended up in a cat in my EnglishGrandmothers dining room.I pictured my birthplace from fifties photographs.When I was olde3r there was conflict, a fractured landThrobbing through newsprint.Sometimes I saw Lahore- my aunts in shaded rooms.Screened from male visitors, sorting presents,Wrapping them in tissue She is left imagining her identify through old photographs her parents took her birthplace. She is then remained of the Pakistan/Bangladesh war in 1971 when she was 3 years old. It was this conflict that probably forced her parents to leave Pakistan when she was so young. The reference to a fractured land; also helps reinforce the feeling she creates in the poem of her own fractured identity.Lahore is the capital of the Pakistan province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan. The poet sees Lahore in her memory (not the photographs) and is remembers her aunts wrapping presents like the ones they sent her. The screaming would imply that she comes from a Muslim family perhaps another source of conflict of her.An interesting contrast is introduced on this line. Her family is obviously fairly well off rich enough at least to send her all these fabulous clothes; but at well as remembering her aunts. She also remembers the beggars a symbol of the poverty of her birthplace of no fixed nationality; is probably the most important line in the poem and sums up that the poet has been trying to say in the rest of the poem. She knows where she was born and remembers her life and the culture there, but she feels her cultural tries to her past also prevent her feeling completely at home in England; so she feels she belongs to neither country or culture.However interestingly her final thought is of a beautiful part of Pakistan, not of England.Or there were beggars, sweeper-girls,And I was there-of no fixed nationality,Staring through firework at the Shalimar gardensConclusion:This way Moniza Alvi describes the identity crises in this poem presents from my Aunts in Pakistan. This not only tells about identity crises but also tells about patrician of Pakistan and Bangladesh and cultural identity and fashion about the Pakistan and England and women suffering in Pakistan and author distinction between the Eastern and Western way of life and thinking.

Bibliography:http//www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/moniza.Alvihttp//www.timdunne.org/presents/2520from/....