Agha Shahid Ali - Stationery

Poetry is an acquired taste. The to a greater extent than you lot sample it, the to a greater extent than flavors you lot extract. -- Elle Greco

Reading a Kashmiri poet for me is a first, as well as start impressions when it comes to verse hateful the globe to me.

Reading a Kashmiri poet for me is a start Agha Shahid Ali - Stationery

Ali's verse form troubled me. Nostalgia as well as loneliness exuded from the poem every bit a whole, but I had problem realizing this until the rattling end, when inwards a world amount of paper, the poem's persona has yet to listen intelligence from a loved one. The problem was decoding the choice of words inwards the first half dozen verses. Reading as well as re-reading nonetheless couldn't render me amongst definite motives that would assist me construct a definitive floor which brought on such nostalgia.

And then, when you think the verse form eludes you, you lot recollect the i universal police line embracing it: poetry is felt, as well as when feelings come inwards into the picture, the movie becomes subjective for each person.

I suppose the biggest query is who "you" refers to.

Is "you" addressing the individual the poem's persona is urging to write in the lastly line, or a generic "you" aimed at oneself? If it is the former, as well as so the "sheets, reams of silvery handmade by you" are texts past times the loved i living afar that the persona sees laid out earlier him or herself. In this case, the "world is amount of paper" could limited that for the persona, all that matters, all that is existent as well as constitutes existence for him or her is institute inwards the letters he or she receives. To interpret this into an example, it is every bit if Ali living inwards the USA heard intelligence of his habitation province which meant the globe to him through correspondence from family as well as friends.

If the interpretation of "you" is a generic one, then it is every bit if the persona is swamped in a desert of papers produced past times him or herself that contrast inwards emotions as well as gravity to remind him of the truthful sheets as well as reams he or she would desire to live looking at -- the papers that would bring words amount of pregnant from a loved one, non the papers of "brisk emporium" the persona composes for a living seen strewn before him or her on a desk.

Whatever the case, papers amount of words are all that is left inwards life. This is a verse form where the warm, languid, barren sands of a far-away dry reason commingle with the cold, white, blank stacks of newspaper roused to life through written utterances. The lastly result is both i of personal expression as well as reflection on the ability poetry has of rousing inanimate reams to life.

Stationery

The Moon did non larn the sun.
It exactly brutal on the desert
inwards neat sheets, reams
of silvery handmade past times you.
The black is your cottage manufacture now,
the twenty-four hours is your brisk emporium.
The globe is amount of paper.

Write to me.

Agha Shahid Ali - Stationery

Life

poet, professor
1949 – 2001
born as well as raised inwards Kashmir, India
moved to the U.S. inwards 1976
came from a highly educated family
received PhD inwards English linguistic communication (1984)

Kashmir

disputed past times India, China, Islamic Republic of Pakistan since 1947
changing Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh dominion of the area
Anglo-Sikh wars (1845-1947)
territorial sectionalization of British Indian Empire inwards 1947 brought on state of war betwixt Republic of Republic of India + Pakistan
China enters conflict inwards the mid-1950s (border dispute since slow 1800s when Red People's Republic of China didn't convey agreements signed past times Britain, Russia, Afghanistan) afterward 1949 Communist revolution
tensions flare in i lawsuit again inwards the 1970's (Ali decides to permanently move to the United States inwards the mid 70s)
for a brief clear explanation of the Kashmiri conflict read the following: A brief history of the Kashmir conflict
also read this splendid article on The Wire about Ali's choice to migrate to the United States as well as his ties to Kashmir.

"In an interview amongst Stacey Chase, Shahid talked almost his exile every bit an involuntary province that he has been pushed into."

Stationery

found inwards his collection of poems The Half-Inch Himalayas, 1987

central ideas / themes:

writing

choice of words reflects this: sheets, reams, paper, write
the power of the discussion & communication
poetry every bit a way of aspect

stationery = stationary

motionless, stagnant beingness away from a loved one is made bearable through writing materials
stationery serves every bit an umbilical cord which maintains communication

poem tin post away (for the sake of analysis) be divided into 3 parts

Part 1: 1st 4 verses = past times tense
Part 2: next 3 verses = present
Part 3: final verse = future through the use of the imperative mood (action expected to live carried out inwards the future)

Part 1

atmospheric, unfolds the setting

moon, darkness
desert

locations

nature: Moon & Sun mentioned instead of time
desert: associated with barrenness, desolation but likewise expanse as well as openness

juxtaposition

moon - sun
contrasts proceed inwards verses v + 6:

night - day
cottage manufacture - brisk emporium

melancholic

darkness remains as well as doesn't turn into day
choice of the discussion "just":

synonymous with "merely" or "plainly"
qualifies the action of the moonlight falling on a barren landscape (desert) every bit apathetic, unromantic

Part 2

bleak reality of routine

day follows black inwards a streamlined succession of "industry" as well as "emporium"

sober/pragmatic exposition of facts

3 statements linking fourth dimension to activity, space to an object

night = cottage industry
day = brisk emporium
world = amount of paper

train of thought is indicative of persona's inner globe (important inwards analyzing character)

if the poem's "you" refers to a loved one, the persona's days are spent thinking almost what that loved i must live doing
if "you" refers to the persona, the shift from daily activities to a world amount of newspaper signifies a confining environment. The persona is incarcerated in a world of lifeless objects, devoid of meaning.

reveals persona's concern

preoccupation amongst what is going on elsewhere (in their loved one's life)

setting

temporal: twenty-four hours & night
focuses on locality: cottage & emporium

personal versus social

juxtaposition of cottage manufacture to emporium
cottage industry:

1st meaning: identify unit of measurement units working at habitation using their own equipment
2nd meaning: action pursued amongst neat enthusiasm

brisk emporium

suggests a larger commercial center
"brisk" connotes the movement of people inwards this commercial catch as well as the nature of the business organisation itself

the poem's persona could live referring to their ain pursuits inwards the flush or is imagining what the individual they would similar to receive intelligence from is doing inwards the evenings as well as during the day

Part 3

poem's overall decision
definitive, short, to the point
request made regarding what the persona wants done
follows on from persona's train-of-thought seen inwards previous lines

sheets / reams ⇒ manufacture ⇒ paper ⇒ write to me

pace of poem

lulls reader amongst its simplicity as well as prosody, as well as so hits them in the lastly emphatic verse.
first 4 lines comprise diphthongs as well as long sounds