Aim for the A*: An Unknown Girl

How does the poet use language to express her thoughts and feelings, convey a sense of place, and explore the position she occupies between two cultures?

The structure of the poem on the page resembles the silhouette of a woman. In doing so, it immediately reflects the title of the poem, 'An Unknown Girl'.

The poem is written in free verse, and is descriptive with narrative elements.

The poet deftly uses mention of colour throughout the poem : 'neon, brown, peach'. This emphasises the vividness of the picture she paints, and is a testimony to the bright hues and vibrancy of life in India. This contrasts with the dullness of life that can be expected in England for the poet, where landscapes are often grey (during the colder months). 

The repeated use of brown is significant. Alvi compares the 'brown lines' of henna to 'brown veins', drawing parallels between the decorative art and the heritage that runs through her blood. 

The poet adeptly uses synaesthesia (using words that appeal to more than one human sense). The examples of 'satin-peach knee' and 'shadow-stitched kameez' are examples of this. In doing so, she is directly referencing the poem's setting of India, which is often commended by travellers as being a rich mix of sights, sounds, smells and more. 

For a Western reader, the use of native words, like 'hennaing, bazzar and kameez' can convey a sense of mystery and the exotic. She intersperses such words with more familiar Western creations like 'dummies and perms', which draws cultural contrasts between India and the UK. 

Indeed, the use of 'dummies ... tilt and stare... with their Western perms' is a powerful use of language. She may be calling out Western women who are intrigued by the exotic, and who even openly stare at her (hennaed hands) while she is in the UK.

She compares the henna design on her hand to a 'peacock' and refers to it later again as an 'amber bird'. This is significant, as the peacock is the national bird of India. 

She uses personification to label the Indian streets as 'furious'. This implies that even the most mundane of settings in India has character and flavour, as opposed to the UK.

Alvi equally uses rhyme, repetition and imagery for great literary effect. Can you find examples of these in the poem?