CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POETRY OF MONIZA ALVI

Moniza Alvi is a Pakistani-British poet and writer. She went to England with her parents when she was a few months old. She did not revisit Pakistan until after the publication of her first book of poems ”The Country at My Shoulder”. She wrote six poetry collections: The Country At My Shoulder (1993), A Bowl Of Warm Air (1960), Carrying My Wife (2000), Souls (2000), How The Stone Found Its Voice (2005) and Split World: Poems 1900-2005 (2008). She received a Cholmondeley Award for her poetry in 2002.

“The Country At My Shoulder” is first full-length poetry collection and includes a number of poems which won the 1991 Poetry Business Competition. These poems are diverse in both subject and approach. They are written with light touch, but they are rich in imagery, and the poet’s voice, though delicate, is distinct and memorable. One of the poem of this collection is “I Would Like To Be A Dot In A Painting By Miro”. In this poem the poet wished to be like a dot in Miro’s painting which is “barely distinguishable from other dots”. The dot is like other dots in the painting but its place is unique. The dot is not a perfect circle but it attracts the attention of the people. The dot is a symbol of modernism, new faiths and laws. It symbolizes the people of modern era who negate the absoluteness and order in life. They wish to experiment with the preset laws and believe in rationale. The theme of isolation and detachment is also visible in the poem as the poet says

“I’ll never make out what’s going on

around me, and that’s the joy of it.”

It is evident in the modern people that they do not want any type of interference in their matter and are completely detached from their surroundings. Another modern trend pointed by the poet is the interest of modern man is abstract and not uniform objects. The narrator of the poem is in first person and it seems that poet himself is speaking in the poem. There are no rhyming words in the poem except few: linescape-lemon stripe, animation-construction. It is a lyrical poem with rhythm in it. There is alliteration of “m” word in the poem as

“makes me more interesting in this world”

“A Bowl of Warm Air” is second collection of her poetry in which her poems are infused with a greater depth of seriousness about Pakistan and India. “The Double City” is a poem taken from this collection. From the title “The Double City” is evident that duality of a city is discussed by the poet. In this poem she deals with the cultural hybridity of Pakistan and Britain. She talked about her migrant’s perspective about the uprootness from her own homeland. She placed dual images of cities and cultures. She talked about “Trafalgar Square” which is a public place and tourist attraction in Central London. The double faced nature of London is expressed in this poem as

“…his face

Masked by scarves and sunglasses”.

As the Britain was once the colonizing power which attracted all the conflicts towards it. The culture of the subcontinent is also presented in the poem through the image of "battered Kiranjit”. Kiranjit was an Indian woman who was persistently beaten by her husband and at last she burnt her husband. In this imagery the culture of domestic violence is evident and the supporters of Kiranjit demanded her release because of all the atrocities and mental traumas through which she had to pass. Another religious ritual of Hindus is presented by the poet in the form of performance of Ramayana by the children of different nationalities irrespective of their nationality. Another place referred in this poem Southhall- a suburban district of west London where a lot of Pakistanis and Indians live. And this is the place where both British culture and the culture of subcontinent interlink. And the poet call that interlinked place of culture her own city. Her poem has first person narration in which the poet presented the different cultures .The pattern of the poem does not follow a regular scheme and it looks like a prosaic description but the arrangement of words make it lyrical and rhythmic. There is an imagery of “Double City” which is a city where two different cultures reside and people of different nations live there.

Another poem of the same collection is “The Wedding” in which the poet herself talks about her marriage. She personifies herself as a as a girl who has married to a Pakistani man. In this poem the influence of British culture on Pakistani tradition is evident. The marriage ceremony was bereft of all the colors and enjoyments. The guests invited in the marriage were loaded with English gifts and articles. Those guests scratched at the veil of the bride and asked her about the dowry. The bride and groom walked along the roads and saw different landscapes of Pakistan. She looked at different areas as mountains and Jinnah Garden. Both of them have imprints of maps on their hands that are distinction of different nationalities as Moniza Alvi herself was divided into two nationalities: Pakistan and Britain. She is the resident of two nations and therefore the “imprints of maps” is expressed in her poems. There are a number of similes used in this poem as

“They scratched at my veil

like beggars on a car window”.

This is a smilie where the guests are compared to beggars who craved for the money and the guest who craved for the information of her dowry. Another smilie used is

“Our eyes changed colors

like traffic lights”

In this smilie the change of eyes of the married couple is compared with the traffic lights which changed its light quickly. She wanted to completely adopt the Pakistani culture. Another instance of depiction of Pakistani rural culture is in the description of house as

“My house an incredible structure

of stiffened rags and bamboo”

The imagery in this poem is very rich and profound. This poem is written in free verse. The domination of western culture over oriental culture is evident in the poem. A number of images as of the house made by bamboo sticks and that of buffaloes depict Pakistani rural culture.

Moniza Alvi is considered as one of the new generation poets. Her poems are written in free verse and are repleted with imagery and figurative language which gives more meaning to her poems.