This Room

F – The poem is in 4 stanzas with a deliberate use of enjambment at the end to show how the narrator’s hands are outside clapping. This could also be said to represent the break up of the room in the poem. The lines are different lengths again to show the break out of this room.

L / I – The central image is that of the room breaking up, the poet uses personification to show that it is adapting and changing. It is ironic that the bed is “lifting out of its nightmares.” Dharker also uses onomatopoeia to enliven the poem and demonstrate noise and movement. The use of spices also hints at “other culture” and a slightly magical and uplifting feel to the poem.

R – Lines 11, 12 & 13 all rhyme, placed right in the centre of the poem for effect.

T/ S – This is a optimistic poem about what happens when we are freed from constraints. We could say it’s the constraint of a culture, or self imposed.