Tissue Quizzes

1 Why is the title of the poem "Tissue?"

The title alludes to both meanings of the word in the poem: thin paper and human skin.

The poet needed to blow her nose.

Human skin is a type of tissue.

Paper is thin and allows the sun to shine through.
2 What is the poem's meter?

free verse

blank verse

iambic pentameter

iambic tetrameter
3 What is the poem's form?

nine quatrains and a single line

ten quatrains

nine quatrains

twelve couplets
4 What does paper most relate to in the poem?

Impermanence and ugliness of life

Books

Fragility and beauty of life

Waste
5 What is one way in which paper is NOT considered in the poem?

The search for knowledge

Economic records

The environmental impact

Buildings made of paper
6 According to the speaker, what could alter things?

Paper that is thin from lack of care

Capitals and monuments

Paper that is thick and durable

Paper that lets the light shine through
7 What was written in the back of the Koran?

Architectural designs

Grocery lists

Diary

Family histories
8 Which of the following is a simile?

"An architect could use all this, / place layer over layer, luminous / script over numbers over line,"

"Fine slips from grocery shops / that say how much was sold"

"might fly our lives like paper kites"

"with living tissue, raise a structure"
9 Which of the following is NOT an example of alliteration?

"pages smoothed and stroked"

"has written in the names and histories"

"never wish to build again with brick // or block"

"transparent, // turned into your skin"
10 What point(s) of view is/are present in the poem?

Third person

First and second person

Second and third person

First person
11 What is the metaphor in the following lines: "An architect could use all this, / place layer over layer, luminous / script over numbers over line"?

Writing is compared to living.

Layers are compared to strata in the earth.

Architects are compared to writers.

The products of writing are compared to building materials.
12 Who is the protagonist?

The speaker who meditates on paper and the transitive nature of life

Imtiaz Dharker

Ayesha Dharker

The speaker's mother who meditates on paper and the transitive nature of life
13 Who is the antagonist?

Human hubris that causes someone to write in the holy book

Human hubris that causes someone to think they can remember business records without writing them down

Human hubris that believes in immortality and permanence

God
14 What is the poem's tone?

Prideful, Self-Aware, Constructive

Humble, Self-Deprecating, Facetious

Meditative, Hesitant, Constructive, Angry

Meditative, Constructive, Humble
15 What is the poem's conflict?

Throughout history, many people have not wanted to consider mortality because it is against their religion

Throughout history, paper buildings have been known to not last

Throughout history, many people have not wanted to consider mortality because it makes them feel fragile

Throughout history, many people have constructed buildings they think will last forever
16 What is a synecdoche?

a literary technique that places opposite things or ideas next to one another in order to draw out their contrast.

a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa,

the repeating of consonant sounds right next to each other, which creates a memorable or melodic effect.
17 Which is an example of a synecdoche?

The image of "a hand" writing a genealogy into the back of the Koran

The skin of the reader

Maps

The architect who represents the creator
18 What is the poem's setting?

The setting takes place in the speaker's mind as the reader is guided through various mediations on paper.

Ancient civilizations

An attic where the speaker comes across the Koran

An office where the architect designs paper buildings
19 What is significant about the poem's setting?

The setting helps tell a story about finding the Koran and converting to Islam.

The poem is more focused on providing random images that do not relate to each other than on telling a specific story.

The poem is more focused on meditating on the transient nature of life using the metaphor of paper than on telling a specific story.

Setting is not significant
20 What does it mean to "alter" something?

to attempt to preserve it

to change it or cause a change in its character or composition

to place it on an altar with the intention of sacrifice and prayer

to give something to a priest
21 How do the pages of the Koran become transparent in the poem?

They are handled by children who love to read the stories

They are handled very roughly, leading to the book's decay

They are touched and smoothed often, showing the care with which the owner handles the book

They are very dusty, showing the way the book was in the attic for many years
22 What do architects do?

Demolition

Design buildings

Neglect aesthetics in favor of functionality

Take part in the construction
23 What does the architect become in the poem?

The speaker

The creator

An engineer

Muhammad
24 How does the poet portray our relationship with the economic system in the poem?

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records fly our lives like a paper kite

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records fly our lives like a brick kite

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records show that the speaker is in debt

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records crush our lives like a building
25 Which image is repeated throughout the poem?

Paper as beautiful and thick

People relying on maps

Light shining through paper

People's hubris

Tissue

by Imtiaz Dharker

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