Analysis of An Unknown Girl - Line By Line

An Unknown Girl is a 48-line poem that, visually, on the page, is 'all by itself' not
knowing whether to move left or right, a continuous series of short lines that widen
then narrow, a little like a stack of lines that could topple over at any time.
This physical uncertainty is mirrored within the text as the speaker has her hand
hennaed (henna, a plant dye used to 'tattoo' the skin) in an evening bazaar by an
unknown girl.
Lines 1 - 4
The first person speaker is having a design drawn on her hand. The bazaar
(marketplace) is lit red...'studded' with neon lights. That word studded adds to the
idea of something being fixed into.
The title is repeated...an unknown girl...someone anonymous, a person with no
name. This is important because it reinforces the idea of no identity. This girl could
be any girl, just like the speaker.
Lines 5 - 9
The action is described. Using a plastic bottle/piping bag the girl squeezes out the
henna dye, wet. It will soon dry.
Note the language here...icing my hand...as if the hand is a cake and the henna a
sweet decoration. This is perhaps a hint of the western world which the speaker
knows intimately, where cakes are iced.
But there is also a saying in the west...the icing on the cake...which means that a
good situation has been made better, is enhanced. So is the speaker suggesting that
her situation is being improved by this icing?
The girl's satin-peach knee is a strong image of a skin smooth and pastel coloured.
Also note the connotation of softness and warm toned
Lines 10 - 13
A direct repeat of the first line - In the evening bazaar - perhaps because the speaker
cannot quite believe where she is and what's happening to her.
She is having henna applied by an unknown girl. And it is very cheap, only a few
rupees. In western currency it is only a matter of cents or pennies for this design.
Lines 14 - 19
There's a breeze (a little air) coming in to the covered bazaar, moving the speaker's
kameez (traditional dress worn by women from north west India and east Pakistan)
where the shadow is said to stitch - again like studded the word is related to
something being fixed into material.
Already the speaker is attached to the design, which is a peacock, the national bird
of India, a very important bird. She's having her palm decorated. The street's colours
outside float up in balloons, to enhance the feeling of expansion. (visual imagery)
Lines 20 - 26
The reader is given more information, the picture building up. This is a commercial
area so there are dummies (mannequins) in shop windows...they are at an angle and
seem to be alive (they stare)...and more importantly they have western wigs on, they
have perms.
Also Miss India is in the news (it's 1993, competitions like Miss India were popular
back then, and maybe still are in certain areas), where beautiful young women are
chosen for their looks and personality.
Different cloths form a roof (a canopy, usually used for special occasions) around the
speaker. All of these things give the reader a feel for the atmosphere. Here is the
speaker in a new environment, wearing a traditional costume, being worked on by an
unknown girl.
Lines 27 - 31
The speaker has new brown veins, suggesting that the henna has become an
integral part of her physical make-up. New blood runs through them? This is the poet
using metaphor to reflect the speaker's new found identity.
And a repeat of the first line again, like a mantra, is more to remind the speaker that
here she is, a fresh identity being created before her very eyes by a skilful girl (very
deftly)
Lines 32 - 35
However, she isn't really happy or contented with her situation. She feels insecure,
almost desperate, like those people who ride the trains, packed to the limit, having to
hang on because if they let go, they would drop off and get crushed!
This is a strange scenario, yet what the speaker is going through is confusion....she
really senses the peacock design as something that is, like the train, going to take
her somewhere new, somewhere different.
Lines 36 - 42
The scene quietens down. The reader is taken away from the bazaar - perhaps the
speaker has drifted off into the night, and back to her hotel room?
She will need to scrape off the design, to reveal the lighter orange peacock beneath,
the lines compared to a snail trail... it highlights the impermanence of the design or
how short lived this experience might be.
Lines 43 - 48
It'll all be gone in 7 days, the peacock, the henna, India. Or perhaps it will all
reappear...the speaker will lean across a country...does this mean her hand or has
she a map open...or is it all going on in her head? In her mind, she will return to this
memory, where she felt connected to her culture.
Either way, the speaker longs for that moment again in the bazaar, when an
unknown girl began the design and the speaker felt however fleetingly that she had a
valid new identity.
Analysis of An Unknown Girl - Literary/Poetic Devices
An Unknown Girl is a single stanza free verse poem of 48 short lines. On the page it
is a slim design itself, placed in the middle, neither to the left or right, perhaps a
reflection of the theme of split identity.
The title suggests that this poem is about one girl but it could be about any
anonymous girl. It's a title that makes the reader think about this single personality
even before reading the poem - will she be known at the end, will she remain
unknown? Why is she unknown?
Alliteration
When two or more words close together in a line begin with the same consonant,
they are alliterative, adding to the sound texture and pattern:
hennaing my hand....shadow-stitched....with their Western...soft as a snail...bird
beneath...
Assonance
When two or more words close together in a line have similar sounding vowels:
icing my....satin-peach knee....leave the street....snail trail....
Enjambment
When a line runs on into the next without punctuation, so the reader continues on
without pause or with very little pause. The sense of meaning is maintained. For
example, the last four lines are all enjambed.
Internal Rhyme
Although this is a free verse poem with no set rhyme scheme, there are rhymes
within. For example:
satin-peach knee/rupees/kameez/leave the
street/...peacock/people....reveal/beneath/lean
Metaphor
When an object or thing or person is replaced by another thing, widening
understanding and deepening imagery. For example:
I have new brown veins,
Repetition
Repeating lines or words or phrases helps rein force an image or meaning. For
example:
an unknown girl .....repeated three times (plus the unknown girl at the end of the
poem)
is hennaing my hand.......repeated three times.
wet brown line/spreads its lines/firm peacock lines/dry brown lines.
Simile
Comparing two or more things using the words like or as. For example:
like people who cling/to the sides of a train.

Types of imagery
1. Visual imagery engages the sense of sight. This is what you can see, and
includes visual descriptions. Physical attributes including color, size, shape,
lightness and darkness, shadows, and shade are all part of visual imagery.
2. Gustatory imagery engages the sense of taste. This is what you can taste,
and includes flavors. This can include the five basic tastes—sweet, salty,
bitter, sour, and umami—as well as the textures and sensations tied to the act
of eating.
3. Tactile imagery engages the sense of touch. This is what you can feel, and
includes textures and the many sensations a human being experiences when
touching something. Differences in temperature is also a part of tactile
imagery. Descriptions such as smooth, soft, warm
4. Auditory imagery engages the sense of hearing. This is the way things sound.
Literary devices such as onomatopoeia and alliteration can help create
sounds in writing. Words such as crash, bang, thud, whoosh, hush
5. Olfactory imagery engages the sense of smell. Scent is one of the most direct
triggers of memory and emotion, but can be difficult to write about. Since taste
and smell are so closely linked, you’ll sometimes find the same words (such
as “sweet”) used to describe both. Simile is common in olfactory imagery,
because it allows writers to compare a particular scent to common smells like
dirt, grass, manure, or roses.