Line-by-Line Analysis of 'An Unknown Girl'

'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 hennad (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 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.
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. The current market rates are 1$=71
rupees or 1£=93 rupees. So 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 b y
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.

Lines 20 - 26

The reader is given more information, the picture building up.

This is a commercial area so there are dummies (mannikins) 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) 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 skillful 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 feels a need to scrape off the design, to reveal the lighter
orange peacock beneath, the lines compared to a snail
trail...so maybe the speaker isn't so impressed by her
decoration after all.

Why would she want to scrape it off in the first place? Is she
no longer certain of her new identity?

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?

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.

Literary/Poetic Devices in 'An Unknown Girl'

'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/lea
n

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.