Search results
'An Unknown Girl' by Moniza Alvi navigates the complexities of diasporic identity, exploring emotions of longing and belongingness to the native culture while offering a nuanced understanding of immigrants' psychological experiences of straddling multiple cultural worlds.
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
The best An Unknown Girl study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
An Unknown Girl. Moniza Alvi. Many of Moniza Alvi’s poems draw from her experiences as a mixed race woman, born in Pakistan but brought up in England. In this poem, the narrator, who could be...
People also ask
What is an unknown girl?
What is the meaning of the poem 'unknown girl'?
Who wrote an unknown girl?
What is the story of an unknown girl by Moniza Alvi?
Oct 7, 2023 · 'An Unknown Girl' focuses on personal identity and sense of belonging through the simple action of a girl being paid a few rupees (Indian currency) to draw a design on a hand. She does this using henna, a brown plant dye, squeezed from a plastic nozzle, which is a common practice in India.
‘An Unknown Girl’ by Moniza Alvi tells the story of the narrator having their hand hennaed at an Indian bazaar. The speaker experiences a deep connection to the anonymous ‘unknown girl’ doing her henna. However, she is conflicted about the security of her connection to the girl, the henna and symbolically, Indian culture.
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.
GCSE English. “An Unknown Girl”. An Unknown Girl, by Moniza Alvi, is another poem, which explores the experience of being female, but is more specific to seeking identity. From her name and the poem, I think she is from an Indian family, but now lives in England.
