Poem Analysis The Right Word by Dharker

THE RIGHT WORD
Imtiaz Dharker
About the poet
• She was born in 1954 to Pakistani parents.
• Brought up in Scotland.
• She is an award-winning poet, artist and
filmmaker.
• Many of her poems focus on home, freedom
and displacement and feminism.
About the poem
• This poem was written in 2006, five years after the (11 September 2001) terrorist
attack in the USA. For some people the perpetrators of “9/11” were people fighting
oppression while others saw them as murderers.
• The poem explores the power of words and their connotations. The poet tries
different ways of describing the person outside her door but eventually, in stanza six,
she abandons words and just uses her eyes. In this way she moves from fearfully
describing the person as a ‘terrorist’ to inviting a child into her home.
• This poem is written in free verse – there are no rhyming words and no regular
rhythm. This could be indicative of her bafflement and confusion.
• Conversational/colloquial style, albeit in nine separate stanzas.
• The poem is a conversation that the poet is having with herself about the perceptions
and the connotations of words. She states: “I work with film, and I know that I can
take one image and edit it ten different ways, write ten different sets of words, and
make it into ten different stories. That's one of the things that I'm trying to do in the
poem 'The right word'. There is just one image, but it's an image that is interpreted in
different ways depending on the preconceptions that fit into each verse.”
The poem
TITLE
The right word-

the poet is suffering from an internal debate
trying to find the right word to describe the
person outside her door.
The word outside suggests the person is excluded
from the narrator’s home. The poet isolates him due
fully understand.
Stanza 1
to a human desire to ignore or fear what we do not
Extended Metaphor.
1. “door” – serves as a barrier between the
narrator and the person outside.
2. “shadows” – can be a welcoming shelter for the
person outside/means to hide evil intensions.
(ambiguous).
1. Outside the door,

2. lurking in the shadows,
3. is a terrorist.
The word “lurking” implies The word “terrorist” indicates that the
something dishonest. poet feers the person outside.
The poet already doubts her previous
statement, she searches for a politically
correct description.
The poet now
4. Is that the wrong description? describes the
person outside the
Repetition.
5. Outside the door door is a “freedom
6. Taking shelter in the shadows fighter” – suggests
7. Is a freedom fighter a justifiable
warrior against
The stranger is not “lurking” anymore but tyranny and
taking shelter. (positive connotation) injustices.
The poet is continuing with her internal debate.
The metaphor of shadows continues. It still masks her
Language is simple and colloquial. This shows
understanding. Weordinary
that she is an still don’t know
person, wholike
baffled hethe
is – she
cannotrest
hetofclose
us. enough to identify him.
8. I haven’t got this right.

9. Outside, waiting in the shadows,
10. Is a hostile militant.
The poet speculates

something more
threatening.
Repetition of barriers to understanding – the
Alliteration:
door to describe
represents the barrier
not only her effect ofbut those
words
that the –media
the two words
may cause.together with
their shaky rhythm suggests uncertainty.
11. Are words no more
12. than waving, wavering flags?
The word13.“guerrilla”
Outsideisyour
threatening
door, but “warrior”
implies a romantic freedom fighter . The poet
The poetto
seems 14.
movesWatchful inconfusing
her internal
be deliberately the shadows
debate about thethe
herself/ person
outside
reader.to 15.
a debate about poetry
Is a guerrilla and words. The poet
warrior.
poses a rhetorical question – the subject is language
itself and how it can move to influence people.
Language has“watchful”
its ownisdanger
a more neutral
if misused – it can be
description. It also suggests that the
positive/negative.
person is either wary or waiting for an
opportunity to strike.
The idea
Theofpoet
defiance suggests
asks “God” forthat
help.the
This
personisoutside the door
like a pivot is beyond this
because
courageous/daring. The shadow still
the mood changes.
exists – we are still distanced from the
16. God help me.
person.
17. Outside defying every shadow,
18. is a martyr. The poet suggests that the
terrorist has been
misunderstood. How
society wants us to view a
person is how we normally
do.
Shows how shocked she
“face”- suggests a man withabout
feels a personality and
her previous
identity- the poet moves closer.
descriptions.
19. I saw his face.
Implies the child is
20. No words can help me
coming now.
closer.
21. Just outside the door“lost” –indicates that the
child might be
22. Lost in the shadows, indoctrinated by evil – the
23. Is a child who looks like mine.
child might also not know
howthe
Dramatic climax – she has identified heperson
is to be described
outside the door as an innocent child. She makes him
even more personal by saying he looks like her child –
this also indicates the humanity of this person.
The child has lost his innocence – “hand too steady” – refers
The poet
to him refers
being able to use
theareader
gun. – this makes it
“eyes too hard”
personal. – he might
She wants thehave seentothings
reader also that
see athe
child is
child
notshe
as supposed
does. to see.
24. One word for you.

25. Outside my door, The metaphor continues.
26. his hand too steady,
27. his eyes too hard,
28. is a boy who looks like your son too.
Again the poet draws the reader in

to make it personal.
29. I open the door.
30. Come in , I say.
31. Come in and eat with us.
The poet has lost all the fear she had

before- she invites the child in for dinner.
32. The child steps in
33. And carefully, at my door,
34. takes off his shoes.
The child takes off his shoes as a sign of respect – this

emphasises the theme of “judging a book by its cover”.
The poet has made up her mind and has erased all society’s
judgements and prejudices – she has decided for herself
what to call this person outside the door.

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THE RIGHT WORD

The right word-

1. Outside the door,

8. I haven’t got this right.

The poet speculates

24. One word for you.

Again the poet draws the reader in

The poet has lost all the fear she had

The child takes off his shoes as a sign of respect – this

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