25th Annual Student Research Conference
"This Cry is Foreign:" Imagery and Displacement in Agha Shahid Ali's "A Call" and "Houses"
Mia Pohlman
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
The poems in Agha Shahid Ali's The Half-Inch Himalayas (1987) express longing for one's homeland when one has been distanced from it in space and time. The poems "A Call" and "Houses" are no exception, suffused by two major themes that underlie the speakers' feelings of displacement from home and from parents. My paper will examine the poems' specific imagery--the moon, parents, houses, hands, and water--that evoke a sense of loss and alienation from one's native country. My paper's purpose will be to analyze how the speakers in "A Call" and "Houses" recall these images to recapture and preserve their memories of home.
Keywords: "A Call", Agha Shahid Ali, "Houses", Homeland, Imagery
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 109-5
Location: VH 1408
Time: 9:00