Sense of Self and Loss in Agha Shahid Ali’s “Vacating an Apartment” and “The Previous Occupant”

Grace Cochran
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor

There is a thematic connection between the poems “Vacating an Apartment” and “The Previous Occupant” in Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry collection The Half Inch Himalayas. These poems occur sequentially on the subject of tenants moving in and out of an apartment. In the first poem of the sequence, “Vacating an Apartment” the speaker is like a ghost watching the landlord discuss the apartment with new tenants. While the speaker is watching the scene unfold, they recall how they have been completely stripped from the room, giving the speaker an unsteady sense of self. However, in “The Previous Occupant” the speaker is the person who now occupies the apartment that the speaker of the previous poem has vacated. The speaker can still feel the presence of the previous occupant and states, “He’ll never, never, move out of here." My paper will discuss the common theme of the speakers’ sense of self and loss in relation to the apartment they once or now occupy. 

Keywords: Poetry , Agha Shahid Ali, Loss, Sense of Self , “Vacating an Apartment” , “The Previous Occupant”, The Half-Inch Himalayas, Thematic Connection

Topic(s):English

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Session: TBA
Location: TBA
Time: TBA