Ispahan Carpet by Elizabeth Burge describes the poets visit in Persia as she examines the carpet makers.
Vincent Liow
Ispahan Carpet
“Ispahan Carpet” by Elizabeth Burge describes the poets visit in Persia as she examines the carpet makers. Although the poem’s title suggests that the poem is centered on Persian carpets, the poet does not wholly concentrates on its beautiful handicrafts. The poet’s attention is especially drawn to the girls making these rugs in this poem .Through various the use of literacy devices, the readers are able to adopt the poet’s feelings and thoughts as she examines the girls at work.
The poem is written in stanzaic form of five stanzas each on one idea. In the first stanza, the poet gives us her first impressions when she say the carpet making “firm” as the descriptions given as visual. As an example, “bare” and “cavernous” is used by the poet to describe the room and using such words Burge makes us understand that they do not live in any luxury. Another instance where first impressions are shown is when she first saw the carpets. The use of strong adjectives, “sensuous jeweled arabesque’’ is used by the poet to convey her feeling of wonder as she see the carpets. The use of “jeweled” is indeed an exaggeration, but is still used by Burge to make her readers understand that these carpets “interwoven pattern” resembles pure beauties, like jewels. Onward, Burges has made the next four stanzas in descending order of number of verses; 8-3-3-2. The idea that the poet may have had behind was to illustrate the hard work behind the carpet making. It may represent the process from start to finish. Furthermore we are given the impression that the carpet making is like a piece of art or “traditional beauty”. This is one of the ideas that the poet wants us to understand.