The Trick: Imtiaz Dharker for IGCSE unseen poetry.

In a wasted time, it’s only when I sleep
that all my senses come awake. In the wake
of you, let day not break. Let me keep
the scent, the weight, the bright of you, take
the countless hours and count them all night through
till that time comes when you come to the door
of dreams, carrying oranges that cast a glow
up into your face. Greedy for more
than the gift of seeing you, I lean in to taste
the colour, kiss it off your offered mouth.
For this, for this, I fall asleep in haste,
willing to fall for the trick that tells the truth
that even your shade makes darkest absence bright,
that shadows live wherever there is light.

Here are  my ideas for approaching this conundrum.

1. It’s an unseen, so you must read it with a pen in hand and annotate the poem for interest and for areas which confuse. Read it by placing it in your mouth – an odd concept but I mean mouth it so you feel it but make no sound. Allow your lips and tongue to feel the alliteration, and ensure you read it slowly enough to be aware of the possible links of ideas. Also note the title.
2. In the examination, the English Literature mark scheme focuses on language structure and form so think about the latter pair. Do you recognise the form? Is it a sonnet, a ballad, a villanelle (unlikely, but the models for these are in the anthology)? Is it free verse? If so, use this in your response: Sonnets are always about love, have 14 lines and rhyme; ballads are short stanzas in a narrative poem with an innocent, child-like rhythm; villanelles are complex… look at Do not go Gentle…
3. Make a quick note of form – this poem is a sonnet. It is about love, but the title is The Trick. Let your mind work. How many suggestions are there for this word? Love is trick? The trick to love (the clever key); a trick is the term used in some slang for sexual activity with a prostitute… your mind will tell you to ignore the last one – this is an exam…
4. Go with sonnet. 14 lines. Remember the Octave and Sestet structure? Wha tdo you notice about the end of the Octave?  ENJAMBMENT! this runs through the whole poem. Give a suggestion why this is so – the poet is so full of emotion that she has lost control of the structure? This will work. Use it. Also note the rhyme scheme…
5. In a regular rhyme scheme the interest comes when the rhyme is lost… look closely and focus on: MOUTH. It’s a half-rhyme with truth, but this is enough – the poet draws attention to the mouth -the focus of kissing and physical expression of love. Use it.
6. Once we have a bit of structure and form – it’s a 20-25 minute response – move to language and let’s unpack the poem.Don’t worry if you do not get it all, work with what you do understand. This will look something like this:
7. In a wasted time, it’s only when I sleep
   that all my senses come awake. In the wake
   of you, let day not break.
8. Let me keep
   the scent, the weight, the bright of you,
9. take
   the countless hours and count them all night through
   till that time comes when you come to the door
   of dreams,
10. carrying oranges that cast a glow
    up into your face.
11. We suddenly see that the poet is most alive when asleep and in her dreams she has maximum awareness of her senses. She longs for the night to never end and imagines the triplet of scent, weight (physical presence or a reference to love-making) and the metaphorical ‘bright’ (goodness?) of the lover to last for ever. He only comes now in dreams and for some reason brings oranges which may symbolise a lost ripeness or health or maybe the reference to the fact that odd things happen in dreams… you need to decide.
12. Having simplified the Octave, look at the sestet: Suddenly she is ‘greedy’ – lustful and urgent and in her dreams she tries to kiss – leaning in, suggest she is the instigator of this erotic dream-  to kiss the colour (orange) off the offered mouth – a passionate kiss indeed. She so looks forward to this fantasy she falls asleep swiftly in order to receive the trick – the dream lover who overcomes his absence  (death?) by appearing in her mind.
13. The couplet at the end – rhyming in the manner of a Shakespearean Sonnet as suggested by the full title – suggests a message or philosophy: his shade: perhaps a ghost, certainly a dream-figure, makes the darkest absence (dark is sad or deathly) bright – full of life and hope. As though it is this dream which gives her a reason to live. That’s the trick– fooling oneself that the absent lover is still alive.
14. The final line sums up the message as old as the Garden of Eden: Et in arcadia ego-  even in paradise lurks sadness and grief. Shadows suggest sadness which live son wherever there is life – in otherwords, we are never far from grief, even when happy.

Does this help? I hope so.