‘'These are the Times We Live in' by Imtiaz Dharker – Grade 9 Study Guide for Cambridge iGCSE

Summary

The video provides an exam-focused analysis of Imtiaz Dharker’s poem “These are the Times We Live in.” It argues that the poem shows how border checks can turn routine bureaucracy into an experience of racialized suspicion, humiliation, and the gradual loss of identity.

Context and central ideas

• Dharker is presented as a Pakistani-born British poet. The poem is discussed in relation to her 2006 collection The Terrorist at My Table and a post-9/11 climate of heightened suspicion.
• The poem places the reader in the position of a traveler whose appearance, name, or perceived background prompts scrutiny at passport control.
• Its central concern is systemic prejudice: the traveler is treated as suspicious not because of anything they have done, but because an official interprets ordinary details through a prejudiced lens.
• The injustice is quiet. There is no overt physical violence; instead, the traveler is reduced to documents, watched, misread, and eventually imagined as coming apart.
• The poem also suggests that media narratives can reinforce suspicion by absorbing a person’s image into public stories about terrorism, migration, or perceived threat.

Form and narrative perspective

• The poem consists of ten stanzas of varying lengths and is written in free verse, without a regular metre or rhyme scheme.
• As described in the video, the stanzas initially grow longer, intensifying the traveler’s experience. Later, the form breaks into shorter units and ends with a single-line stanza.
• This fragmentation mirrors the traveler’s psychological unravelling and the erosion of a coherent sense of self.
• The poem’s second-person address (“you”) and present tense place the reader directly in the encounter. Rather than observing the traveler from a distance, the reader is made to experience the scrutiny.
• The second-person voice also blurs the distinction between speaker and reader. That instability supports the poem’s concern with identity becoming fractured under systems of power and prejudice.

Development of the poem

• Routine becomes suspicious: The poem opens with the ordinary act of handing over a passport. The official’s attention then shifts from the document to the traveler’s face, suggesting that appearance, rather than evidence, triggers suspicion.
• “Reading you backwards”: The video interprets this phrase both literally, as a reference to the passport, and figuratively: the official seems to have already decided who the traveler is and reads the evidence to fit that assumption. The phrase also suggests distortion and misunderstanding.
• Resignation and normalization: The traveler considers being offended but appears to dismiss the reaction. The repeated idea that this is simply “the times we live in” conveys weary acceptance and shows how prejudice has become normalized.
• Reduction to a document: The metaphor of shrinking to the size of the passport suggests that the traveler’s complex humanity has been reduced to impersonal details such as a name, photograph, and place of birth.
• Suspicion attached to a name: The official’s imagined attention to the traveler’s name shows how a small detail can become a basis for surveillance. The video reads the reference to a “zed” as a signifier of perceived otherness, despite the traveler holding a British passport.
• Absurd and shifting standards: The imagined detail of a birthmark moving, and the claim that nothing is as it “should” be, expose the irrationality of suspicion. Once the traveler has been marked as different, even impossible changes can seem like evidence.
• A hostile gaze: The official’s quick movement to the photograph is interpreted as dismissive. His look is not neutral: the video suggests he is searching for confirmation of a suspicion rather than simply checking identity.
• Bitter laughter and surreal transformation: The traveler’s laughter is presented as defensive rather than joyful—a response to the absurdity and helplessness of the situation. The imagined changes to the traveler’s chin and hair satirize the idea that the traveler, rather than the official’s assumptions, must be at fault when the photograph seems not to match.
• Erasure of voice and identity: The images of the traveler’s mouth and eyes being rubbed or scrubbed out suggest silencing and dehumanization. The phrase “made you over” is ironic because this imposed transformation does not empower the traveler; it alienates them.
• Faceless systems: The video highlights the ambiguity of “they.” It may refer to security authorities, government, media, public attitudes, or the broader system that produces suspicion. This vagueness makes the prejudice seem systemic rather than the fault of one individual alone.
• Identity comes apart: The mismatch between traveler and photograph is treated as ironic: the traveler has not necessarily changed, but the official’s suspicion creates the appearance of a discrepancy. The video interprets the idea that “even that is coming apart” as the breakdown not only of the photograph but of the idea of a stable, verifiable identity.
• Humanity is missing: The image of the traveler’s pieces being present but their heart missing forms the emotional climax. Documents may account for identifying details, but they cannot capture the person’s humanity, feelings, or dignity.
• The newspaper and public perception: The traveler’s face drifting onto a newspaper page suggests that the individual is being absorbed into wider media narratives and public fears. The newspaper dated “today” stresses that the poem’s concerns are contemporary.
• Quiet ending: The poem concludes with the newspaper rustling as it lands. The single-line ending offers no resolution or restoration of the traveler’s identity. Its gentle sound makes the discrimination seem insidious: it can happen quietly, as an ordinary part of everyday life.

Analytical points highlighted in the video

• Consider how form reinforces meaning, especially the poem’s changing stanza lengths and fragmented ending.
• Examine the effects of second-person address, present tense, and the unstable narrative voice.
• Track how imagery and diction move from ordinary bureaucracy to surreal bodily disintegration.
• Pay attention to irony, particularly when routine actions, official documents, or the idea of a “makeover” are used to reveal injustice.
• Notice repeated phrases about “the times we live in” and how repetition turns an initially resigned observation into a broader criticism of normalized, systemic prejudice.
• Distinguish between the official’s individual actions and the wider systems and cultural narratives that shape his suspicion.

Speakers and sources featured

• Claire’s Notes presenter: The video’s narrator, who provides the context and literary analysis.
• Imtiaz Dharker: The poet whose work is being studied; she is discussed but does not speak in the video.
• The poem’s second-person narrative voice: Addresses the traveler as “you” and guides the reader through the encounter. The video notes that this voice is deliberately unstable and may blur speaker and reader.
• The customs official: A figure in the poem whose actions and looks are described; he does not speak directly in the quoted material.