2.4.14 Emigrée

Question 1

Poet

Answer 1

Carol Rumens

Question 2

Theme Code

Answer 2

VK-ELF

Question 3

Themes

Answer 3

Vulnerability, Identity, Loss and Absence, Individual Experience, Memory

Question 4

Quotes

Answer 4

• ‘my memory of it is sunlight-clear’ )
  ‘branded by an impression of sunlight.’
  ‘It tastes of sunlight.’
  ‘evidence of sunlight.’
• ‘The worst news I receive of it cannot break… my original view’
• ‘White streets’
  ‘Gracefuls slopes’
• ‘I have no passport’
• ‘my city comes to me’
  ‘It lies down’
  ‘I comb its hair’
  My city takes me dancing’
• ‘They accuse’

Question 5

Main Structural Points

Answer 5

• Enjambment
• Caesura
• Free Verse
• Repetition

Question 6

Explain the quote ‘I have no passport’

Answer 6

//
Emphasises the idea that they were forced to leave – unplanned and unprepared. Pain and conflict have been caused by man-made borders and borderlines restricting her from coming into the country she loved because she has no passport.

Question 7

Explain the quote ‘my city comes to me’
‘It lies down’
‘I comb its hair’
My city takes me dancing’

Answer 7

Personification
The personification of the city emphasises the love the narrator feels towards it. The city is personified as a lover, the personification, the power of the place. It’s like a romance story, imagery of her romance.

Question 8

Quotes for the Main Structural Point

Answer 8

• ‘my memory of it is sunlight-clear’
• ‘branded by an impression of sunlight.’
• ‘It tastes of sunlight.’
• ‘evidence of sunlight.’

Question 9

Simplified Main Structural Point

Answer 9

The enjambment, caesura and free verse emphasises the chaos and the lack of power and control the speaker holds. The stanzas reflect how s=they try impose order. Repetition of sunlight and putting it at the end suggests a happy image, overpowering the tyrants and danger.

Question 10

Main Structural Point

Answer 10

Rumen has chosen to write the the ‘Emigrée’ in free verse, resulting in the lack of rhyme and regular rhythm which reflects the lack of power the speaker holds. Rumens’ use of enjambment and caesura compliments this, the speaker has no control or power, all of this creates a combined effect that reflects the utter chaos in the place she loves.n The danger is shown through the chaotic and disorganised structural features of the poem. But to contradict this, the stanza lengths are quite consistent, with the first and second stanzas both having 8 lines and the third stanza continuing 9 lines, this is the speaker’s way of imposing order on the chaos, they refuse to be overcomed by the negativity of the conflict or power imposed on her. Rumen uses the repetition of sunlight to create an image and sense of positivity and happiness. ‘My memory of it is sunlight-clear’ showing that the speaker remembers it vividly, ‘branded by an impression of sunlight’ a juxtaposition of a sinister word ‘branded’ and the positive word ‘sunlight’, ‘it tastes of sunlight’ this gustatory imagery to show the speaker’s delight in the memory and ‘evidence of sunlight’. Rumen purposely place the word ‘sunlight’ at the end of each stanza, it’s repeated to make the point that this is how she feels about the place, it’s not just a one off, she keeps mentioning it when she mentions tyrants, danger and oppression, the reception of this image of sunlight, the idea that no matter what she loves this place, the place overpowers the negativity, There’s negativity but the love to place overpowers it.