Emigrée

Question 1

Structure

Answer 1

“There once was a country…”: Temporal deixis use creates a childlike tone to the poem
Last stanza - Rumens uses enjambment in “Through the city///Of walls” to separate “of walls” from the rest of the text, causing the reader to see walls as an isolated idea, creating connotations of entrapment. The final stanza has caesura and free verse to create chaos, conversely freedom(“My city takes me dancing through the city of walls. They accuse me of absence, they circle me.”
Title - contrast between English “the” and the French “Emigrée” establishes the idea of two conflicting cultures and identities

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

Poem predominantly in free verse with no rhyme/rhyme, represents chaos and lack of control over a country with no stable government, juxtaposes with the positive imagery in the poem so the form could more likely be presenting freedom.
Limited order to the poem in the similar stanza lengths, represents the attempt at order inflicted upon her life through her emigration

Question 2

Languafe

Answer 2

Epistrophe- every stanza ends with a reference to sunlight(“I am branded by an impression of sunlight,” “It tastes of sunlight,” “my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight”: shows love for country will overrule any feelings of pain caused by it)
Gustatory imagery in “it tastes of sunlight”
Subjunctive case - the speaker claims her city “may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants” shows how flaws seem hypothetical to her as she doesn’t have a new perspective of her city besides what she gained before she left as a child
In contrast, the negative traits of her new city and her feelings of fear are stated definitively(“they mutter death,” “city of walls” and “they accuse me.”)