"Originally" quotes Flashcards
“We came from our own country in a red room”
W/C: “Our” collective, unity, in harmony, emphasises that this decision has impacted her whole family, sense of belonging and attachment to Scotland.
Alteration: shows her childlike nature
“which fell through the fields, our mother singing/
our father’s name to the turn of the wheels.”
Imagery: just as if you fell you would rapidly lose control so too does a young Duffy feel impotent at how she cannot control the situation being a child.
Contrast: optimistic mood from mother singing to negativity from Duffy
Rhythm: mimics motion and sound of train and singing, chaotic uncomfortable environment.
“My brothers cried, one of them bawling, Home,/
Home, as the miles rushed back to the city”
Repetition & Capitalisation: “Home” reinforces misery of younger brothers and how they don’t have any other words to articulate their feelings.
Personification: emphasises strong desire to return to Glasgow, appears to be facing towards the opposite motion of the train signifying how she is not looking towards her future.
“the street, the house, the vacant rooms/
where we didn’t live any more.”
List: along W/C of “the”, emphasises the amount of things that are important to her as she is visualising the way back to her home.
“I stared/
at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw.”
Symbolism: innocence, “blind” hows her fear of the unknown and innocence deters her from making sense of her new life. She relies on the toy as source of comfort in this unsettling time as in contrast to her family the toy is silent.
“All childhood is an emigration.”
Metaphor: Just as to emigrate from one country to another is a transition and a major ordeal so too is growing up, everyone can relate as growing up is beyond our control.
Statement: emphasises this idea, effective as it is the beginning of Stanza
“Some are slow,/
leaving you standing, resigned, up an avenue/
where no one you know stays. Others a sudden”
Long Sentence: elongated sentence structure represents the slow process of grow up. The short sentence by contrast represents the rapid changes of growing up, sentence structure(s) describes the opposing forces that generate the ‘journey’ of ‘emigration’ through childhood into maturity.
“Others are sudden./
Your accent wrong.”
Minor Sentence: emphasises that changes can be dramatic and thus traumatic, highlighting Duffy’s isolation as she feels out of place in her new community.
W/C: “Wrong” (unsuitable, flawed, incorrect) conveys that communication and acceptance is difficult amongst her English peers; outsider, isolation.
“Corners, which seem familiar,/
leading to unimagined pebble-dashed estates, big boys/
eating worms and shouting words you don’t understand.”
Long Sentence & Enjambment: sense of confusion and lack of understanding further emphasised by the W/C of “seem” and “Unimagined”
Alliteration: “big boys” emphasises her age, intimidation, behaviour is alien to her, isolation
“My parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose tooth/
in my head. I want our own country, I said.”
Simile: Just as a loose tooth is a constant yet insignificant amount of pain that’s difficult to ignore so too are her parents starting to worry but not enough to provoke a strong reaction do not share Duffy’s feelings.
W/C: “our own” (collective, unity, in harmony) references opening line, still has that strong child like attachment to Scotland, autobiographical nature of poem.
“But then you forget, or don’t recall, or change,/
and, seeing your brother swallow a slug, feel only/
a skelf of shame.”
Conjunctive: “But”, reflection, more accepting, inevitability of change
List: emphasises variety of waysin which your childhood memory becomes fragile or blurry
W/C & Imagery: just as a skelf causes a insignificant amount of pain so too is Duffy only slightly embarrassed by her brothers antics as she has learned to adapt to her environment however, the Scottish dialect is still there.
“I remember my tongue/
shedding its skin like a snake”
Metaphor: Just as Snakes shed their skin to grow so too is Duffy gradually adapting an English accent.
Symbolism: Snakes symbolise betrayal, Duffy may feel like she is not loyal to her Scottish roots, struggling with identity
“Do I only think/
I lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space/
and the right place?”
Rhetorical question: emphasises the struggles with identity and isolation and how these struggles have carried on into adulthood. She lists all the things she left behind and wonders if they shaped who she is and thus her identity.
“Now, Where do you come from?/
strangers ask. Originally? And I hesitate.”
Question: emphasises the difficulty to articulate her complex identity
W/C: “hesitate” (indecisive, wary, delay) even though she is older she has mixed feelings about identity, cannot come to a conclusion
