Orignally - Duffy

Question 1

“We came from our own country”

Answer 1

~ “we and our” - plural pronouns. Suggests group or family who are going through this together. shared experience.
~ Word choice – “own” shows the possession - speaker seems attached to what is being left behind.

Question 2

“in a red room”

Answer 2

~ alliteration – red room is actually a car.

~ sounds childlike – doesn’t understand what is happening

Question 3

“which fell through the fields “

Answer 3

~ suggests speed. Lack of control.

~ speaker is not happy or comfortable, all is happening too fast.

Question 4

“mother singing our father’s name”

Answer 4

~ enjambment, ambiguity.
~ singing usually connected with happiness: fact that she is singing father’s name suggests he is not is there and it is not clear where he is.

Question 5

“My brother’s cried one of them bawling”

Answer 5

~ Brothers very unhappy, unhappy to move or other reason?

~ “bawling” - loud and constant complaining.

Question 6

“Home, home”

Answer 6

~ italics, enjambment
~ longing for home.
~ highlight how upset and desperate brothers are.

Question 7

“Miles rushed back”

Answer 7

~ personification

~ reflects how speaker feels - wishes to return home. She seems envious.

Question 8

“The city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms.”

Answer 8

~ list and word choice.
~ helps convey all left behind.
~ makes loss seems greater.
~ as location becomes more specific, it focuses on the home left behind and the life she lead in the now “vacant” rooms.
~ word “vacant” reminds us of emptiness she feels.

Question 9

“I stared”

Answer 9

~. Using “stared” and not “look” suggests she is focused on her toy, perhaps because it reminds her of home, but it also makes her seem more sad and detached.

Question 10

” at the eyes of a blind toy.”

Answer 10

~ personification and symbolism.
~ toy reflects how she feels - doesn’t know where she’s going, can’t see the way.
~ associate eyes with understanding – as though she is seeking comfort and reassure from the toy but is getting nothing.

Question 11

” all childhood is an emigration”

Answer 11

~ metaphor and caesura.
~ childhood is a journey like a journey we move through changing stages.
~ highlights extreme changes which occur as you go through life.
~ caesura helps to highlight idea of reaching and and then a new stage – a change

Question 12

“Some are slow, leaving….. You know stays.”

Answer 12

~ alliteration- hard hiss sound adds sense of dragging.
~ sentence length and structure.
~ long sentence suggests difficult journey which takes time.
~ continues arms extends metaphor - Childhood can seem like a long, complex journey.

Question 13

“Others are sudden”

Answer 13

~ simple, short sentence.

~ abrupt. Reflects what we often feel - that changes in life happen quickly and unexpectedly.

Question 14

“You accent wrong”

Answer 14

~ suggests speaker feels out of place as her accent is wrong - unlike everyone around her.
~ another phase of childhood - feeling out of place.

Question 15

“Seem, unimagined, don’t understand.”

Answer 15

~ each word suggests a sense of unfamiliarity or uncertainty.
~ suggests move brings confusion - like our progression through childhood

Question 16

“Big boys”

Answer 16

~ alliteration.
~ harsh, plosives sounds.
~ feels aggressive like the boys are.
~ perhaps move makes speaker feel intimidated.
~ Also represents how childhood can be scary.

Question 17

“My parents anxiety stirred like a loose tooth in my head”

Answer 17

~ simile - suggests something irritating, always there, something you can’t ignore.
~ whole family affected by move.
~ could also reflect the concerns parents feel as their children grow.
~ place pressure on child too, something they feel constantly hindered by.

Question 18

“I want our own country.”

Answer 18

~ italics used to show direct speech.

~ links back to opening line, suggest speaker still hasn’t moved on and still feels connection with her past.

Question 19

“Forget, or don’t recall, or change”

Answer 19

~ similar to previous list.
~ shows there are many changes, but also difficult to explain or “pinpoint”.
~ Suggests confusion felt .

Question 20

“Swallow a slug”

Answer 20

~ sibilance.

~ links back to aggrieved behaviour of the big boys but now suggests they are beginning to fit in.

Question 21

“A skelf of shame.”

Answer 21

~ dialect and alliteration.
~ “skelf” - Scottish word for splinter.
~ old ways still linger with her.
~ uses Scottish word as if suggests she still keeps some of her roots

Question 22

“My tongue shedding its skin like a snake.”

Answer 22

~ simile
~ a change, adapting to suit a new environment.
~ speaker starting to sound like her. “Shedding” her Scottish vocabulary, finally fitting in.

Question 23

“I only think.”

Answer 23

~ introduces uncertainty.

~ seems speaker is not sure about what she misses- about what has been left behind.

Question 24

“A river, culture… The right place?”

Answer 24

~ list - before, list suggested a lot lost. This time items seem more significant, speaker seems to care less, more dismissive.
~ river Clyde, Scottish speech.

Question 25

“Where do you come from?/ originally?”

Answer 25

~ italics.

~ different questions show speaker conflict. Is where you come from the same place as you were born?

Question 26

“And I hesitate.”

Answer 26

~ conjunction and short sentence.

~ feels like quick, uncertain response. Not sure where they belong.