Poem - The Emigrée Flashcards
Why can we infer that the persona is a female?
Émigrée means émigrant but is in the feminine form
This 1st simile shows distance between the adult and her childhood home. It is both a physical and metaphorical distance.
frontiers rise between us, close like waves
This 2nd simile shows the distance between the adult and her childhood home. It is both a physical and metaphorical distance.
That child’s vocabulary I carried here/ like a hollow doll
The place is not as perfect as she remembers it and these quotes imply that things are not as ideal as her memories suggest.
‘being dark’ and ‘death’
Despite it being banned, she wants to use her beloved language
Every colourful molecule
The details are very vague throughout the poem. What could this show?
The place she visits isn’t real, just a metaphor for the world of childhood.
There is a distinct change of tone between the first two stanzas and the last one
The first two are about light, the last is much darker
This poem does not rhyme or have any rhythm. What could this convey?
The uneasiness felt by the speaker who goes through the full range of emotions
When thinking about her homeland images of light suggest happiness and positivity yet this quote implies pain. It suggests that she belongs here, but belonging to such a place has been painful.
Branded by an impression of sunlight
These five words suggest a war-torn country
“worst news”, “at war”, “tyrants”, “rolls its tanks”, and “banned by the state”
What word and punctuation do all the stanzas end with?
Sunlight.
The city is personified as?
Docile
How is the city personified as a lover?
Takes me dancing
The city is personified as fearful
Hides behind me
This shows how the speaker can’t suppress the language
Opens and spills a grammar
This shows how the speaker is helping and loving her city
Comb its hair
These similes show the susceptibility to breakage
“Hollow doll” and “paper”
