Poetry The emigree Flashcards
‘it may be sick with tyrants’
‘it may be sick with tyrants’
personification her city is shrouded with corrupt and powerful leaders exploiting the powerless.
The reader has had to leave their country of birth due to conflict. She remembers her country in a positive view but people try to tell her the country has changed. Its become a terrible place. She has conflict in her own minds as she cant accept her country has changed due to her powerful memories. Her country has been taken over by a dictatorial government. Her memories are child like but the reality is a lot worse. She wont get back to city just like we cant get back to childhood-extended metaphor. Life is transient. She holds onto her past shown in structure as all her stanzas are 8 lines. she wont let go.
‘time rolls its tanks’
‘time rolls its tanks’
metaphor-as time ‘rolls’ on the city it has been changed by conflict. The alliteration ‘tt’ allude to the harsh reality of her country and war.
‘my shadows fall as evidence of sunlight’
‘my shadows fall as evidence of sunlight’
‘my shadows’- metaphor - only have shadows when there is light she says her city is under control of a terrible regime. Political power is dark under city. But this metaphor reveals that there are other better leaders providing hope as ‘sunlight’ Power is transient. Hopeful tone.
structure/form
Three stanzas: first two are eight lines and the last is nine. The extra line perhaps suggests the speaker cannot let go of her memories.
Free verse – freedom of thought and she stays loyal to her country.
There’s a suggestion of a rhythmic pattern of five stresses to a line but this is never fully established – reflects the speaker’s state of mind? Seems uneasy and unsettled although positive.
