Power And Conflict Poetry - The Emigrée

Question 1

There once was a country… I left it as a child

Answer 1

… creates caesura indicating a flashback
The concept of a city can be a metaphor for memories and growth. Progression from childhood to maturity

Question 2

Who wrote the Emigrée?

Answer 2

Carol Rumens

Question 3

What is the structure?

Answer 3

3 stanzas with repetitive elements such as sunlight
Capturing memory
Builds upon this idea
Facing up to the dark place her memory has become

Question 4

What is the big idea?

Answer 4

A deep sense of conflict in terms of emotions and memory
The poet is torn between her childhood memory and her adult understanding

Question 5

sunlight-clear

Answer 5

Pathetic fallacy creates a positive image which juxtaposes adult understanding

Question 6

I am told

Answer 6

Aside - distinction between her experience and what has been told

Question 7

filled paperweight

Answer 7

Shiny but represents unrealistic childhood memories

Question 8

sick with tyrants

Answer 8

Personification that city has been affected

Question 9

white streets of that city, graceful slopes

Answer 9

Connotation of innocence

Question 10

time rolls its tanks
and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves

Answer 10

Personify
Time to emphasise it’s relentless and destructive nature of war

Question 11

Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it

Answer 11

Metaphor - linking memory of the city
Value of memory

Question 12

It tastes of sunlight.

Answer 12

Synaesthesia - blur between senses reveals the confusion of memories

Question 13

my city comes to me in its own white plane.
docile as paper

Answer 13

Metaphor - open and vulnerable

Question 14

dancing through the city

Answer 14

Personification - memory - child-like tenderness

Question 15

evidence of sunlight

Answer 15

Contrast between darkness and light used to show the speaker coming to terms with two separate identities