The Emigree

Question 1

How can the emigree and war photographer be compared

Answer 1

Both explore ideas about internal conflict caused by external events. War photographer focuses on the permanent emotional conflict caused whilst emigree focuses on conflict that is impressionable and can be moulded by one’s surroundings.

Question 2

How can emigree be compared with storm on the island

Answer 2

both poems explore political conflict and violence within one society. Emigree has been exiled whereas speaker from storm on the island has been embedded within the violent culture in that society.

Question 3

Quote to cliche

Answer 3

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

fairytale-esque declarative
Ellipsis and “Brothers-Grimm” style of opening is cliche, which Rumens employs to subtly suggest to the reader that english is not the speaker’s first language.

Question 4

Speak about the title

Answer 4

Female “double e” would have had to leave her home country, most likely due to political unrest. However, her description of this land seems to be elegant and idealist.

Question 5

“Branded” quote

Answer 5

I am branded by an impression of sunlight

Metaphor
Repetition of “sunlight” portrays the speakers positive emotions towards her home country
Branded to suggest that the country has left marks on her, potentially violence due to political unrest
Also suggest how she has been branded as an outsider by her new society

Question 6

“Tastes of sunlight” quote

Answer 6

But i can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight

Combines the taste from “tongue” and sight from “sunlight” for synaesthesia. Show how excited the speaker is towards her home country.
But - Indeed, the narrator knows of the false preconceptions that she holds, however she continues to subdue such contradictory thoughts
Caesura - imply that the speaker has been silenced in the way the state silences her by banning her language.

Question 7

Structure in Emigree

Form in Emigree

Answer 7

Free verse to reflect the chaotic nature of the war, and the speaker attempts to create order. Three stanzas of similar lengths.
dramatic monologue to highlight the significance of this.

Question 8

Context of Emigree

Answer 8

The context of The Emigree is displacement, that is, forced upheaval of local people and the need to flee a home country. Although there are no specific names in the poem, no country, no city, this works to the poem’s advantage because the mind of the speaker is a universal substitute.

In the collection called “Thinking of Skins” - focus on the relationship between identity and culture.