The Emigree Flashcards
what is the poem about?
speaker talks positively about a city in a country she left as a child, the city seems to be under attack
‘there once was a country’
makes it sound like a story but it also suggests loss
‘the bright filled paper weight’
metaphor suggests that the narrator’s memories are bright and positive but also solid and fixed
‘I am branded by an impression on sunlight’
branded is juxtaposed with the positive impression of sunlight. it also suggests that her view cant be changed
‘time rolls its tanks’
time is personified as an enemy but it cant affect the speaker’s memories
‘it tastes of sunlight’
using another sense increases the vividness of the experience
‘but my city comes to me in its own white plane’
city is personified, ‘white plane’ could represent the speaker’s memories
‘They accuse me’
it’s unclear who ‘they’ are, but they are menacing, and the repetition reinforces their threat to the speaker
‘evidence of sunlight’
the poem ends on a positive note - despite the threats of death, the city is still associated with ‘sunlight’, just as it is at the end of the first two stanzas
what are the themes in the poem?
loss and absence, memory
loss and absence in ‘The Emigree’?
the speaker is nostalgic for a place that she left as a child. there is a sense of loss she feels for the place, suggestions that conflict is responsible for the speakers loss
memory in ‘the emigree’?
the speaker vividly remembers the city she left as a child. all her memories are positive but her memories are unreliable due to war
what is the form of the poem?
first person, no regular rhythm.
