the emigree Flashcards
1
Q
“there once was a country… I left it as a child, but my memory of it is sunlight-clear”
A
- past tense, immediately shows some conflict that happened that has made it past tense
- “sunlight clear”, used throughout the poem as an image of hope
2
Q
“it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression”
A
- “branded”, she is owned by her childhood and cannot escape her past
- “sunlight”, although she is “branded” by her childhood, because she sees her past as positive, she carries that hope with her despite the tyrannical rule of her country at the time
3
Q
“that child’s vocabulary”
A
- represents the language of her home country
- describes her innocent perspective on the world
4
Q
“like a hollow doll”
A
- simile, she is the doll
- comparing a doll to child’s vocabulary shows how the language she has to speak in her new country is not fully developed
- correlation to a doll also suggests how she feels silence and only stands out when she is emotionally broken “spills out”
5
Q
“it lies in front of me, docile as paper; I comb it’s hair and love its shining eyes”
A
- personifies the city which shows her care for it
- “shining eyes”, can correlate to blindness, suggesting the image of her home country is false
6
Q
“my city hides behind me. They mutter death”
A
- “they mutter death”, represent the people in her new city who are prejudice against her
- alienates herself from the prejudice society to make the reader feel sympathy
7
Q
“and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight”
A
- ending with “sunlight”, suggests her consistent hope for a better society
- alternatively implies that she is worried that she is going to die at the hands of prejudice, but her “shadow” will still be evidence of the positivity of her culture
8
Q
describe the structure of the poem, the emigree
A
- the poem lacks form, the final stanza has 9 lines instead of the usual 8
- could suggest how the writer wants to make the final stanza stand out, sending a message to the reader
