The emigrée

Question 1

Poem’s form

Answer 1

The poem is written in the first person, with three eight line stanzas but no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme. The first two stanzas contain lots of enjambment, but there’s more end-stopping in the final stanza. This reflects the speaker’s feelings of confinment in her ‘new city walls’.

Question 2

Poem’s structure

Answer 2

The speaker’s memory of the city grows and solidifies as the poem moves on - the city becomes a physical presence for the speaker in the final stanza. Each stanza ends with ‘sunlight’, reinforcing the fact that the speaker sees her old city in a positive light.

Question 3

Poem’s themes

Answer 3

• Power of memory
• Internal conflict
• individual experiences