the emigree Flashcards
who write the poem ‘the emigrée’ ?
Carol Rumens
what’s the summary of the poem ‘the emigrée’ ?
The speaker talks about a city in a country she left as a child. She has a purely positive view on it. The city seems to be under attack and unreachable but in the last stanza an unknown ‘they’ accuse and threaten the speaker. The city may not be a real place, it’s the emotion she felt as a child and the fun time she had in her childhood.
what is an ‘emigrée’
a woman forced to leave her native country, often for political reasons
when was the poem published?
1993
which person is the poem written in?
first person
what’s the rhythm of the poem?
the poem has no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme
what different between the first two stanzas and the last stanza?
the first two stanzas contain a lot of enjambment, but this stops in the final stanza reflecting the speakers confinement/trapped in her new city rather then being as free as a child
each stanza ends with….
sunlight. reinforcing the fact that the speaker sees the city in a positive light also suggesting a vitality to the city
“childs vocabulary”
metaphor. implies the speaker is defying the authorities by accessing her “child’s vocabulary” that has been “banned”
where is personification in the poem?
with the city itself. “my city takes me dancing” “it lies down infront of me” emphasises the speakers great love for the city
how does the speaker feel in her new city?
threatened, trapped, unhappy
the title of the prom suggests that
the speaker was forced out of her country and never wanted to leave it.
what changes in the poem?
at first the speaker is describing her beloved childhood and freedom höher towards the end the speaker is experiencing growing up and she feels unhappy, unsafe, trapped and threatened in grown life.
“the bright, filled paperweight”
metaphor. Suggests that the narrators meteorites are bright and positive, but also solid and fixed.
“white” “glow”
makes the city sound pure and heavenly
