The emigree Flashcards
What are the main themes in The Émigrée?
Memory & nostalgia
Conflict & war
Identity & belonging
Loss & displacement
How is the poem structured?
Three stanzas, no strict rhyme scheme (free verse).
Enjambment creates a flowing, memory-like tone.
Caesura: Reflects how fragmented and war torn the place she is from is now, gives time to the reader to think
First-person perspective (personal and emotional).
“My city takes me dancing…”
Personification – the city is alive in her memory.
Positive, joyful memories contrast with its current state.
“It may be sick with tyrants…”
Personification – the city is “sick” under oppressive rule.
The speaker refuses to accept its ruined state.
“The white streets of that city…”
Purity & innocence of childhood memory.
Contrasts with the dark reality of war-torn cities.
What is the context of The Émigrée?
Explores the experience of a political exile.
Reflects on how memory idealizes the past.
Could relate to any war-torn city (e.g., Beirut, Sarajevo).
“The bright, filled paperweight”
Metaphor: Memories are solid, unchanging, and precious.
Contrasts with the fragile reality of the city.
Enjambment before “bright” emphasizes its enduring clarity.
“I comb its hair and love its shining eyes”
Personification: City = a loved child/pet, evoking tenderness.
Childish imagery: Suggests innocence and nostalgia.
Patriotic undertones: Deep emotional bond to homeland.
“It may be sick with tyrants”
Personification: City is “sick” under oppressive rule.
Speaker’s denial (“but I am branded by an impression of sunlight”).
Conflict: Memory vs. reality.
Comparison to Kamikaze
Conflict of Loyalty: Personal vs. Political Duty
Comparison:
Both poems explore individuals torn between personal love and societal expectations in conflict.
The Émigrée: Speaker clings to a childlike, patriotic love for their homeland (“I comb its hair and love its shining eyes”), despite its tyranny. Their loyalty is to memory, not politics.
Kamikaze: The pilot chooses family and nature (“dark shoals of fish”) over suicidal duty, but is rejected by his society (“we too learned to be silent”).
Contrast:
The Émigrée’s speaker defies reality through memory, while the kamikaze pilot is crushed by reality (shunned for his choice).
Key Quotes:
“My city takes me dancing” (Émigrée) vs. “he must have wondered which had been the better way to die” (Kamikaze).
- Nature Imagery: Idealism vs. Temptation
Comparison:
Both use nature to contrast with war, but for different effects.
The Émigrée: Nature is idealized (“sunlight-clear,” “white streets”)—symbolizing pure, untouchable memory.
Kamikaze: Nature is a tangible temptation (“turbulent inrush of waves”) that lures the pilot away from war.
Contrast:
In The Émigrée, nature is untouchable (only in memory); in Kamikaze, it’s physically present but forbidden.
Key Quotes:
“The bright, filled paperweight” (Émigrée) vs. “the loose silver of whitebait” (Kamikaze).
- Consequences of Defiance: Empowerment vs. Shame
Comparison:
Both protagonists reject societal expectations, but face opposite outcomes.
The Émigrée: The speaker’s defiance (“I have no passport… but my city comes to me”) is empowering—memory transcends borders.
Kamikaze: The pilot’s defiance leads to shame (“they treated him as though he no longer existed”).
Contrast:
Rumens’ speaker finds strength in isolation, while Garland’s pilot is destroyed by it.
Key Quotes:
“It may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by sunlight” (Émigrée) vs. “only we children still chattered and laughed” (Kamikaze).
Essay:
Both Carol Rumens’ The Émigrée and Beatrice Garland’s Kamikaze explore how individuals respond to external conflict and its impact on personal identity. While Rumens presents a speaker who defiantly preserves an idealized memory of her homeland, Garland depicts a pilot whose rejection of conflict leads to his social ostracization. Through their contrasting use of perspective, natural imagery, and resolutions, both poets offer complex insights into how people navigate political oppression and societal expectations.
One key difference lies in how each poem structures its narrative perspective to convey the protagonists’ relationship with conflict. The Émigrée employs a first-person perspective, creating an intimate, defiant tone as the speaker declares, “My city takes me dancing through the city of walls.” This personal pronoun “my” recurs throughout, emphasizing her unwavering ownership of memory despite her physical displacement. In contrast, Kamikaze uses third-person narration interspersed with the daughter’s reported speech: “he must have wondered which had been the better way to die.” This layered perspective creates emotional distance, mirroring how the pilot becomes distanced from his community. The structural choice in each poem thus reflects their central conflict – Rumens’ speaker maintains connection through memory, while Garland’s pilot suffers disconnection through his choice.
Both poems employ natural imagery to contrast with human conflict, though to different effects. Rumens uses light-based metaphors to preserve an idealized homeland, describing memories as “sunlight-clear” and streets as “white.” This imagery constructs the city as frozen in perfection, like the “bright, filled paperweight” – a metaphor suggesting both fragility and preservation. Conversely, Garland’s natural imagery is dynamic and tempting: the “dark shoals of fish” and “turbulent inrush of waves” represent the life the pilot chooses over death. The critical difference emerges in how nature functions: in The Émigrée it’s an unreachable memory, while in Kamikaze it’s a tangible alternative to conflict that ultimately fails to protect the pilot from societal rejection.
The poems’ resolutions present opposing outcomes for those who resist conflict. Rumens’ speaker achieves a form of victory as she declares, “I have no passport… but my city comes to me in its own white plane.” The enjambment across “no passport” emphasizes how memory transcends physical barriers, with the final image suggesting her identity remains intact. Garland, however, delivers a tragic conclusion where the community “treated him as though he no longer existed.” The daughter’s admission that they “learned to be silent” reveals how conflict erodes personal bonds. Where The Émigrée shows memory as liberating, Kamikaze demonstrates how societal pressures can destroy those who deviate from expected roles.
Ultimately, both poems powerfully depict individuals caught between personal conscience and external conflict, using contrasting techniques to explore their themes. Rumens celebrates the resilience of memory against political oppression, while Garland exposes the brutal costs of resisting militaristic expectations. Their differences in perspective, imagery and resolution collectively provide a nuanced examination of how conflict shapes – and often fractures – human identity.
Theme of Memory
In Carol Rumens’ The Émigrée, memory is portrayed as both a sanctuary and a burden, with the speaker’s childhood homeland preserved in her mind as an idealized, almost mythical place despite its political turmoil. The opening line - “There once was a country… I left it as a child” - establishes memory as distant and innocent, while vivid imagery like “The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks” shows how her luminous memories contrast with violent reality, becoming a form of resistance. The metaphor “branded by an impression of sunlight” reveals memory’s painful permanence, and the paradoxical “My shadow falls as evidence of sunlight” demonstrates how her memories defy logic yet persist as proof of her past. However, this unchanging mental image conflicts with the present, as shown through accusatory repetition (“They accuse me of absence… They accuse me of being dark in their free city”), leaving her isolated in a world where her memories are disbelieved. Ultimately, the speaker’s identity rests entirely on these memories, expressed through the powerful metaphor “I have no passport, no city, but the light pours through me”, making memory both her shield against reality and her wound of exile. The poem’s free verse structure and enjambment mirror memory’s fluid, uncontrollable nature, creating a poignant exploration of how idealized recollections can both sustain and alienate an exile.
Theme of Identity
In The Émigrée, Carol Rumens explores identity as something rooted in memory, yet fractured by exile. The speaker’s sense of self is inextricably tied to her childhood homeland—a place she can no longer return to physically but which defines her emotionally and psychologically.
Constructed Through Idealized Memory
“There once was a country… I left it as a child”
The ellipsis suggests something lost or unspoken, framing her identity around a half-remembered, romanticized past. “The white streets of that city… glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks”. The visual purity of her memories contrasts with the violent reality, showing how she preserves an untainted self-image despite political change.
In Conflict With Present Reality
“They accuse me of absence… They accuse me of being dark in their free city”
The repetition of “accuse” highlights how her identity is rejected by others—she is seen as an outsider, neither belonging to her homeland nor her new country. “I have no passport, no city”
A metaphor for statelessness; her legal identity is erased, leaving only memory as proof of who she is.
