The Emigrée Flashcards
b-t my m-m-ry of it is…
but my memory of it is sunlight-clear
Th-r- -nc- w-s a c–ntry
There once was a country
-t m-y b- at w-r, -t m-y b- s-ck w-th tyr-nts
It may be at war, It may be sick with tyrants
I -m br-nd-d by -n -mpression -f the s-nlight
I am branded by an impressio of sunlight
The wh-te str–ts … the
The white steets… the graceful slopes
t-m- r-lls…
time rolls its tanks
fr-nt–rs r-s- b-tw–n -s, … l-k- w-v-s
frontiers rise between us, close like waves
I c-mb its…
I comb its hair and love its shining eyes
They -cc-s- me of …
They accuse me of absence, they cirlce me. They accuse me of being dark
My city…
My city hides behind me
MER+C
There once was a country…
- Fantastical tone
- Creates impression of a perfect fairy tale world
- Caesura … evokes a yearing for the country
MER+C
but my memory of it is sunlight-clear
imagery of light is present throughout ans symbolises preciousness , revelation
MER+C
it cannot break / my original view
1) Enj - creates a broken flow, may suggest that there is actually a lack of confidence and anxiety YBNB
2) Nothing can change her view. Shows passion - the city of her dreams still exists in her memories as it always did
MER+C
It may be at war, It may be sick with tyrant
- Anaphora heightens the concern for the city. Almost paternal care.
-Metaphor, imagery of disease , and coagulating velar plosive of “sick” emphasises the emigree’s spitting contempt for the tyrant who has made her city “sick”
Imagery of disease represent sthe corruption of morals + Somrthing that was so perfect.
MER+C
I am branded by an impression of sunlight
Metaphor
1) She is been impacted and will forever be an important part of her identity that is precious to her
Sunlight - preciousness
Tortourous conatations + violent plosive phonology of “branded”
- May suggest permant scarring and trauma and indicative of something traumatic the girl saw in her country but she chooses not to believe it was true as it would sully the image.
MER+C
The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes / glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks
Only analyse Bold.
- Imagery of light + good fighting
- Extended metaphor of brightnwss and purity Perfection and elegance as white connotates to purity.
- Enjambment physicallises the “graceful slopes”
- “glow” may also symbolise hope and a non-conformist attitude and suggest that the city is fighting against the hegemonical oppresion
MER+C
as time rolls its tanks
Metaphor
Violent plosive nature, shocking, harsh
1) Idea of entropy - ozymandias - all good things come to an end
2) Time is a tyrant - metaphor
MER+C
and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves
- Simile
- Boarders are like waves
- What may seen important and permenent (boarders) are actually the most fleeting and temporary “like wave”
- the “frontier” seperating her and her city is only temporary and its only a matter of time before they reunite
- whilst the fragile things like memory are actually the most significant.
MER+C
I comb its hair and love its shining eyes
- Shining eyes - participle adjective - continuation of the extended metaphor.
- Creates a famillial bond or maternal bond
MER+C
They accuse me of absence, they cirlce me. They accuse me of being dark
- Tricolonic anaphora
- Ambiguous collcetive pronoun
1) Either people in the country she comes to are crimanilising the emmigrants. Although she is no longer experiancing physical conflict it is suggested that she is experiancing racism.
2) Or the people of the country she is emmigrating from (the tyrants)
C- Creates sence of sympathy for the emmigrants
Context
- British author born in Britain.
- Immigration was a term that often resonated with atipathy and potryaed as a problem in the media.
- Rummens was not an immagrant it is an act of empathy
- Rummens was Left wing and wrote for the Guardian
- Encourages empathy in the reader and higlihts the importance of undermiming racism
Structure
Free verse
- No rhyme or meter
- May be done to represent the the chaos and lack of control over her country.
