THE EMIGREE by CAROL RUMENS Flashcards
‘There once was a country…’
Sounds like a story of loss.
The country is not named - could be any country
Ellipsis … in the first line gives us
Time to think and fill in the blank.
We wonder what happened to it.
‘Sunlight-clear’ and repetition of ‘sunlight’ suggests
She is optimistic and has a dream like picture of the past where it’s always sunny.
‘the bright filled paperweight’
Bright is positive but the paperweight shows she is tied to home or held back.
Branded means
She is marked by sunlight
‘The white streets of the city’ shows
The street is never named. It stands for a place anyone once loved.
‘as time rolled its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves’ is a
Metaphor. It shows time makes it worse and uses war language. The frontiers are changeable and powerful like waves.
‘That child’s vocabulary I carried here
Like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar.’ Is a
Simile which shows she can’t speak the language used in her country.
‘Lie’ ‘Banned’ ‘can’t get it off’
Are negative suggesting that people try to force her not to be positive but she STILL IS.
‘It tastes of sunlight’ is
Synaesthesia. It emphasises the vividness of the experience.
‘I have no passport’
She has no way out.
Implies that she has no identify.
How many stanzas?
How many lines?
Does it rhyme?
It is free verse
It has 30 lines
It has 3 stanzas
‘My city comes to me in its own white plane
It lies down in front of me docile as paper’ this is a
Metaphor because the city is part of her.
