The Emigree - Context And Writer's Intentions

Question 1

what was rumen’s early poetry mainly about

Answer 1

• domestic themes

- such as childhood and the role of a hoursewife

Question 2

what does rumen’s poetry now recently focus on

Answer 2

• language and culture

- the emigree reflects these cultural themes

Question 3

what aspect of rumens life could have inspired her to write the poem

Answer 3

• she is well travelled and has visited many countries

- she is particularly interested in russian and eastern-european culture

Question 4

who inspired rumens poetry as a whole and why

Answer 4

• philip larkins
• she liked his precise imagery and conversational tone of his poems
• these can also be seen in the emigree

Question 5

what is the emigree simply about

Answer 5

a woman remembering her homeland

Question 6

what is an emigree

Answer 6

someone who has left their native country and moved to another

Question 7

why can the reader assume that the speaker is female

Answer 7

because “the emigree” is written in feminine form

Question 8

how does the narrator describe her homeland

Answer 8

• in positive terms using semantic fields of light

- such as it “filled me with an impression of sunlight”

Question 9

what is the contrast between the narrators description of her homeland and the later descriptions we are given

Answer 9

• her descriptions are based on nostalgic memories

- where as the following description is based on current and factual things

Question 10

how has the speaker’s country changed overtime

Answer 10

• “it may be at war”
• there are references to “tyrants” and it now being a “city a walls”
• and a place where she has been “banned by the state”

Question 11

despite the current state of her homeland, how does the narrator respond to it

Answer 11

• she says “the worst news i receive of it cannot break my original view”
• this suggests that she prefers to keep her positive childhood memory
• rather than focusing on a harsher reality