The Émigrée

• Themes


  Loss and Absence

  Memory

  Identity

  Individual experiences
• Context


  An Emigree is a female migrant who has had to leave their country due to hardships, e.g war. Rumens was not an emigree.
• Form and Structure


  The poem doesn't really have a form, at the start there are 8 lines in the first stanza and it eh second but in the last stanza there is 9 lines, to put emphasis on the importance of the last line as otherwise the last word would be death but y adding the extra line it turns the poem into a celebration of her country. By ending the poem with the noun 'sunlight' it conveys everlasting hope, and suggests that emigrants enrich our society with 'sunlight' and culture to make them better.
• The Emigree


  Written by Carol Rumens
• There once was a country... I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight clear'


  Begins in the format of a story, and the past tense of the verb 'was' suggests that this country is no longer existing, or perhaps taken over losing its identity. The symbolism of her memories being 'sunlight clear' are a permanently happy, sunlight is a recurring theme which is a symbol of hope within the poem.
• It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight'


  There is then a contrast to how they country is presented now, she suggests by leaving the country she is in a better place as she is not in a country which is full of 'tyrants' and 'war' but that it also allowed for her to be able to remember her country in good memories. She uses the verb 'branded' to show a mark of ownership and that her memories own her and that her childhood experiences have always stayed with her, it bring negative connotations with the verb as she is marked which may seem harsh. But then Ruemens brings back this idea of 'sunlight' showing she always carries hope despite her memories.
• That child's vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar'


  This shows that she carries with her her mother tongue language but it could also present that she sees it all through a child's perspective, a lot more innocent. She looks back and describes it as a 'hollow doll' to desribe her childhood and that her memories aren't real and that as an adult she can look back and see it was a clouded perspective. This makes the sunlight memories seem different as it was a smpistic representation of the troubles. These doubts are then quickly eradicated as she 'spills a grammar', which suggests that holding onto her language which she clings onto makes her feel closer to her home country.
• It lies down in front of me, docile as paper; I comb its hair and love its shining eyes.'


  She then goes on to personify her country, the simile 'docile as paper' could show how she is able to recreate the city in the form of a poem on the paper, which is allows for more control, 'I comb its hair and love its shining eyes' she understands that her fabrication of her city doesn't allow a true representation. This also conveys the attention she is giving and the 'shining eyes' could be like a doll which cannot see and are therefore blind conveying how her image of her life is a false projection, not 'sunlight' filled. It also conveys a sense of loneliness and as 'I' is repeated.
• My city hides behind me. They mutter death, and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight'


  The 'they' could be the people in the country that she has come to as the people of the country are not understanding and not accepting of her. This would be common in Britain with racism on the rise to people who don't understand the culture. By holding onto her language and childhood memories she is hiding her city 'behind' her so that she can protect it with her 'sunlight' memories. The idea of her shadow falling 'as evidence of sunlight' shows that she is still there and that is proof that her upbringing was positive as she still carries that with her.