The Emigree

• Which poems can be compared to the emigree?

  Reality of war: Charge of the light brigade, Bayonet Charge

  Power of nature: Storm on the island
• "There was once a country...I left it as a child"

  The opening line sets a tone of reminiscence and loss, positioning the speaker as someone who has experienced displacement.

  It begins with a fairytale-esque phrase which connotates to childhood and nostalgia of happy memories

  Could suggest a loss experienced
• "It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants"


  Suggests that the country has been invaded and the speaker's positive view of it isn't accurate

  Personification suggests a positive memory can still be negatively impacted by war
• "It tastes of sunlight"


  Use of another sense increases the vividness of the experience

  Repetition of "sunlight" throughout the poem suggests a vitality to the city

  Sunlight connotates to positivity, showing how the country's positivity shines through the reality and negativity of war
• "My city comes to me in its own white plane"


  "White plane" could represent freedom and security in the speaker's past memories.

  The personification of the city emphasises the strength of the speaker's love for it
• "They accuse me of absence, they circle me....they accuse me of being dark in their free city"


  Repetition of "they accuse me" shows the persecution the narrator endures in their new home by creating a direct, violent tone

  She feels threatened in her new city and feels the need to protect her old home.
• free verse form could represent the freedom she craves but could also convey the chaos in her hometown

  also conveys the chaos and lack of control in a control with no stable government