Originally

• "Others are sudden" (Change)


  Metaphorically big changes in your life
• "As the miles rushed back to the city" (Technique)

  Personification - As if the miles wanted to go home too.
• "Our own country" (Nostalgia)

  She felt a sense of belonging before the family moved
• "A river, culture, speech, sense of first space and the right place" (Nostalgia)

  Duffy lists the things which seem to her to be a part of what links a person to the place they grew up.
• "The street, the house, the vacant rooms" (Nostalgia)


  Duffy makes it seem as if the rooms miss her and want her to come back.
• "In a red room which fell through the fields" (Nostalgia)


  Duffy describes emigrating to another country the way she saw it as a child.
• "I stared into the eyes of a blind toy" (Technique)

  Personification - The toy can never see anyway so it can't be blind. She was taking comfort from the toy by giving it comfort.
• "In a red room which fell through the fields" (Childhood)

  Duffy describes emigrating to another country the way she saw it as a child.
• "All childhood is an emigration" (Childhood)


  Childhood is a constant process of moving out of your comfort zone as you grow and learn new things.
• "All childhood is an emigration" (Technique)

  The metaphorical journey of childhood and changing.
• "All childhood is an emigration" (Change)

  Childhood is about the new experiences and movements you experience.
• "Seeing your brother swallow a slug feeling only a skelf of shame" (Change)


  Seeing her brother changing from being himself to being a part of the crowd and trying to fit in.
• "My tongue shedding it's skin like a snake" (Change)


  Snakes shed their skin as they grow - This is a metaphor for change.
• "Seeing your brother swallow a slug" (Childhood)


  Her brother is trying to fit in with the other boys.
• "My parents' anxiety stirred like a loose tooth" (Technique)

  Simile - A small problem that is hard to ignore.
• "A rough boy told you how you were born" (Childhood)

  Their innocence about reproduction has been taken from her by a boy who told he information that she hadn't looked for.