The emigree

• The poem is about somebody who had to leave their country as a child to be safe.
• The narrator believes the memories of the country they left as a child to be infallible.
• The news now shows that there are tyrants and wars throughout the land and the narrator acknowledges this sad truth.
• The narrator presents a positive perspective.
• As time goes on, the narrator gains more clarity on the situation.
• The narrator's language is important in terms of who they are.
• Although the narrator cannot return, they are reminded of their city.
• The narrator presents maternal emotions towards their city.
• The narrator either returns to how the city is today or compares the city to their new home.
• There is a threatening atmosphere from the citizens of the narrator's new country, contrasting with the positivity of their old city.
• Carol Rumens was born in London but also lived in Belfast and Wales as well as travelling widely throughout Russia and eastern Europe.
• The poem "The Emigreé" is contained in the 1993 collection "Thinking of Skins" which is centred on political consciousness in Russia and East Europe.
• The use of temporal deixis from the outset creates a childlike tone to the poem.
• The theme of language is used to show how the narrator has not moved on from their childhood, alluding to the pain and conflict inflicted by man-made borders.
• Rumens’ use of epistrophe in the poem demonstrates that no matter what she hears in the news, the speaker will always have a positive view of her city.
• The poem ends with the narrator's city coming to them in its own white plane, lying down in front of them, docile as paper, and they comb its hair and love its shining eyes.
• Rumens appears to have maternal feelings towards her former home and this is shown by the childlike lexis of “I comb its hair and love its shining eyes”.
• When referring to the negative attributes of her city, the speaker uses the subjunctive case in “it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants”.
• Agard uses a Creole language to represent the different cultures which have influenced him.
• The importance of language is seen in Rumens’ work in “child’s vocabulary” which shows the narrator desperately clinging to the language of their childhood.
• The poem acts as an extended metaphor for a lost childhood.
• The negative traits of her new city and her feelings of fear are stated definitively in “they mutter death”, “city of walls” and “they accuse me”.
• In Checking out me history, the narrator demonises his childhood through his angry tone and the separation of the stanzas to show how he was not educated sufficiently.
• Rumens juxtaposes the positive connotations of “sunlight” with the negative connotations of “branded” in “But I am branded by the impression of sunlight”.
• Rumens uses light imagery in “an impression of sunlight”, “The white streets” and “It tastes of sunlight” to present a dreamlike, idealised childhood.
• The gustatory imagery in “it tastes of sunlight” is similarly positive as is the juxtaposition between darkness and light in “my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight”.
• The narrator's city takes them dancing through the city of walls, but the citizens accuse them of absence and circle them, and they accuse the narrator of being dark in their free city.
• The narrator's city hides behind them, and they are reminded of the contrast between the threatening atmosphere of their new country and the positivity of their old city.
• The form of the poem could more likely be presenting freedom.
• An epistrophe is the repeated use of a word at the end of a stanza or sentence, with every stanza in the poem ending with a reference to sunlight.
• Rumens uses enjambment in "Through the city of walls." to separate "of walls" from the rest of the text, creating connotations of entrapment.
• The title of the poem is indicative of the content of the poem.
• The use of gustatory imagery in the poem shows the narrator's delight in the memory.
• The contrast between the English "the" and the French "Emigreé" establishes the idea of two conflicting cultures and identities.
• The narrator feels that they do not belong in their new city as they do not share their culture or identity.
• There is some limited order to the poem in the similar stanza lengths, representing the attempt at order inflicted upon the narrator's life through emigration.
• The unreliability of the memory is further presented through Rumens' use of ellipsis which creates the pause necessary for the narrator to gather their thoughts and carry on with the story.
• The final stanza of the poem also contains caesura and free verse to create a sense of chaos which could conversely be interpreted as indicative of freedom.
• The final stanza of the poem can be interpreted to be a description of the narrator's new city.
• The use of emphatic repetition in the poem shows the persecution the narrator endures in their new home by creating a violent tone.