The emigree - carol rumens

• Context

  • born in London but lived around Europe - notably Russia
  • Russian poets Anna Akhmatova as influence
  • Centred around socio-political customs within foreign countries - emigree investigates these emotional concepts
  • Doesn’t conform to a political or historical contexts to allow a universal focus on the emotional experience of emigration
  • The relevance endures through time
• sunlight and warmth topic sentece

  in the emigree rumens uses the extended metaphor of sunlight and warmth to symbolize the speakers idealised and emotionally nourished memories associated with her homeland, contrasting them with the harsh realities of emigration
• sunlight and warmth- “sunlight”


  • employs epistrophe by closing each stanza with the noun “Sunlight”
  • Irrepressible force which will break through despite anguish and tyranny
• sunlight and warmth - “it tastes of sunlight”


  • Synesthesia to depict how strong her memories are they encompass all her senses
  • Alternatively the excessively figurative language reinforces how the city she remembers is now very much rhetorical and not real
• sunlight and warmth - “but i am branded by an impression of sunlight“


  • juxtaposes the speakers positive romanticised view with the reality of the city
  • verb “branded” connotes aggression and pain
  • plosive “B” could convey nature of speakers memory of forceful and destructible
• metaphor of a lover - “it lies down in front of me“/“i comb its hair“/“my city takes me dancing“


  • in third stanza the extended metaphor of a city as a lover paints archetypal imagery of romance
  • explores the way in which the speaker romanticises the memory of her city is so powerful it personifies her mind
  • transitions in language - city shifts from passive to active
  • “takes her dancing” suggests she transitions into a position of comparative weakness within her new city
  • old city is her support network
• Exile

  • idyllic description of her past city is strongly juxtaposed with current
  • explores theme of exile as the speaker seemingly emits in a paradox in her new city
  • Oxymoronic phrase “my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight“ portrays and impossible image
  • She exists in a liminal fantasy - not welcome
• allusion to fantasy

  • opens with temporal phrase “there was once a country“
  • reminiscent of fairy tale
  • imbues text with child like sense of fantasy
  • questions reliability of testaments - clear she has allowed her perception of her past home to be gripped by a fantastical and imaginative quality
  • followed by caesura in form of ellipses - reinforces vulnerability
  • installs pause to retrieve thoughts
  • idyllic childhood was interrupted as descends into warfare
• Form - first person

  • explores inner emotions of the emigree speaker in the poem and the effects of war
  • Free verse with no regular rhythm of rhyme scheme exposes true nature of her city as rife with disarray
  • Makes poem feel conversational Presenting it as a flowing stream of consciousness
• form - fairly regular structure

  • compromised of 3 stanzas
  • First 2 are an octave and last is a Spenserian
  • Maintains a somewhat regular structure
  • Attemp to impose a sense of order over her city
  • Descends into chaos
• structure - enjambment and end stop

  • frequency of enjambment depletes through poem could depict the initial freedom of her old city in comparison to the claustrophobic confinement she feels
  • Threatening tone emulates a sense of finality to mourn the truth
  • Enjambment could represent speakers lack Of control
  • Words flowing away much like the city she remembers fleeting into tyranny
• structure - repetition

  • detaches pronoun “they” punctuates final stanza
  • imposes belligerent tone and separation between ”her” and “them”