Cards (17)

  • Brief Summary
    The poem is about somebody who had to leave their country as a child to be safe. They are looking back fondly whilst lamenting the discrimination they face in their new country.
  • Context, Carol Rumens
    • Rumens was born in London but also lived in Belfast and Wales as well as traveling throughout Russia and Eastern Europe
    • This aspect of her life is reflected in her writing which is largely about foreign customs, cultures, and language.
  • Context, The Emigree
    • From the 1993 collection "Thinking of Skins" which is centered on political consciousness in Russia and Eastern Europe
    • In the collection, there is a focus on the relationship between identity and culture
  • 'There once was a country..."
    • Temporal deixis
    • Creates a childlike tone
    • Similiar the fairy tales, e.g. "once upon a time"
  • "My memory of it is sunlight-clear"
    • motif of sun-light
    • connotations of the warmth and happiness we look back at childhood with
  • "It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants"
    • Personification of the country (sick)
    • Shows the personal relationship the narrator has with her country, it is woven into her identity and shaped her the same way a person would
    • "may" suggests she cannot fully grasp what her country has come to, her "original view" cannot be broken
  • "I am branded by an impression of sunlight"
    • metaphor
    • shows she is forever marked and burnt by her childhood memories
    • shows it is a permanent part of her idenity
    • perhaps shows there is also trauma, as branding is painful and leaves a scar
    • perhaps shows the 'sunglight' is actually dangerous and is burning her
  • "That child's vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar"
    • Theme of language shows how the narrator has not moved on from her childhood
    • Hollow doll is perhaps symbolic of the stacking dolls typically found in eastern Europe, shows she is missing parts of herself
    • "opens and spills a grammar" is not proper English and shows her childhood identity forces itself out, and does not obey the laws of the English language
  • "it may by now be a lie, banned by the state"
    • Could refer to anything positive she has to say about her home land
    • Could also suggest that the language used in that country has also been banned
  • "but i can't get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight"
    • Motif of sunlight
    • gustatory imagery shows the narrator's delight in the memory
    • she couldn't lose her identity if she tried
  • "I have no passport, there's no way back at all"
    • Alludes to the pain and conflict inflicted by man-made borders
    • Shows she feels lost as there is no way back to her identity
  • "They accuse me of abscene" "They accuse me of being dark in their free city"
    • Emphatic repetition shows the persecution the narrator endures in her new home by creating a violent tone
  • "my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight"
    • A shadow is not tangible, you cannot hold it, the only thing that proves her country was the way she remembered is a fleeting darkness that leaves when the sun stes
    • however the fact she has a shadow, shows there must have once been sunlight to create it
  • Form
    • Free verse
    • No rhyme or rhythm
    • could represent the chaos and lack of control over a country with no stable government
    • juxtaposes the positive imagery in the poem
    • form could be presenting freedom also
    • limited order (similar stanza lengths) could represent the attempt at order in her life through emigration
  • Repetition
    • repeating "they" creates an aggressive and accusatory tone
    • reflects the aggression she receives from people in her new city "they accuse me of being dark"
    • she is experiencing a new threat, social rejection rather than physical conflict
  • Extended metaphor
    • The poem acts as an extended metaphor for lost childhood
    • narrator has naiive childlike tendencies
    • her relationship with her former city is almost maternal
    • "i comb its hair and love its shining eyes" implies she has maternal unconditional love and protection for the city
    • "my city hides behind me" implies she is attempting to defend it from the criticism of the outside world
  • The best poem to compare it to is "checking out me history"