The Emigree

• 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"