The Emigrée Analysis

• The Emigreé


  A poem about somebody who had to leave their country as a child to be safe, looking back fondly whilst lamenting the discrimination they experience in their new country
• The poem


  • Tells a story about the narrator's memories of the country she left as a child
  • Narrator believes the memories to be infallible
  • News shows there are tyrants and wars throughout the land and the narrator acknowledges this sad truth
  • Narrator presents a positive perspective
  • As time goes on, narrator gains more clarity on the situation
  • Narrator's language is important in terms of who she is
  • Although she cannot return, she is reminded of her city
  • Narrator presents maternal emotions towards the city
  • Narrator either returns to how the city is today or compares the city to her new home
  • There is a threatening atmosphere from the citizens, contrasting with the positivity of her old city
• Temporal deixis


  The use of words like "there once was" creates a childlike tone to the poem
• The theme of language


  Shows how the narrator has not moved on from her childhood
• The poem alludes to the pain and conflict inflicted by man-made borders
• The theme of sunlight is referred to repeatedly
• Gustatory imagery


  Shows the narrator's delight in the memory
• Emphatic repetition is used to show the persecution the narrator endures in their new home by creating a violent tone
• The opening line "there once was a country"


  • Establishes a fantastical tone to highlight the fact that the place described is a memory rather than a reality
  • Shows how the place the speaker remembers is romanticised by the idealism of youth and was never as perfect as the way it is depicted
  • The unreliability of the memory is further presented through Rumens' use of ellipsis
• The title "The Emigreé"


  Contrasts the English "the" and the French "Emigreé", establishing the idea of two conflicting cultures and identities
• Repetition of "they"


  • Creates an aggressive and accusatory tone to make the city seem threatening and hostile
  • Reflects the aggression aimed at her from the citizens of her new city due to their racism
  • Shows that she is experiencing a new threat which is no longer physical conflict but social rejection
  • Emphasises her feelings of segregation
• The last stanza


  • Can be interpreted to be a description of the narrator's new city
  • Enjambment in "Through the city// Of walls" separates "of walls" from the rest of the text, creating connotations of entrapment
  • Caesura and free verse create a sense of chaos which could conversely be interpreted as indicative of freedom
• The poem's form


  • Is predominantly in free verse with no rhyme or rhythm, which could represent the chaos and lack of control over a country with no stable government or more likely be presenting freedom
  • Has some limited order in the similar stanza lengths, which could represent the attempt at order inflicted upon her life through her emigration
• Epistrophe


  • The repeated use of a word at the end of a stanza or sentence, in this case a reference to sunlight
  • Juxtaposes the positive connotations of "sunlight" with the negative connotations of "branded", showing how her love for her country will always overrule any feelings of pain caused by it
• Subjunctive case


  • When referring to the negative attributes of her city, the speaker uses the subjunctive case to show how these flaws seem hypothetical to her as she does not have a new perspective of her city besides what she gained before she left as a child
  • Contrastingly, the negative traits of her new city and her feelings of fear are stated definitively, showing her certainty of the flaws of her new city but this is likely because she no longer has the naivety of childhood altering her perspective
• Extended metaphor


  • The poem acts as an extended metaphor for a lost childhood
  • The narrator is depicted to have naïve childlike tendencies, and her relationship with her former city is shown to be maternal