the emigree

• "There was once a country...I left as a child


  The poem opens up into the past tense and seems to be structured like a story - it suggests loss
• "My memory of it is sunlight - clear"


  Metaphor - This conveys that the memory is happy and innocent as well as a vivid and bright childhood
• "I never saw it in that November"


  'November' is symbolic of difficult times where everything is dark, cold and gloomy - contrasts the the sunlight.
• "I am told, comes to the mildest city"


  Shows that even the most 'mild' and innoceny places can be plagued and infected. It also suggests that another voice is telling her about her past
• "The worst news I receive of it cannot break/my original view, the bright, filled paperweight"


  Metaphor 'bright,filled paperweight' suggests that the memories of the narrator are bright and positive but solid, fixed and unmoving. She also has an attitude that she only sees her country in positive light and that she cannot bear seeing her country in a bad state.
• "It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants"


  May show that the country has been invaded and ruled harshly - the country is personified to be 'sick' with all this evil
• "I am branded by an impression of sunlight"


  It shows her positive and promiting view of her nation is permanent - the 'branded' is juxaposed with the 'impression of sunlight' - repetition of sunlight once again.
• "The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes/glow even clearer"


  The soft sounds of the 'g' and the descriptions of it being 'white' convey that she sees the county as almost heavenly and pure.
• "As time rolls it's tanks"


  Time is personified to be the enemy, the military language makes it seem powerful and have an army however it is not powerful enough to change her memories and opinion.
• "Like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar."


  Similie conveying all of the early, good memories. The words and opinions she was forbidden to speak have built up inside of her. It also represents that she has lost her identity and what she is left with is like a puppet-like doll.
• "I shall have every coloured molecule of it"


  Her memories are being collected one by one to form her childhood again. It may also convey her nost precise and considered thoughts and political views.
• "It may now be a lie, banned by the state"


  The language of her home provides her with comfort and happiness in dark times - the harsh 'b' on the banned expresses the opressiveness of the government/regime there.
• "I can't get it off my tongue. It taste of sunlight"


  The caesura implies that she had been silenced, just like the government silence those who also speak it. The metaphor 'it tastes of sunlight' combines sight and taste (synaesthesia) which shows that her culture is joyful and comforting.
• "I have no passport, there's no way back at all"


  It makes her situation seem hopeless and feel as if she doesn't belong there.
• "My city comes to me in its own white plane"


  The city is personified and the 'white plane' could represent her memories as well as hope and innocence.
• "I comb its hair and love its shining eyes"


  There is childlike joy within this description - it shows thay she is taking care of her innocent memories.
• "They accuse me of absence, they circle me."


  The 'they' are not identified but they are made to sound menacing and the repetition makes it sound like they're threatening her.
• "City of walls"

  "Their free city"


  The first quotation makes it sound restrictive and oppressed and the second quotation shows that the government make it out that they are 'free' however are inhumane and oppressive.
• "My city hides behind me. And they mutter death"


  Her city hides behind her and looks to her for comfort as if it is her duty to protect it. It is personified as if it is fleeing the government and being shielded by her innocence. 'They mutter death' also may represent that the government are genocidal, brutal and oppressive.
• "My shadow falls as evidence of sunlight"


  The fact that you can't have sunlight without a shadow conveys that every bright and clear thing will also have a dark and dirty side/past to it. It shows that not everything is 'pure'.