the emigree

• Author's name


  Carol Rumens
• 1944


  when Carol Rumens was born
• common themes in Rumens's poetry

  foreign cultures: Rumens has travelled widely in Russia and Eastern Europe
• publishing context


  'The Émigree' is taken from the book Thinking of Skins: New and Selected Poems (1993)
• overarching concept in Rumens' collection 'Thinking of Skins: New and Selected Poems '


  political issues
• displacement definition


  forced upheaval of local people and the need to flee a home country
• contemporary definition


  existing or happening now
• the poem's contemporary relevance


  conflict resulting in displacement is happening at all times somewhere in the world - it seems never to stop
• broad context in the poem

  the poem addresses all human conflicts and human aggression, which force people out of their homes and country
• Form of 'The Emigrée'

  most likely to be an interior monologue or free form, or a hybrid between the two
• interior monologue definition


  a narrative technique that shows the flow of thoughts going through a character's head that other characters aren't privy to
• effects of interior monologue characteristics in 'The Emigrée'


  might suggest that the speaker finds her thoughts difficult to share or that she wants to keep her thoughts private
• general definition of free form poetry


  Poetry that is written in irregular lines without any regular meter or noticeable pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; it does not draw on traditional poetic forms and structures
• effects of free form characteristics in 'The Emigrée'

  could suggest man wants to be free of her restriction to return to her home; free form can also reflect chaos and her inability to establish control over her situation
• Verse


  a line of poetry or poetic style
• foot


  is a measuring unit in poetry, which is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables; a specific combination of feet creates meter in poetry
• Meter


  a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse (a line of poetry)
• Meter in 'The Emigree'


  appears to be a mix between free verse and quantitative verse, oscillating between 10 and 13 syllables, often ending on 11
• quantitative metre


  The dominant metrical system in Classical Greek and Italian poetry, in which the rhythm depends not on the number of stresses, but on the length of time it takes to utter a line, taking into account the number and length of syllables contained in the line
• effect of quantitative metre 'The Emigrée'

  not as restrictive as more defined metrical patterns such as iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, etc so perhaps can reflect a sense of freedom, perhaps the desire to be free, but can also reflect a lack of control, or perhaps create a sense of chaos
• literal meaning of the title 'The Emigrée'

  'emigree' is a French word in the feminine form, a woman forced to leave her native country, often for political reasons
• symbolic meaning of the title 'Emigrée'


  This suggests that the speaker of the poem is a woman
• Rumens' general linguistic style


  the poem is dominated by the contrast between positive and negative imagery
• effects of Rumens' contrasting style

  reflects the speaker's love for her home and her sadness that she cannot return
• ellipsis definition


  three dots - ... - (plural: ellipses). The term ellipsis comes from the Greek word meaning "omission,"
• ellipsis function


  it shows that something has been left out or shows a pause in speech or that a sentence trails off
• ellipsis effect in The Emigrée

  There once was a country... I left it as a child': works as a very harsh type of caesura, symbolising severe disruption in the speaker's life; it could also suggest a difficult topic to speak about and this generates sympathy for the speaker
• tone


  the speaker or author's attitude towards the subject
• the speaker's tone in The Emigrée


  nostalgic, creating a sense of loss and absence
• ambiguity definition


  ambiguity exists where more than one interpretation is possible
• ambiguity in The Emigrée


  the city remains unnamed, perhaps widening the appeal of the poem so that anybody who has had to leave their home or anyone feeling a sense of loss can relate to it
• metaphor definition


  A method of describing something in a way that cannot be literally true through direct comparison to something else, often seemingly unrelated
• general effects of metaphor


  helps clarify an idea and allows the audience see the world through the eyes of the speaker
• effects of the metaphor, 'The bright, filled paperweight'

  The speaker sees her homeland as something that provides stability and positivity for her
• synesthesia definition


  a figure of speech in which one sense is described using terms from another
• effects of synesthesia in, 'It tastes of sunlight.'


  suggests that all her senses are consumed by her love of her home
• Verse


  a line of poetry or poetic style
• foot


  is a measuring unit in poetry, which is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables; a specific combination of feet creates meter in poetry
• Meter


  a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse (a line of poetry)
• Meter in The Emigree


  appears to be a mix between free verse and quantitative verse, oscillating between 10 and 13 syllables, often ending on 11