The Emigrée by Carol Rumen

Emigrée – a woman forced to leave her native country, often for political reasons.

There once was a country… I left it as a childbut my memory of it is sunlight-clearfor it seems I never saw it in that Novemberwhich, I am told, comes to the mildest city.The worst news I receive of it cannot breakmy original view, the bright, filled paperweight.It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants,but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.

Opening sounds like a story, but also suggests loss

Suggests that the memory is happy and clear

This hints that somebody has told her about her past

Represents difficult times, when things are cold, dark and gloomy.

Metaphor – speaker’s memories are bright and positive, but also solid and fixed.

Suggests that the country has political problems – the speaker’s positive view isn’t accurate. It’s idealistic.

“branded” is negative. “impression of sunlight” is positive – this creates a contrast. “branded” suggests that this memory is permanent.

The white streets of that city, the graceful slopesglow even clearer as time rolls its tanksand the frontiers rise between us, close like waves.That child’s vocabulary I carried herelike a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar.Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it.It may by now be a lie, banned by the statebut I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.

Personification – time is an enemy but it can’t affect the speaker’s memories.

Refers to the language of childhood – the METAPHOR makes the language seem bright and precious.

Using another sense (taste) increases the vividness of the experience.

Description of city makes it sound heavenly

It seems that the speaker wishes to speak in her native language, but it is banned by the state. She can’t forget the language she used to speak.

I have no passport, there’s no way back at allbut my city comes to me in its own white plane.It lies down in front of me, docile as paper;I comb its hair and love its shining eyes.My city takes me dancing through the cityof walls. They accuse me of absence, they circle me.They accuse me of being dark in their free city.My city hides behind me. They mutter death,and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.

The first line of the stanza sounds hopeless, but the next line changes the mood again.

The city is personified – the “white plane” could represent the speaker’s memories.

There’s a childlike joy in this description – it sounds like a child playing with a pet.

Represents difficult times, when things are cold, dark and gloomy.

The poem ends on a positive note – despite the threats of death, the city is still associated with “sunlight”, just as it is at the end of the first two stanzas.

It’s unclear who “They” are, but they are menacing, and the repetition reinforces their threat to the speaker.

Contrasting perceptions of the city the speaker is now in – she sees it as restrictive, but “they” see it as “free”.

The speaker is accused of being “dark” in her current city – this contrasts with the brightness she associates with her old city.

Meaning: The speaker’s old city is under attack and she can’t reach it. In the final stanza, the city appears to the spaker as she protects it from a mysterious “They”. The city could represent the speaker’s history in the country that she was forced to leave. When talking about the city, she is trying to reconnect with her culture, but the people who have taken over her city and those in the new country prevent her from doing so.

Subject: The poem is about a woman has been forced to leave her home country, possibly due to war. She is now in a new country, but she thinks back positively about her old home and tries to reconnect with it.

Imagery: War, sunlight, darkness, violence, childhood, freedom, love, oppression.

Language: Conflict – vocabulary of war, invasion and tyranny. Defiance of authority – talking in her mother tongue. Light – city is described in bright, colourful terms emphasising the positivity. Personification – The city is personified, as is time (“time rolls its tanks.”).

Emotion: Nostalgia – the speaker remembers the past fondly. She wished to go back there. Threat – the city may have been invaded by tyrants. The new city threatens her.

Structure: Three stanzas, no rhyme scheme. Each stanza ends with sunlight, suggesting that the speaker’s positive view of her home country will never change.