The Emigrée Flashcards
Who wrote the poem?
Carol Rumens
What is the first line?
There once was a country… I left it as a child
What is the first line about?
It hightlights the fact that the place described is a memory rather than a reality. The unreliability of the memory is further presented through Rumens’ use of ellipsis which creates the pause necessary for the narrator to gather their thoughts and carry on with the story.
What is the form?
The poem is predominantly in free verse with no rhyme or rhythm which could suggest a sense of a lack of control and chaos as their is a semantic field of innocence and loss.
What Epistrophe is used?
Every stanza ends with a reference to sunlight. Rumens also juxtaposes the positive connotations of ‘sunlight’ with the negativeconnotations of ‘branded’ in ‘But I am branded by the impression of sunlight’. This shows how her love for her country will always overrule any feelings of pain caused by it. The gastatory imagery in ‘it tastes of sunlight’ is similarly positive as is the juxtaposition between darkness and light in “my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight”. Rumens’ use of epistrophe in the poem demonstrates that no matter what she hears in the news, the speaker will always have a positive view of her city.
What is the structure?
Composed of three stanzas (first two are eight lines and last stanza has nine lines). Extra line might suggest the speaker just can’t let go of the memories and doesn’t want the poem to end.
