The Emigrée by Carol Rumens

Question 1

Themes in The Emigrée:

Answer 1

• Power of identity
• Power of memory
• Power of place
• Abuse of power
• Abuse of institutions

Question 2

Context in The Emigrée:

Answer 2

The poem explores the memory of the poet and their experiences in a far off city they spent time in as a child. The poet is looking at this city through the eyes of a child and the happy memories she had, she compares these to the truths she knows as an adult which is much harsher.

Question 3

Form and Structure in The Emigrée:

Answer 3

• Repetition of “they” creates an aggressive and acusatory tone to make the city seem threatening and hostile. This reflects the aggression aimed at her from the citizens of her new city due to their racism so she feels that she doesn’t belong in her new city as she doesn’t share their culture or identity
• The last stanza can be interpreted to be a description of the narrator’s new city. This causes the reader to see walls as an isolated idea, creating a semntic field of entrapment
• The final stanza contains caesura and free verse to create a sense of chaos which could conversely be interpreted as indictive of freedom
• The poem is predominantly in free verse with no rhyme or rhythm to represent the chaos and lack of control over a country with no stable government
• The interpretation juxtaposes with the positive imagery in the poem so the form could more likely be presenting freedom

Question 4

“There once was a country… I left it as a child”

Answer 4

• The speaker is looking back on their former life, which suggests they may be influenced by nostalgia more than the real situation of their former country.
• Elipses creates a caesura, indicating flashback or exploration of past memories
• Fairytale beginning - biased, memory clouds her judgement, shows her ignorance and innocence

Question 5

“The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view”

Answer 5

The speaker is again shown to be more guided by their own morals and nostalgic memories, rather than the news or modern situations of their countries.

Question 6

“It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants”

Answer 6

• Even if there is proof that there is evil within the country, the speaker does not see it as a true problem, denying that it is real and claiming that the country is only temporarily affected by an illness.
• Personify the city to create the sense that it has been infected but can recover, almost hopeful yet deluded idea.
• Suggests that the country has political problems - the speaker’s positive view isn’t accurate - it’s idealistic

Question 7

“The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer”

Answer 7

• The speaker’s views of the city is connected to imagery of heaven, which creates a mystical sight of the world around them from when they were a child.
• Connotations of innocence and purity
• She’s creating a perfect, idealistic picture

Question 8

“I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight”

Answer 8

• The speaker seems to be aware that they see the country as more joyous than it really is, however, they are willing to stay in a state of blissful ignorance.
• Synaesthesia - the blur between taste and vision, the jumbling of senses in order to show the confusion of memories and emphasise with repetition the clearly flawed but joyous nature of the memory
• Using another sense increases the vividness of the experience

Question 9

“I have no passport, there’s no way back at all”

Answer 9

• The speaker is aware that the past life they lived is now disconnected from the future, they are not able to return back to the former time, explained with the metaphorical lack of passport.
• Contrasts to the the paperweight showing that it’s unstable

Question 10

“They accuse me of being dark in their free city”

Answer 10

• The poem concludes with the darker tones within the country, despite the blissful ignorance with which the speaker lived they are still aware that there was the start of evil.
• In the form of someone declaring that the speaker (who would’ve been a child) is causing darkness despite the rulers being the evil ones.
• The menacing tone and repetition enforces a threat to the speaker
• Contrasts with the brightness she associates with her old city
• Repetition of “accuse” gives a sinister identity to the oppression of the new city