Where I come from - Elizabeth Brewster

Question 1

People are made of places. They carry with them
hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace
or the cool eyes of sea gazers.

Answer 1

Passive voice focuses on the people in ‘people are made of places’. This is a metaphor which means that where people grew up influences them a lot.
Lots of visual imagery which creates peaceful atmosphere felt by growing up in nature.
Caesura after ‘gazers.’ is a pause/break within a line of poetry that changes the tone and topic.

Question 2

Atmosphere of cities
how different drops from them, like the smell of smog

Answer 2

Enjambment after ‘of cities’ is a line that continues with no punctuation builds drama by making it feel like a cliffhanger.
‘smell of smog’ is sibilance (reflects intense, lingering smell) and olfactory imagery.

Question 3

or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring,
nature tidily plotted with a guidebook;
or the smell of work, glue factories maybe,
chromium-plated offices; smell of subways
crowded at rush hours.

Answer 3

Stanza made out of short, snappy sentences which reflects quick pace of the city.
‘almost-not-smell of tulips’ suggests that people do not stop to smell flowers in cities & it’s overpowered by smog.
‘plotted tidily’ connotes how artificial everything is.
‘guidebook’ suggests that people in the city are lost.
Repetition man-made smells (olfactory imagery) & sibilance creates a suffocating atmosphere, with too many smells.

Question 4

Where I come from, people
carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;
blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;
wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint,

Answer 4

‘people carry woods in their mind’ metaphor for people never forgetting where they come from.
‘acres’ connotes freedom & large space.
‘blueberry patches in the burned-out bush’ is visual imagery & plosive which emphasizes the resilience of nature even in harsh conditions, and brings attention to the sense of radiance & life blueberries connote.
‘old’ connotes nostalgia and makes the farmhouse seem homely.

Question 5

with yards where hens and chickens circle about,
clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses
behind which violets grow. Spring and winter
are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice.

Answer 5

‘clucking aimlessly’ juxtoposes the busy, rushed life in the city. Auditory imagery.
‘Violets’ also connote vibrance & nature. Visual imagery.
‘ spring and winter’ symbolizes the cycle of rebirth and death that nature goes through.

Question 6

A door in the mind blows open, and there blows
a frosty wind from fields of snow.

Answer 6

present simple tense of ‘blows’ means that this is a regular, repeating action
‘frosty winds from fields of snow’ juxtoposes the city by connoting freedom, calmness and peace. The beauty of the seasons leaves a mark on people.

Question 7

Key themes

Answer 7

Nostalgia
Contrast between rural and urban setting
Influence of environment on self identity
Disconnection from urban environments