Edexcel belonging anthology

Sunday dip context

Conforms to sonnet form & romantic convention, written by John Clare in the 1800s- “peasant poet” (son of a farm labourer), known as the “quintessential romantic poet”

Sunday dip title & poetic voice

Title- no determiner, universal; represents a temporary fleeting moment, worshipful tone from religious connotations of Sunday.

Heterodiegetic, isolated ideals of romantics and makes the poem feel uncomplicated- reflects on simple and nostalgic joys.

Awe of nature and idealisation

Sunday dip form and structure

Sonnet form shows love and admiration for nature.

Perfect rhyme suggests moment is idealised- constant lineation and end-stopped lines.

Iambic pentameter adds emotional intensity and intimate tone due to flowing nature.

Simple form mimics simplicity of childhood.

Masculine lines remind of boyhood and add to playful tone.

Community- repetition of “they”.

Rhyme scheme subverts traditional expectations, could reflect how Clare disliked strict religious guidelines.

Sunday Dip language

“Morning”- temporal diexis, joyful connotations, positions reader, fleeting nature.

Playful language “dashes, boldest, duck, laugh”.

Repetition of “seek” connotes treasure.

Sensory imagery “thunder, hear, float” makes it more real.

Natural imagery- “willow, thunder, water, shade”

Clear and gentle stream context

Written by Robert Bridges, 1873.

Right at the beginning of industrial era - bro is SCARED

Doctor for many years before retirement.

Had pneumonia as a child and nature improved his health, generally avoided Victorian aesthetic ideals, influenced lots by spirituality

CAGS title & poetic voice

Title idealises nature-romanticism, “clear”- purity.

“And” creates and gives title a flowing nature.

Intimate and personal, contented tone,

Homodiegetic narrative suggest poetic voice is Bridges himself.

Contrast between transience of human life vs nature’s permanence

CAGS form and structure

Can be seen as an ode- glorifies the river (“known and loved so long”)

Slightly varied lineation, mimics the stream.

Hyperbaton highlights cyclical nature of time “where my old seat was // here again I sit”.

Predominant use of iambic tetrameter-steady and tranquil nature

“And the idle dream of my boyish day” Repetition of “d” sounds emphasises playfulness.

“In the selfsame strain” sibilance mimics river flowing- multimodal

12 line stanzas, mostly rhymed w/ some variation reflecting the tensions between progression of time and nature’s unchanging memory- flowing and reliable nature of stream

CAGS language

“Thee” and “thy” estavblishes intimate relationship with the reader, positioned as river, shows closeness and ensures river is not forgotten reflecting fears around nature being disrupted by IR

“Minster tower”- divine connotations

Childishness- “boyish, idle, play” vs aging “old lament, once my youthful song”

Natural imagery- “glade, moon, pool”

Time phrases show cyclical nature “once, now”

Personification, “evening comes….with her lengthening shade” shows peacefulness and subtlety.

I remember, I remember context

Written by Thomas Hood, 1826.

Romantic poet but also reflecting on some of the more realist themes of the Victorian era. Reflects romantic belief that children are more in tune with nature

Hood suffered with illness all of his life, killing him at 45

IRIR title and poetic voice

Epizeuxis (repetition successively) mimics an echo, suggesting this is a memory of childhood

Present tense establishes theme of time in conjunction with “remember”- connotations of past

Nostalgic and bittersweet tone

Innocence of youth and weariness of adulthood

Melancholic tone

First person, more sentimental and personal

IRIR form & structure

End stopped lines speak to the finiteness of childhood

Rhyme scheme creates idyllic tone- contrast between free and joyful unrhymed lines with restrained rhyme scheme

Internal rhyme “pool” and “cool” creates a soundscape, sense of weight on reader and multimodality

Hyperbaton subverts word order to show childishness “where I was used to swing”

B alliteration show spain of lost childhood “borne my breath away”

fricatives show his struggles with adulthood “fir”, “farther off”

IRIR language

religious semantic field- “wing”, “spirit”, “feathers” and other biblical allusions to “heaven” highlighting fleeting nature of childhood

Allusion to nursery rhyme “vi’lets” and “roses” shows playfullness

“Heavy”, “dark, “ignorance” shows he is embittered and upset now at his loss of childhood

“I often wish the night // had borne my breath away” tonal shift towards negative thoughts and difficulty of adulthood

Island man context

Written by Grace Nichols 1984

She was born in Guyana and moved to England later in life

Her poetry reflects her own experiences and the experiences of wider immigrant communities in London

Island man poetic voice & title

Title isolated w/ no article- themes of abandonment and loneliness.

“Island”- foregrounds cultural identity and links it to ideas of cultural displacement in the poem. Also very vague and unfamiliar

heterodiegetic voice shows disconnect from identity

tone contrasts between poignant nostalgia and sombre acceptance of reality

IM form and structure

free verse with functional white spaces which act as caesuras. The irregular structure depicts a fragmented or disoriented identity

Inconsistent syntax shows a lack of connection to the English language- linguistic displacement

repetition shows difficulty in accepting his present reality

Last line overcapitalised- “Another London Day”- reminiscent of a façade

Tonal shift when speaking about two parts of his identity

Island Man language

Mechanical machinery “dull circular roar” - dehumanising, loss of identity due to displacement

“Dull, grey, muffling, groggily”- juxtaposes homeland to seem boring and uncomfortable

Wildness in homeland “breaking and wombing” (maternal-motherland,home) “wild seabirds”, “defiantly”

Personal pronouns show belonging- “his small…island”

Prepositions highlight sense of placelessness “out”, “east”

Positive natural imagery “blue surf”, “small emerald island”, “ the sun surfacing”

Us context

Written by Zaffar Kunial 2018

Born in Birmingham, mixed race Pakistani and English

Poetry often focuses on the nuances of language, especially wanting to understand his father’s language

Post-colonial concerns about the place of mixed-race people and whether they belong

Us poetic voice and title

Explores the way the pronoun “us” connotes separation and unity

Title is isolated, showing separation but is a collective pronoun, reflecting community

Poetic voice is tentative and seems to be the poet- heterodiegetic and reflecting on personal experiences

Conversational tone, seeking reassurance and community- “If you ask me”

Us form and structure

No rhyme scheme, sense of chaos, lack of belonging

Tercets are concise, rhythmic and intense, mimicking undulations

Ends in a singular monostich, leaving the poem on an uncertain and vulnerable note.

Consistent enjambment reflects interlinkedness with a community and uncertainty

Anaphora- “I hope you get” repeated, emphasises longing for community

juxtaposition- “love and loss” reflects multifacetedness of identity

“C” consonance shows conflict in identity- “When it comes to us, colour me unsure”

“Too wide for words” alliteration shows fluidity

Us language

“Undulations” “waves”

“Stress” of being caught between worlds

“The waves therein are too wide for words” metaphor shows how he feels he may never truly feel he belongs

“two places at once” “shore-like state” reflects dual Pakistani & British heritage

“Mexican wave” collective sense of belonging- fleeting but euphoric

In wales, wanting to be Italian context

Written by Imtiaz Dharker in 1954

Her parents moved to Glasgow from Pakistan while she was a baby.

Poem references Bombay and Glasgow, where she shares her time living.

Her poetry reflects multiculturalism and cultural displacement

IWWTBI Title and poetic voice

“In wales” positions reader and speaks to location, not identity whereas “Italian” is an identity, shows conflict between location and identity

“wanting” deep longing

No reference to a specific person in title- universal experience or could show speaker doesn’t know who they are

Informal, desperate tone

Speaker likely the poet, but the poetic voice doesn’t reference themselves, only a second person- seeking connection and community despite displacement

IWWTBI form and structure

Free verse presents poetic voice as unstable- desperation to find connection

Each stanza ends in a rhetorical question (there are many)- unfinished, still has questions, confuses reader

lots of enjambment and caesura- instability

internal slant rhyme (“lounge” “mouth”, “without” “aloud”) created by assonance, shows that she can’t express herself

Epiplexis created by rhetorical questions- “Have you ever felt like that?” “What is that called”

IWWTBI language

foreign languages- “Bella! Bella” Linguistically displaces reader, makes them empathise for speakers perceived displacement

Stereotypical language shows she’s idealising other cultures- “Impossibly pointed shoes” “Shrug and pout”

Dramatic and hyperbolic language shows desperation- “dying to”, “longing to” “just asking to”

“You”- addresses a 2nd person lots, shows desperation

Kumukanda context

Written by Kayo Chingonyi in 2017.

Born in Zambia and moved to UK as a child.

The word means initiation and describes the Luvale tribe’s initiation ceremony for young men

He transitioned from childhood to adulthood w/o parents as they died

Kumukanda title and poetic voice

Foreign title- displaces reader, establishes theme of linguistic and cultural displacement

Title isolated, one word, shows lack of belonging or community

Themes of grief, regret, masculinity

Tonal shift from certain to uncertain (marked by transition from declaratives to interrogatives in poem) represents his life changing

Homodiegetic, more personal and emotional

Mournful/melancholy tone

Kumukanda form and structure

6 line stanzas (sestets), end stopped- each represent a complete time period. Allow for deep exploration of a topic while still being concise. Shows sense of identity is completely lost

Rhythmless- lack of joy

Assonance- repeated “oo” sounds reinforce idea that he hasn’t “sloughed off the childish estate”

Repeated fricatives (“frowning” “My father’s father’s father”) create a ghostly tone- death of parts of his identity

Repetition of word “father” also highlights his incomplete masculinity and his lonesomeness without his parents, unsettles reader

Kumukanda language

“I was raised in a strange land” - cultural displacement and infamiliarity

Death- “my mother’s body” “grave side” “die and come back grown”

euphemism- “auntie broke the news” creates emotional distance, highlighting the pain of his mother’s death

“a tongue that isn’t mine” metaphor highlights linguistic displacement w/ “literary pretensions”

Jamaican British context

Poet is mixed race between Jamaican and British

Written by Raymond Antrobus in 2018

Inspired by Aaron Samuels’ work (a black, Jewish, American poet)

His poetry explores the complexities of identity in a multicultural world

He’s deaf so much of his poetry is intented to be spoken word

JB title and poetic voice

2 adjectives, neither is more powerful than the other

“British” used instead of a specific nationality such as “English”- colonial associations

No subject mentioned in title- universal experience

Tone conflicted, speaks to a complex sense of self

Themes of conflict and violence as an extended metaphor

JB form and structure

couplets highlight dichotomous identity- parts of identity can’t be separated but feel as though they don’t belong together

Typography is used to italicise internalised or explicit views of others- words such as “dem” italicised to show people’s idealised views

Both Jamaican and British stressed throughout the poem- especially important as the poem is meant to be spoken word, shows how both parts of identity are equally integral

Tricolon used to show evidence of both parts of identity: “Half-caste, half mule, house slave” and “Light skin, straight male, priveleged”

Jamaican syntax used “I hate dem, all dem Jamaicans” while speaker others themselves form Jamaican identity, shows the parts of identity are inextricable

Short sentences come across as more intense- “Anglo nose. Hair straight".”

JB language

mocking sentence moods- “No way I can be Jamaican British”

semantic field of privilege vs Jamaican culture- “straight, anglo, light” vs “enslaved, plantation, caste”

conflict- “Knowing how to war”, “service”, “fought”

metaphor- “you cannot love sugar and hate your sweetness” shows richness of identity

The emigrée context

Written by Carol Rumens (British) 1983

Speaks to wider immigrant experience and plight of many who have had to leave their homeland

Inspired by real refugee experiences

The emigrée title and poetic voice

Title is a mix of languages, specifically feminine subject creating a sense of vulnerability

Specific subject with detail builds a detailed picture of the poetic voice for the reader

Homodiegetic

Nostalgic and hopeful tone

The emigrée form and structure

8,8,9 paragraph structure gives crescendo effect

Epistrophe- repetition of “sunlight” at ends of stanzas establishes it as a major theme and shows love for country w/ connotations

repetition of “they” towards the end establishes tonal shift- city becomes agrssive and scary “they mutter death”

enjambment in “the city // of walls” shows entrapment by foregrounding walls

Free verse structure shows childhood freedom

“There once was a country”- temporal diexis has childish effect, shows this presentation is romanticised from childhood memories

The emigrée language

“I comb its hair and love its shining eyes” metaphor is maternal suggesting unconditional love

“It tastes of sunlight” gustatory imagery shows how happy speaker is w/ memory

“Accuses”, “Darkness” “Shadow” show her new home is unhappy

“My shadow falls as evidence of sunlight” Juxtaposes her current fear with the hope and knowledge

“Sunlight” as an extended metaphor for happiness- “I am branded by an impression of sunlight”

To my sister context

Romatic poet

Romantic period 1790-1850

Lived with his sister Dorothy and the son of a widowed friend named Basil (referred to as Edward in the poem)

Early romantic so beginning to explore ideas of nature and the sublime

TMS title and poetic voice

Title uses possessive determine to show close relationship

Establishes family themes

Wordsworth is the speaker

Personal address as seen in title

Reverent, worshipful tone, playful in some areas

TMS form & structure

Mostly conforms to ballad form with ABAB rhyme scheme and repeated segments in quatrains

Deviates in metre somewhat (spondee in “Love, now a universal birth”) reflects poem’s rejection of “toiling” and romantic emphasis on spontaneity

Repetition of “idleness” conforms to romantic convention of rejecting religious convention due to biblical perspective that idleness is a sin

Alliteration in first line (“first mild day of March”) gives meditative effect

“About, below, above” Asyndetic tricolon mimics the holy trinity, but prepositions connote location and the natural world, equating nature and religion

“From earth to man, from man to earth” Chiasmus, contrasts the two ideas without capitalising Earth, suggests a reciprocal, equal and divine love between man and nature

TMS language

Semantic field of religion- “Blessing”, “Spirit” “Power” “I pray” creates ideas of the sublime

Imperative sentence moods such as “Come forth and see the sun” suggest uncontainable excitement (backed up by exclamatives; “My sister!”)

“No joyless forms shall regulate our living calendar”- pejorative language shows dullness of day to day life, living calendar is a metaphor representing nature’s consistency through time (living- connotations of spontaneity and joy)

“Each minute sweeter than before” gustatory imagery shows richness of life

“The redbreast sings from the tall larch”- robins often used to signify the dead, could represent life’s fleeting nature and the need to make the most of their lives

Mild the mist upon the hill context

Written by Emily Brontë in 1839

Lived a quiet and reclusive life in the Yorkshire countryside

Poetry closely aligns with that of the romantic period

Reflects longing for the past and emotional security, themes present throughout lots of her work

MTMUTH poetic voice and title

“Mild”- tranquil yet ambiguous and mysterious, possible elusive- speaks to elusive nature of the memories she seeks peace in

Hyperbatonic, inversion of standard word order shows she feels out of place in her current life

Pathetic fallacy shows her emotional state to be content but nostalgic, further contributing to nostalgic tone of poem

Melancholic mood juxtaposes tone- “father’s sheltering roof” (nostalgia) vs “day of rain” (melancholy) highlights challenges of live vs naive childhood

Tonal shift after first stanza from detached description to a poignant personal memory

MTMUTH form and structure

Ballad form (ABAB rhyme scheme) shows love for nature and strong emotional conntection

Quatrains give calm and reflective feeling to the poem

Regular rhyme reflects gentle stream of thoughts

“Telling not of storms to-morrow; // no, the day has wept its fill” Contrastive parallelism emphasises focus on the past

“As thick as morning’s tears” Simile highlights how nature ties to her identity

“Spent its store of silent sorrow” Sibilance creates cathartic atmosphere of calm and peace

Repeated Ms in “mild the mist upon the hill” give meditative quality to the text

MTMUTH language

“Dreamy scents of fragrance pass” - “pass” has a double meaning, relates both to time’s passing and how the scent travels. Also uses olfactory language, makes it more real to the reader and idealises the past

“Oh”- interjection conforms to romantic convention of spontaneity and shows overwhelming nature of her emotion

Semantic field of peace and childhood “youth”, “I am a child once more” vs “Storms” and “Wept” of the present day

“The horizon’s mountain chain” Symbolises permanence

“Sweet mist’s of summer pall” Sweet but fleeting and elusive.

Captain Cook (To My Brother) context

Written by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, 1800s

Family forced to reurn to London from the city during the agricultural depression due to industrial revolution

Captain Cook was a famous explorer who visited Australia, New Zealand and Hawaiian Islands, writing journals around his travels

Romantic convention

Captain cook title and poetic voice

Title establishes fantastical tone and themes of travel, showing longing to travel back in time

Addresses a brother figure, speaks to LEL’s relationship with her own brother

Poetic voice addresses a second person with intimate knowledge of their childhood, likely LEL’s brother

Nostalgic and bittersweet tone, themes of childhood and growing up mirror ideas of nature to show the fleeting but wonderous nature of childhood

Tonal shift- nostalgic yet joyful to more sombre- mirrors growing up

Captain cook form and structure

AABB regular rhyme scheme and quatrains complements poem’s reflective nature

Iambic tetrameter with occasional variations evokes cadence of childhood lullabies, creating an ameliorative and longing construal of the past

“Fair south seas” euphonic due to repeated fricatives, positive presentation of the joy of childhood

Repeated exclamatives of “Ah!” present the speaker as overwhelmed by memories of childhood

Ends if “How much we lov’d his dangers, and we mourn’d his fall”- antithesis shows bitter-sweetness of childhood in it’s fleeting yet euphoric nature

“Do you recall?” multiple rhetorical questions to 2nd person shows attempt to repair relationship with brother due to the fact that “both of us are alter’d, and now we talk no more”- shows longing for childhood closeness

Captain cook language and imagery

“We liv’d again its pages, we were its chiefs and kings”-references Cook’s journals, metaphorical, vivid imagery shows wondrous nature of childhood imagination

“We read it till the sunset amid the boughs grew dim” Serenity and a magical moment- “Sunset” also evokes ideas of liminality and reflects childhood in that it is beautiful and vivid but ends quickly

Travel imagery (“Voyages”, “Southern seas”, “islands”) shows wants to travel back in time to a simpler period.

“Beneath the morning smile” personification shows imaginative childlike nature

“The pond amid the willows the ocean seem’d to be // the water-lillies growing beneath the morning smile”- ameliorative, transforms “lonely garden” into something exotic, shows how children use imagination to create a sense of belonging

“The dreaming and distant no longer haunt the mind”- bittersweet, can no longer access the same state of childlike wonder she once could

“The Guelder roses, whose silver used to bring…their tribute to the Spring” romanticising nature

“The life that cometh after, dwells in a darker shade” shows how life has changer, ‘d’ consonance shows monotony of adult life

Peckham Rye Lane context

Written 2007 by A.K Blakemore

Draws on Blakemore’s experiences of living in a big city

Peckham Rye Lane a big and multicultural street

Mentions William Blake-wrote ‘London’ criticising treatment of poor

WB thought he saw angels at the end of his life

PRL Title and poetic voice

Contrast in connotations of “Rye”- open field, and the “tight” street depicted in the poem

Tonal shift- uncomfortable to catharsis

End signifies the peace and surrender of belonging to a community

Themes of consumerism and rejection of modernity-similar to william blake in a way

PRL form & structure

Unstructured and inconsistent lineation appears like buildings crammed into a busy street

Irregular stanzas mimic the journey of the poetic voice travelling on a bus and reflecting on what they'‘re seeing when the bus stops. Could also be interpreted as the speaker trying to cope with the sensory overload of their environment.

Diminishing stanzas at the end give a sense of catharsis- maybe glad to have left or maybe accepting the value of her community

Lots of simile and metaphor “As damp and crammed as a coconut shell”- contrasts exotic and joyful imagery with discomfort

“Clutching drumsticks like weapons”- shows young children internalising survival skills to cope with the city environment, maybe interpreted as effects of consumerism affecting young people

“Gather” in it’s own stanza- shows how the street is full of isolated individuals who become one community.

Internal rhyme “Afro combs and mobile phones in the // white heat”- euphonic effect- suggests the loud overlapping sounds of the city are actually comforting and pleasant

Peckham Rye Lane imagery and language

Metaphor- “the pavement is a gruesome meat”- dehumanisation in the environment, connotations of violence

“Each person is a sturdy hairbrush bristle”- Each person has a function in society but it’s easy to see them not as individuals due to oppressive city landscape

Religious connotations- “Angels”, “Radiate” provides contrast to gritty setting and shows perhaps a divine sense of love and respect for the community

“delicate babies in KFC” “primark knickers” shows bleakness of consumerism

“"Afro combs and mobile phones in the // white heat” commodification of culture

My mother’s kitchen context

Written by Choman Hardi 2004

Just after Iraq war ended

Reflects experiences of migrant families

her parents decided to go back to Iraq after the war- she herself was born in Iraqi-Kurdistan in 1974 and came to England in 1993.

Now resides in Iraq and teaches at the American university of Iraq.
Grew up in Iran and Turkey

MMK poetic voice and title

Title involves possessive adjective, linking to theme of belonging

Establishes theme of places and familial identity

Homodiegetic voice- relfects Hardi’s own experience

yearning tone created by central theme of items “cups, plates, rusty pots” and their existence in the material world vs the “trees” she will “never inherit”

MMK form and structure

Irregular free verse form w/ 3 unequal stanzas shows either mother’s displacement and instable life, or could reflect the different places she’s lived

Ends in a rhyming couplet- possibly shows acceptance or attributes peace with the idea of her mother' having her homeland back

“her glasses, some tall and lean, other short and fat” polysyndeton accentuates the disorganised and clashing nature of the set

Future tense used - high modality. “will” “Don’t” “never” shows her mother’s certainty contrasting with unstable past

“She’s excited at starting from scratch” “She used to sing for the grapes to ripen” Sibiliance suggests peace and acceptance

“69” and “ninth time” creates internal rhyme, foregrounding her age and how long she has been displaced for

Tonal shift in “She never feels regret for thingd // only for her vine in the front garden”, begins to reflect more positivity about the idea of home, suggests she’s more connected to the idea of home in her home land than her home in the material world

MMK language and imagery

“I will inherit my mother’s kitchen” vs “I know I will never inherit my mother’s trees”- she’s inheriting her mother’s lack of connection to the material world and instability- as represented by the kitchen, but will never inherit her connection to a more conceptual place of home- as represented by the trees and natural world- tree may have been chosen because of connotations of roots

“cups bought in a rush on different occasions”- she has been suddenly displaced against her will many times emphasising displacement

she used to “sew cotton bags to protect [the grapes] from the bees” trying to nature something permanent in her ever-shifting life- longing for a material sense of home and stability

“the rebuilt house which she will furnish”- going to restart her sense of home in a physical place instead of memories- furnish has tender and intentional connotations

“starting from scratch” signifies both resignation at the fact she may have to restart her life as she has so many times before and excitement at the prospect of being in homeland and finally establishing a tangible symbol of belonging

“soon all of this will be yours,” signals the inevitability of this inheritance, but also the mother's attempt to prepare her daughter for a future shaped by both connection and loss. The speaker’s inheritance is not just of material objects, but of the emotional resonance that these objects carry

We refugees context

Written by Benjamin Zephaniah 2000

He’s a Jamaican British poet

Writes “dub poetry”, words meant to be recited over a reggae beat

From near Birmingham

Awarded an OBE but refused to accept it due to its colonial connotations

Addresses global refugee crisis as he’s outspoken about having empathy for refugees and general social injustice

WR poetic voice and title

Title uses collective pronoun humanises refugees and invited reader to share in experience of the poetic voice

Universal experience

Poetic voice criticising the attitudes of people towards refugees and challenges the readers’ biases- “Why should we live in fear // Of the weather or the troubles?”

Ironic tone created by constant tonal shifts after the second line of stanzas exposes hypocrisy in society’s beliefs as “we all came from refugees”

Literal and conversational language “The people I once knew // Are not there now” challenges reader’s assumptions about refugees

WR form & structure

4 quatrains- each of which shows a different refugee experience and then a longer stanza repeats twice

Each quatrain begins with “I come from” showing individual experiences but each longer stanza begins with “We can all be refugees”

Repetition of “my brother” suggests he still feels connection to homeland-split identity

Parallelism in “I come from a beautiful place // Where they hate my shade of skin” and “I come from a sunny, sandy place // where tourists go to darken skin” Shows western hypocrisy of treatment of refugees vs the countries they come from

Internal, slant rhyme- “day”, “handshake” ; “appeared”, “here”, “fear”, shows how people can have similar experiences suggests people should have empathy as we all have separate experiences but one overarching community

Anaphora and tricolon “I am told I have no country now // I am told I am a lie // I am told that modern history books may forget my name” reinforces other people’s perspectives

“Modern history” oxymoron exposes hypocrisy of people’s attitudes towards refugees and how they are often overlooked

“Dealers like to sell guns there // I just can’t tell you whats the price” hyperbatonic language shows the confusing volatility of the refugee experience

WR language and imagery

“I come from a great old forest // I think it is now a field” juxtaposition symbolic of the country’s destruction

“Each year the hurricane tells us // that we must keep moving on”- pathetic fallacy perhaps of chaos and negative attitudes towards refugees or plausibly showing climate refugees

“I come from a beautiful place // where girls cannot go to school // there you are told what to believe” - shows religious persecution

“The people I once knew // are not there now” - simplistic language, vague so could apply to anyone but still has a haunting effect