the emigreé

“there once was a country …”

• links to themes: HUMAN POWER AND CORRUPTION

• Poem utilises temporal deixis (use of language to refer to the time an event took place)

  Use of this technique from the onset of the poem introduces an infantile quality to the narration, also utilising  a fantastical tone to do this

  • Links to a wider romanticisation of the idealism of children, innocence still intact

• Ellipses utilises to enhance the youthful nature of the narrator

  • Ellipses aids with supporting the spontaneous, thought-like flow of the locution in the poem

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

• links to themes: HUMAN POWER AND CORRUPTION

• The prolocutor sees flaws in their home town as hypothetical

  • This could link to a sense of patriotism but also a blatant lack of knowledge, reminiscent of a child shielded by their guardians from harmful media

“I have no passport”

• links to themes: HUMAN POWER AND CORRUPTION

• The poet introduces the sorrow they feel towards man-made borders, their ostracising nature revealing the inherent cruel and nihilistic nature of human society to impressionable children

they accuse me […] they accuse me”

• links to themes: HUMAN POWER AND CORRUPTION

• Use of emphatic repetition demonstrates the constant persecution the narrator endures in their new home

• Repetition and use of the plural yet separated subject pronoun "they" creates and accusatory and aggressive tone, both towards the prolocutor and from the prolocutor, the latter being a defence

  • This links to the wider themes of segregation and marginalisation

structure

• the emigreé

  • the = english

  • emigreé = french

    • dual culture

    • emigreé being in feminine form relates the poem to experiences of the poet

• free verse

  • emphasises the disjointed, stream of thought - infantile

• utilises temporal deixis

  • introduces an infantile tone to the prolocutor

• last stanza = narrator perspective on new city

  • Rumens utilises enjambment to separate the last stanza from the oppressive nature of the previous rigid structures

    • symbolises the freedom that can be found within oppression

  • contains caesura and free verse to enhance the chaos prevalent within the narrator’s psyche

• epistrophe

  • motif of sunlight

AO3

• written in 1993

• Rumens was born in London but also lived in Belfast and Wales

  • she travelled widely through Russia and eastern-Europe

  • this directly correlates to her poetry, which portrays a firm emphasis on foreign customs, culture and language

• ‘The Emigreé was written as the first instalment in the 1993 poetry collection: ‘Thinking of Skins’

  • this collection focused on political consciousness in Russia and East Europe