The Émigrée - Carol Rumens

Fairy tale like opening - represent a childlike innocence

Ellipsis - pause to reflect - break in sense of place

Extension enjambment - story driven narrative

Implies it no longer exists as she remembers - yet she will never forget the city she experienced

There once was a country… I left it as a child/ but my memory of it is sunlight-clear

Her memory is permanently etched/scarred into her mind even if the city gets taken over by “tyrants” and “war”

Negative denotation of “branded” - reflects the pains of the present vs the happier past

Hasn’t seen the city in it’s worst moments

Arrest enjambment - ironic - phrase is split up between the lines (broken)

Plosives (branded, impression) - violent act juxtaposes light imagery

The worst news I receive of it cannot break/ my original view [as] I am branded by an impression of sunlight.

City as pure - idealised image

Caesura - daydreaming mood

Longer she’s been separated, the stronger her desire to go home - but she’s still physically isolated

The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes,/ glow even clearer as time rolls its tank

Emphasises the importance of having a connection to your mother tongue (HERITAGE)

Simile - symbolic of childhood innocence - becomes a vessel to store her memories

That child’s vocabulary I carried here/ like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar.

Adamant that she will never forget the language of her home even if it’s banned

Repression by government (loss of freedom of expression)

Short phrase - rebellious - secretly indulging in what’s banned (maintain that close connection to her home)

It may by now be a lie, banned by the state/ but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.

Physical displacements - literally & figuratively can’t return (“no passport” but also, the city she remembers no longer exists)

Darker tone - reality of her situation takes over

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

Protects her home - maintain the idyllic memories

Constantly comments on her love for her city

Simile - city is harmless and innocent (but easily tarnished)

“Shining” + “paper” - white/bright imagery

Possessive pronoun - BELONGING to her home city vs “the city” - lack of emotional attachment to where she lives now (geographical displacement)

“city of walls” - more negative, robotic imagery - less emotive

It lies down in front of me, docile as paper;/ I comb its hair and love its shining eyes./ My city takes me dancing through the city/ of walls.

Forced to adapt to new environment

Anaphora + “they” - othering - separates herself from the city she lives in

Persecution

falsely label her - dislike her lack of attachment to the city (unsettled by how she doesn’t BELONG) - aware her loyalties lie elsewhere

“circle me” - captivity - loss of freedom/autonomy

BINARY OPPOSITION light v dark

Shorter phrases - emphasises her struggle

They accuse me of absence, they circle me./ They accuse me of being dark in their free city

Extra line in stanza - builds on the feeling of negative forces crowding in

Her city will always be there to bring comfort - permanently impacted by her past

Ends on optimistic tone

Juxtaposition between “shadow” and “sunlight”

my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.