The Emigree by Carol Rumens

Who wrote "The Emigree"?

Carol Rumens

What themes are explored in "the emigree"?

-loss and absence

-memory

-identity

-individual experiences

Where has Carol Rumens lived?

-born in London

-lived in Belfast and Wales

-also travelled widely in Eastern Europe

What is the general strucutre of sentances like in the poem?

-syntactically complex

-some sentance span 4 lines

What jobs has Carol Rumens had?

-poet

-lecturer

-translator

How is the poem ambiguous?

-the country/city is never named

-the lack of specific detail suggests the poet wants her poem to be relevant to as many people who have lost their homelands as possible

What is the theme of the poem?

-the poem is about the power that a place or a certain time can have over a person (or all people)

-ultimately the power of memory is more powerful than destruction caused by dictators

What are the structural devices used in "The Emigree"?

-free verse (no regular rhyme or rhythm)

-enjambment

-caesura

-regular stanza lengths

What do the chaotic structural devices used suggest?

-the combined affect reflects the chaos in the place she loves

-also her lack of power (she can't go back)

What do the regular stanza lengths suggest?

-the speaker's way of imposing order on the chaos

-refusing to let go of her country

-although, the last stanza (where she is "dancing through the city) is slightly longer, suggesting she does not want to leave

How is the chaotic imagery contrasted?

-contrasted through the deliberate use of positive imagery (sunlight as a motif)

-the poem ends with "sunlight"

What quote can be used to reflect the juxtaposition between positive and negative imagery?

"branded by an impression of sunlight"

-the juxtaposition of positive and negative imagery shows there is negativity in her country, but her love for her country overpowers it

What quote can be used to reflect the speaker trying to gain control over her emotions?

"the bright, filled paperweight"

-could be referring to how her memories ground the chaos she reads in newspapers; (news-)"paperweight"

-she attempts to regain some power over the disorder in the news by using her good memories as stability

How is the city personified?

"comes to me"

"it lies down"

"takes me dancing"

-the personification make the city seem like her lover, she is in love with it

How is the speaker presented as childish?

"bright, filled paperweight"

-almost reduces the city to a souvenir or something exciting that you would buy as a child

-it is possible to look at the narrator's memories as shallow and meaningless

-the narrator is therfore limiting herself to her shallow view of the city as it was when she was there, instead of broadening her view to accept the city as how it has grown to be