Emigree

Context:

• the poet lived in many places and travelled worldwide and so she writes about foreign cultures and the need for identity

• universal experience of needing to leave

Structure:

• first two stanzas have 8 lines however last stanza has 9

  • cling onto childlike nature

• free verse and enjambment to show desperation

• every verse ends in sunlight preserving memory of happiness

Quotes:

• sick with tyrants but I am branded by an impression of sunlight

  • sick with tyrants connotes diseased, poisoned or corrupted and personifies the city or country as ill as its not just ruled by tryants but sick with them suggesting a deep-rooted toxic oppression that is actively harming the country

  • branded connotes marked/scarred and permenant/painful as it suggests both ownership and trauma. it can be both a sign of pride or identity but also of wounding and control showing her memory is permanently seared into her emotionally powerful and unchangeable and perhaps involuntarily so

  • impression of sunlight connotes warmth, clarity and hope and impression implies it may not be real, more like an idealised memory where there is hope and freedom even if the truth is complicated

  • juxtaposition of tyranny and sunlight which shows contrast between political decay and radiant memory captures the conflicted duality of the painful reality and idealised nostalgia

  • metaphorical images evoking permanence and intangible warmth combining to suggest emotional damage and hope coexisting

  • oxymoron effect which forces us to feel the tension between truth and memory or love despite faults

  • alliteration shows her trying to be assertive or trying to convince herself

  • she is focusing on the sunlight as she doesn’t want to remember the bad

• child vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll

  • child vocabulary connotes innocence and simplicity as well as emotional attachment suggesting the speakers language and memory of her homeland were frozen in childhood. her vocabulary may be incomplete or idealised yet they are deeply personal and emotionally significant

  • carried connotes burden and protection/preservation suggesting a long held memory that has been tenderly preserved or perhaps weighing on her showing her past is always with her

  • hollow doll connotes emptiness, fragility and childhood painting the memory as something once precious but now hollow as it may look intact but its empty of use or meaning in her current world. suggests fragility and detachment from reality as it no longer provides her with comfort.

    • language is hollow suggesting its not comforting/ fragile comfort as well as being meaningless to others

    • she herself feels empty as she has lost her identity

  • metaphor for preserved language or memory which once meaningful is now emotionally loaded but possibly no longer functional in her new life conveying nostalgia tinted with sadness

  • juxtaposition of tenderness of childlike vocabulary and emptiness of hollow doll hints at loss of depth or connection as her homeland is remembered fondly but faintly

• bright, filled paperweight

  • bright connotes clarity, warmth, purity and hope suggesting the speakers memory is glowing and vivid and brings emotional light into her world even if its not realistic symbolising optimism and idealism

  • filled connotes fullness, preservation and substance implying the memory is rich with detail and emotion even if its only from childhood as its complete in feeling but not in factual accuracy

  • paperweight connotes stillness, preservation and containment as it holds things down much like her memory and identity anchors her emotionally but its also inert and unmoving suggesting her homeland is frozen in time no longer changing or growing

  • metaphor of paperweight for memory as something that preserves the past but also weighs it down capturing the beauty and burden of nostalgia

  • implied juxtaposition between bright memories and solid stillness of paperweight creating tension suggesting her homeland exists in her mind as only an ideal

  • symbolism as a paperweight is often decorative and it may look beautiful but it doesn’t grow or adapt and is very fragile showing her homeland as a contained vision disconnected from its current state

• time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us

  • time connotes inevitability and unstoppable, where time is personified as a military force, suggesting its not just passive but actively destructive as it wages war on memory, connection and belonging

  • rolls its tanks connote violence, war and domination evoking imagery of military invasions suggesting oppression separation and aggression. implies that as time passes it destroys emotional closeness or connection to her homeland

  • frontiers connote borders, division and control showing frontiers as not just physical boundaries, but also emotional, political and ideological. these fronteirs are rising suggesting that barriers are growing stronger over time keeping her and her homeland apart

  • between connotes alienation and the use of us makes this separation feel personal and emotional not just political, creates a sense of mourning as a relationship is severed by forces out of her control

  • personification of time gives the active roll of a military aggressor turning it into a violent and oppressive force showing how the speaker sees time during her life as morally wrong

  • metaphor representing the increasing emotional and political distance from her homeland as the passage of time becomes a symbolic war