The Emigree - Carol Rumens

GCSE English Literature

1. Alice Rysiecki The Emigrée - Carol Rumens

2. Brief Context Rumens was born in south London in 1944 She has a fascination with ‘elsewhere’ Emigrée in the female form of emigrant An emigrant is a person who leaves their birth country to live elsewhere In the poem, the land and the city is ‘elsewhere’ The poem was wrote in 1994

3. Stanza 1 Key Sense Repetition Metaphor No named city/ country- could represent the young age/ lack of knowledge of speaker? The city might not even exist Metaphors could represent the lost childhood of the narrator that they can’t return to Shows it’s been stuck in her memory permanently There once was a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear for it seems I never saw it in that November which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view , the bright, filled paperweight . It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight .

4. Stanza 2 Key Sense Simile Repetition Metaphor The waves represent nature- you can’t stop it and you have to accept that it’s going to happen. This can link to the idea of war The movement of waves (up and down transverse shape) could represent the positive and negative effects in life. Rebellion against the government/state? Might not be appropriate language for adults?-Lies, make believe, needs to grow up and move on The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves . That child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll , opens and spills a grammar. Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it. It may by now be a lie, banned by the state but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight. Sensory description represents childhood memories from narrator

5. Stanza 3 Key Sense Personification Simile Repetition Doll or human? The city could represent a pet. The speaker could imagine it being more realistic and loyal to her. She is protecting the city to try and keep it as how she remembers it. Shadows contrast sunlight. Could represent the different views of the city or the exposure of the reality of the city. I have no passport, there’s no way back at all but my city comes to me in its own white plane. 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. They accuse me of absence, they circle me. They accuse me of being dark in their free city. My city hides behind me . They mutter death, and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight . Can’t travel back in time. Maybe there has been no travelling at all?- metaphorical journey

6. Structure Form 3 stanzas First 2 stanzas are 8 lines, end one is 9 lines – shows speaker can’t forget the place No rhyme but rhythmic pattern – reflects the speakers mind that’s positive but can change and become complex First person account of poem Not naming the place make the poem focus on the characters feelings from a child to an adult Lack of place detail shows it might be fictional and just might be in the characters memory as a child