Summary
Summary AQA gcse poetry "The Emigree" explained and analysed
"The Emigree" from the aqa gcse power and conflict cluster analysed and explained
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Context: Rumens is an English poet. This poem explores her memory of a far off city and her experiences there as achild. She contrasts her happy memories with the truths she knows as an adult. The poet bases many of the ideas
on modern examples of emigration from countries like Russia or the Middle East where people are fleeing corruption
and tyranny. The messages and themes are very much rooted in modern issues such as the Syrian Crisis.
Emigrée in the feminine Sounds like a story but also
form of the word The Emigrée by Carol Rumens suggests loss
emigrate; the idea that a
person goes and settles in There once was a country… I left it as a child Ellipsis creating caesura
another country. but my memory of it is sunlight-clear indicates flashback or
exploration of memories
for it seems I never saw it in that November
Suggests a clear and
which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. Represents difficult times
happy memory - concept
when things are dark, cold
of sunlight creates a The worst news I receive of it cannot break and gloomy
positive image symbolising
my original view, the bright, filled paperweight.
childhood which Metaphor suggests either
juxtaposes with her adult It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, bright and positive but solid
understanding. and fixed or city is a souvenir,
but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.
shining and unrealistic, shallow
Connotation of ‘branded' often conveys Positive and City personified as their childhood memories,
sense of being marked for wrongness. hopeful - as if infected or shining and unrealistic
Suggests permanence to her view repeated image invaded.
Personifies time as an
The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes
Connotations of enemy with a simile to
innocence and purity - glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks emphasises its relentless
glow suggests heavenly and destructive nature yet it
and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves.
can't affect her memories
Juxtaposes, aggressive That child’s vocabulary I carried here
imagery ’frontiers’ with the Language of her
like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar. childhood. Metaphor
purity of nature ‘waves’
Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it. makes language seem
Contrasts again between bright and precious. Links
It may by now be a lie, banned by the state the city to tiny traces to
memory and truth
emphasise the value and
but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.
preciousness of the
Synesthesia, the blurring of the sense, in this case between taste and vision, memory
in order to show the confusion of memories. Emphasised with repetition by
the clearly flawed but joyous nature of the memory Mood changes again. The
I have no passport, there’s no way back at all city is personified and the
Sounds hopeless metaphor extended -
but my city comes to me in its own white plane. perhaps suggesting others
Personification, she treats have fled bringing the
the memory with almost It lies down in front of me, docile as paper;
culture of her city with
child-like tenderness, I comb its hair and love its shining eyes. them - 'white' links to the
reflects her own surreal quality or the white
memories of childhood My city takes me dancing through the city
plane represents the
linked to the city. of walls. They accuse me of absence, they circle me. speaker's memories
Trying to reconcile her city as They accuse me of being dark in their free city.
Contrasting perceptions - they
‘dancing’ juxtaposed with the My city hides behind me. They mutter death, see as free. Dark contrasts with
modern one as with ‘walls’ brightness of her city
restrictive. and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.
Synesthesia, the blurring of the sense, in this case between taste and vision, in
Not clear who 'they' are but
order to show the confusion of memories. Emphasised with repetition by the
they are menacing and
clearly flawed but joyous nature of the memory. The poem ends on a positive
repetition of interrogative
note, despite threats of death the city is still associated with sunlight
verb ‘accuse ’intensifies this
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