Key Quotations and Comparisons

The Emigree Key Quotes provide insight into the poem's central themes and the speaker's emotional state. Each quotation serves a specific purpose in conveying the poem's message and atmosphere.

Quote: "I comb its hair and love its shining eyes"

This personification intensifies the speaker's love and affection towards the city, evoking a sense of patriotism and childlike innocence. The image of combing hair suggests a tender, nurturing relationship with the memory of the place.

Quote: "My city"

The use of the possessive pronoun "my" conveys the speaker's deep admiration for and pride in her city. This simple phrase encapsulates the strong sense of belonging and ownership the speaker feels towards her homeland, despite being physically separated from it.

Quote: "It may be sick with tyrants..."

This personification emphasizes the speaker's dislike for the current political situation in her city. By describing the city as "sick," the poem suggests that the tyrannical rule is a disease afflicting an otherwise beloved place.

Quote: "The white streets"

The use of light and color imagery highlights the overwhelmingly positive nature of the speaker's memories. The whiteness suggests purity, innocence, and perhaps a blank canvas onto which the speaker projects her idealized recollections.

Quote: "I have no passport..."

This mysterious language hints at the speaker's possible exile status, adding a layer of political complexity to the poem's emotional landscape.

The Emigree analysis can be enriched by comparing it to other poems that explore similar themes:

1. Power of place:

   • "London" by William Blake
   • "The Prelude" by William Wordsworth

2. Conflicting emotions:

   • "Bayonet Charge" by Ted Hughes
   • "Poppies" by Jane Weir

3. Power of identity:

   • "Checking Out Me History" by John Agard
   • "Kamikaze" by Beatrice Garland

These comparisons help to contextualize The Émigrée within a broader literary tradition of exploring place, memory, and identity in poetry.

The Émigrée: Summary and Context

The Émigrée poem analysis reveals a deeply personal exploration of memory and identity. Carol Rumens, an English poet known for writing about other countries, crafts a narrative voice that reflects on a childhood city left behind. The poem's context is crucial to understanding its themes and emotional resonance.

Definition: An émigré is a person who has left their own country to settle in another, typically for political reasons.

The speaker's recollections are overwhelmingly positive, tinged with a nostalgic glow that persists despite the implied political turmoil and danger in her homeland. This juxtaposition of fond memories and harsh realities forms the core tension of the poem.

Highlight: The poem's structure reflects the fragmented nature of memory and the disrupted state of the speaker's homeland.

Key structural elements include:

• Lack of rhythm and rhyme, mirroring the war-torn state of the city
• Use of caesura, giving readers time to process the emotional weight of exile
• Regular stanzas, symbolizing the speaker's refusal to let disruption overpower her memories
• Enjambment, emphasizing the overflow of emotion and affection for the city

The poem explores several key concepts:

1. Danger and bravery in the face of political upheaval
2. The innocence and sweetness of childhood memories
3. The power of memory and nostalgia to preserve positive experiences

Quote: "The bright filled paperweight" serves as a metaphor for the strength and solidity of the speaker's memories.

The Émigrée themes encompass the complexities of exile, the enduring nature of childhood impressions, and the struggle to maintain a connection to one's roots in the face of separation and change.