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.