In ‘The Emigrée’, by Carol Rumens, the speaker talks about a country she left as a child,
but she still remembers it very clearly. The speaker never saw it in difficult times,
and even the worst things she hears about it now don't stop her thinking positively about it.
There may be a war there. It might have been invaded by evil people, but the speaker cannot
think of it as anything but positive. The white streets of that city and the slopes glow even
brighter as time goes by; divisions rise between where the speaker currently lives and where she
used to live. The speaker’s country is an amazing place, but she doesn’t have a passport: she can't
go back. But the speaker’s memories stay with her. Now this is just a quick recap of the poem
for revision purposes – for more details see my full analysis video, which I’ll link at the end.
Carol Rumens was born in 1944 in London. She's a poet, lecturer, and translator;
has lived in Belfast and Wales and travelled widely in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Let’s begin by looking at the title. An emigree is a woman forced to leave her native country, often
for political reasons. The conflict we see within the poem is an inner conflict, resulting from the
mixed emotions the speaker feels at having to leave a place she loves. The conflict within the
poem might be best explained as the conflict between heart and head: the speaker’s heart
loves the place being described, but her head knows it is too dangerous a place to live in. To
enforce this idea, there is a lot of juxtaposition of positive and negative in the poem.
As a power poem, we can see the Emigree as an exploration of the power of place.
The structure of the poem is often chaotic. To begin with, there is no rhyme or regular rhythm.
The poet also uses enjambment: Here we see the sentences continue onto separate
lines. As well as enjambment, which creates a fast pace and flow to a poem, we have caesura:
There once was a country... I left it as a child The ellipsis within the line slows down the pace
of the poem, forcing the reader to stop and think about the meaning. The chaotic structure
of the poem reflects the chaos experienced in the place that the emigree loves, and the lack
of power she has in not being able to go there. However, there is some organised structure to the
poem. The regular stanza length, with line lengths of 8,8 and 9, can be seen as the speaker’s way of
imposing order on her experience. The emigre refuses to be overcome by the negativity of
the conflict in the land, or the power imposed on her by those who refuse to let her visit.
Additionally, the longest stanza in the poem is the last stanza, which focuses on the speaker’s
love for the place she is describing. This is the longest stanza in the entire poem,
suggesting that the speaker doesn’t want to leave: she is trying to savour the moment
being described in this stanza. The final stanza contains
numerous examples of caesura: 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. The two full stops within the lines suggests
a sense of powerlessness and confinement – the punctuation stops the reader. However,
this negative effect of structural choices is contrasted through the numerous examples of
positive imagery which we find within the poem. The poem contains imagery of sunlight:
‘sunlight-clear’ and ‘it tastes of sunlight’. This imagery symbolises happiness and positivity.
The fact that the imagery is repeated throughout the poem emphasises the
fact that the speaker feels overwhelmingly positive about the place she is writing about.
There is more positive imagery in the poem: 'The bright, filled paperweight' Not only is
this positive natural imagery again, but the idea of a paperweight is important: the place,
like a paperweight, holds the speaker still- it offers both stability and positivity.
In the final stanza of the poem, we see numerous examples of personification:
The city is at first 'sick' then 'comes to me', 'lies down' and 'takes me dancing'. This
personification suggests that the speaker has a loving relationship with the place.
Some of the poem’s imagery is a mixture of positive and negative:
'Branded by an impression of sunlight' Here we see the juxtaposition of negative
(‘branded’) and positive (‘sunlight’), showing the conflict the speaker feels between her love of the
place and her pain at not being able to be there. If the speaker feels a constant conflict between
place and people, we can be assured that place wins. The poem ends with the positive image
‘evidence of sunlight’. Ending with an image of positivity suggests that the positive feelings
win the battle- the speaker’s love for the place endures, despite the difficulties within.
If you found this video useful please do pick up a copy of Mr Bruff’s Guide to Power and
Conflict poetry, available exclusively in eBook form and linked in the description.
If you like this shorter style of analysis video do give it a thumbs up and I will make some more!