The Emigree

summary

• the speaker describes having left her country behind when she was a child, but never losing her child-like image of it
• whatever bad news she hears of it, she remembers the sunlight and its beauty
• as an adult, she is becoming aware tha tthis is a false image, but she cannot forget or dismiss this view
• she cannot return to her city but she is preocuppied by images and fantasies of it

key aspects

• rumens uses a range of strong similies and metaphors to present poem's ideas
• these focus of the speaker's memories of his city, giving the reader a strong impression of their clarity and beauty
• there is a clear first person viewpoint and it is mostly in the present tense
• the stanzas are all end-stopped and all end with the noun 'sunlight'

key setting: the speaker's city

• the speaker's city is presented as full of light, with 'white streets' and 'graceful slopes'
• throughout the poem, rumens focuses on the relationship between the city and the speaker rather than describing it in physical terms
• we learn nothing about what the city's buildings are like, for example, nor what landmarks are there, but we do see emotions ascribed to it
• rumens personifies the city as 'docile' at first when it visits the speaker in the final stanza, then more like a lover when it 'takes me dancing' and finally as fearful when it 'hides behind me'

key technique: imagery

• this is a poem rich in imagery, with strong and complex images to analyse in each stanza
• in the first, the deceptively simple metaphor 'my…