the emigree

Question 1

“there once was a country… I left it as a child, but my memory of it is sunlight-clear”

Answer 1

• past tense, immediately shows some conflict that happened that has made it past tense
• “sunlight clear”, used throughout the poem as an image of hope

Question 2

“it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression”

Answer 2

• “branded”, she is owned by her childhood and cannot escape her past
• “sunlight”, although she is “branded” by her childhood, because she sees her past as positive, she carries that hope with her despite the tyrannical rule of her country at the time

Question 3

“that child’s vocabulary”

Answer 3

• represents the language of her home country
• describes her innocent perspective on the world

Question 4

“like a hollow doll”

Answer 4

• simile, she is the doll
• comparing a doll to child’s vocabulary shows how the language she has to speak in her new country is not fully developed
• correlation to a doll also suggests how she feels silence and only stands out when she is emotionally broken “spills out”

Question 5

“it lies in front of me, docile as paper; I comb it’s hair and love its shining eyes”

Answer 5

• personifies the city which shows her care for it
• “shining eyes”, can correlate to blindness, suggesting the image of her home country is false

Question 6

“my city hides behind me. They mutter death”

Answer 6

• “they mutter death”, represent the people in her new city who are prejudice against her
• alienates herself from the prejudice society to make the reader feel sympathy

Question 7

“and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight”

Answer 7

• ending with “sunlight”, suggests her consistent hope for a better society
• alternatively implies that she is worried that she is going to die at the hands of prejudice, but her “shadow” will still be evidence of the positivity of her culture

Question 8

describe the structure of the poem, the emigree

Answer 8

• the poem lacks form, the final stanza has 9 lines instead of the usual 8
• could suggest how the writer wants to make the final stanza stand out, sending a message to the reader