12.1.2
Themes
Love and Fond Memories
Love and Fond Memories
The speaker emphasises her love for her city throughout the poem. This ties into the wider themes of memory and place and nostalgia. Rumens uses these techniques to emphasise the speakers' love of her city:
Repeated possessive pronouns
Repeated possessive pronouns
- Frequent use of possessive pronouns (e.g. “my city”) conveys the speaker’s deep admiration for, and pride in, her city.
Metaphor
Metaphor
- “The worst news I receive of it cannot break / My original view, the bright filled paperweight”.
- This metaphor suggests the strength and solidity of the speaker’s positive memories.
- Enjambment (sentences flowing over the end of lines) also highlights their strength, as the sentence breaks through the first line.
Light and colour imagery
Light and colour imagery
- Light and colour imagery throughout the poem emphasises the speaker's overwhelmingly positive memories of the city.
- Examples include:
- “my memory of it is sunlight-clear…”.
- ”the white streets…”.
- “I shall have every coloured molecule of it…”.
Personification (city)
Personification (city)
- “I comb its hair and love its shining eyes”.
- This is personification of the city and an intimate, tender image.
- This intensifies the sense of the speaker’s love and affection towards the city.
Mystery and Identity
Mystery and Identity
The city and the speaker's relationship with the city is quite mysterious. The city is never named. Here are some possible explanations for the mystery:
Symbolism - no name
Symbolism - no name
- The city is never named.
- This perhaps suggests that Rumens wants many people to find relevance in her writing.
- She could be writing on behalf of all people who have been forced to flee their homes and settle somewhere else.
Exile?
Exile?
- There is a sense of mystery when the speaker describes her city and the reader gets the impression she is an exile of some sort. Examples of mysterious phrases include:
- “There was once a city...I left it as a child”.
- “Frontiers rise between us”.
- “I have no passport, there’s no way back at all”.
- “They accuse me….”
Memory vs Reality
Memory vs Reality
Rumens draws a contrast between the speaker's positive memories of their former home and their negative impressions of the city now. These are the techniques she uses to draw this contrast:
Positive vs negative images
Positive vs negative images
- There is contrasting language throughout the poem.
- Positive, bright images associated with the speaker’s memories of her homeland are juxtaposed (placed together for emphasis) with harsher, negative images of its current, war-torn state.
- This emphasises the strength of her memories that overpower the far more negative reality.
Irony
Irony
- Even though the speaker remembers her city fondly, she seems at odds with the people currently controlling the city.
- There is a certain irony in that “they” see it as “their free city” but the language she uses (e.g. “sick with tyrants”) suggests restriction and oppression.
Repetition and change of tone
Repetition and change of tone
- Repetition of “they” in the last stanza is significant.
- The poem takes on a more threatening, menacing tone.
- The speaker seems to feel distant from those who now control her city.
1Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
2London - William Blake (1757-1827)
3Storm on the Island - Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
3.1Storm on the Island Analysis
4Exposure - Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
5War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955)
5.1War Photographer Analysis
6My Last Duchess - Robert Browning (1812-1889)
7The Prelude - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
7.1Extract from The Prelude Analysis
8Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Tennyson
9Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
10Poppies - Jane Weir (Born 1963)
11Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker (Born 1954)
12The Emigree - Carol Rumens (Born 1944)
13Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland (Born 1938)
14Checking Out Me History - John Agard (Born 1949)
14.1Checking Out Me History Analysis
15Remains - Simon Armitage (Born 1963)
16Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons
16.1Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons
Jump to other topics
1Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
2London - William Blake (1757-1827)
3Storm on the Island - Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
3.1Storm on the Island Analysis
4Exposure - Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
5War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955)
5.1War Photographer Analysis
6My Last Duchess - Robert Browning (1812-1889)
7The Prelude - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
7.1Extract from The Prelude Analysis
8Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Tennyson
9Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
10Poppies - Jane Weir (Born 1963)
11Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker (Born 1954)
12The Emigree - Carol Rumens (Born 1944)
13Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland (Born 1938)
14Checking Out Me History - John Agard (Born 1949)
14.1Checking Out Me History Analysis
15Remains - Simon Armitage (Born 1963)
16Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons
16.1Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons
Unlock your full potential with GoStudent tutoring
Affordable 1:1 tutoring from the comfort of your home
Tutors are matched to your specific learning needs
30+ school subjects covered