THE EMIGREE

The Emigree - Context

Carol Rumens Born 1944

Carol Rumens is an English poet, playwright and novelist. Rumens lived for a number of years in Belfast and has travelled widely in Russia and Eastern Europe. She finds foreign cultures to be a great inspiration for her work.

An emigrée is a woman who has chosen or been forced to leave her home country and to live somewhere else. Some people emigrate for financial reasons, for better living conditions or to be near family. Other people are forced out of their own countries and must find somewhere else to live.

The Emigrée was published in 1993 during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Certain images in the poem seem to relate to this particular area of the world.

But don't worry about where this might be set. Consider the poem as much about memory as anything else. "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." From the novel, The Go-Between (1953) (the book is about memory, identity and the past).

Emigree - Analysis

There once was a country... I left it as a child

The poem begins like a fairy tale, which is in keeping with a child's perspective, but also in contrast to the subject matter. The adverb once, is a hint that this poem is as much about memory as anything else..

I am branded by an impression of sunlight

The repetition of sunlight in these lines, emphasises the nostalgiac view ofthe past and of the speaker's homeland.

they mutter death, and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.

The immigrant faces threats and is reminded of their other-ness. The treatment they receive in their new home only confirms their nostalgiac veiw of their childhood home.