1. What is this poem about?
How does it link to power and conflict?
Objectives:
To explore the poem The Emigree focusing on how Rubens has used poetic devices to portray the theme of power and conflict
To use MITSL to develop a response to the poem

2. What is the difference?
Asylum Seeker Immigrant Migrant Refugee

3. When does it become illegal? What problems do they face?
What is the difference?
Asylum Seeker a person who has left their home country as a political refugee and is seeking asylum in another. Immigrant a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. Migrant a person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions. Refugee a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
When does it become illegal?
What problems do they face?

4. The Emigrée (1993)
Carol Rumens
There once was a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear for it seems I never saw it in that November which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view, the bright, filled paperweight. It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.
The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves. That child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar. Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it. It may by now be a lie, banned by the state but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.
I have no passport, there’s no way back at all but my city comes to me in its own white plane. It lies down in front of me, docile as paper; I comb its hair and love its shining eyes. 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.
Longer final stanza

5. Homework
1. Explain how each poem presents ideas about power/conflict

6. The emigree
I have no passport, there’s no way back at all but my city comes to me in its own white plane. It lies down in front of me, docile as paper; I comb its hair and love its shining eyes. 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.
There once was a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear for it seems I never saw it in that November which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view, the bright, filled paperweight. It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight. The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves. That child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar. Soon I shall have eve y coloured molecule of it. It may by now be a lie, banned by the state but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.

7. The emigree Highlight in one colour words that are positive.
There once was a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear for it seems I never saw it in that November which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view, the bright, filled paperweight. It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight. The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves. That child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar. Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it. It may by now be a lie, banned by the state but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.
I have no passport, there’s no way back at all but my city comes to me in its own white plane. It lies down in front of me, docile as paper; I comb its hair and love its shining eyes. 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.
Highlight in one colour words that are positive.
In another colour, highlight those you think are negative.

8. Looking for evidence
Using different colours to represent the different words, highlight where you think the author shows
Colour
Words that show
The city as ideal
That the city she has left is plagued by conflict
Her affection and possessive feelings towards the city
A sense of threat

9. What does this opening remind you of? Why does the poem begin this way?
How might this make her memory more biased?
There once was a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear for it seems I never saw it in that November which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view, the bright, filled paperweight. It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.
Why is this sentence enclosed by commas?
What technique is she using here? How does it help build an image?
Why does she repeat the phrase ‘it may be’?
What connotations does this word have and how has she used it here?

10. What references can be found to light?
What sort of adjectives does he use to describe the city? What effect does this have?
The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves. That child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar. Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it. It may by now be a lie, banned by the state but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.
What do you notice about her use of similes in this verse?
What is a lie?

11. Is there a finality to this verse. Why do you think this is
Is there a finality to this verse? Why do you think this is? Which words suggest this?
Simple statement – why?
Explore the pun here
I have no passport, there’s no way back at all but my city comes to me in its own white plane. It lies down in front of me, docile as paper; I comb its hair and love its shining eyes. 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.
Where is the personification in this verse?
What effect does it have on the reader?
Who is ‘they’?

12. Quote Poetic technique Implied meaning Effect on the reader
Key word analysis
‘the bright, filled paperweight’
Metaphor
Reader feels warmly towards the speaker, reminiscing themselves about paces they feel fondly about
‘I am branded by an impression of sunlight’
Branded
‘the graceful slopes/glow even clearer’
The sound techniques used here create a slow, relaxed pace and paint her home city as somewhere graceful
‘frontiers rise between us, close like waves’
Readers might feel the speaker is naïve; despite the fact conflict is evident in the city she still feels the city is ‘white’
‘My city takes me dancing through the city of walls’
Personification
‘They accuse me of absence/they circle me’
They
Bottom one is left blank for them to choose their own quote

14. Get students to work on MITSL on their own today.

15. Compare the ways poets presents memories in ‘The Emigree’ and in one other poem from ‘Power and Conflict’
The Emigree
Meaning (title)
Imagery
Tone
Structure
Language

16. Compare the ways poets presents memories in ‘The Emigree’ and in one other poem from ‘Power and Conflict’

17. 30 min response
Using your information from your table or venn diagram write a response to the question: Compare the ways poets presents memories in ‘The Emigree’ and in one other poem from ‘Power and Conflict’

18. Success criteria Is there:
An introduction which includes both poems outlining their meaning and their titles?
A section on imagery which compares both poems in relation to memories using quotes?
A section on tone which compares both poems in relation to memories using quotes?
A section on structure which compares both poems in relation to memories using quotes?
A section on language which compares both poems in relation to memories using quotes?