Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The unnamed first-person speaker had to leave her country of origin as a child due to political turmoil and war.
Form and Meter
The poem's three stanzas consist of two octets and one nonet written in free verse.
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphors
-"but my memory of it is sunlight-clear" (Line 2): The quality of the speaker's memory is compared to the clearness of sunlight.
-"my original view, the bright, filled paperweight" (Line 6): The speaker's impression of her country is compared to a small, heavy object used for keeping loose papers in place.
-"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10): The passage of time is compared to warfare, as tanks are mobile weapons used in war.
Similes
-"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11): The frontiers created by time are compared to the impermanent but constant creation of waves.
-"That child's vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13): The speaker's childhood grasp of her native language is compared to an empty and cheaply made toy.
-"...docile as paper" (Line 19): The speaker's personified city is compared to the flimsiness of paper, which is capable of being manipulated or used by anyone.
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliteration
-"There was once a country..." (Line 1): The "w" sound repeats in "was" and "once."
-"I never saw it in that November" (Line 3): The "n" sound repeats.
-"but I am branded by..." (Line 8): The "b" sound repeats.
-"...the graceful slopes / glow..." (Lines 9-10): The "g" sound repeats.
-"...time rolls its tanks..."(Line 10): The "t" sound repeats.
-"but I can't get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight" (Line 16): The "t" sound repeats.
-"They accuse me of absence..." (Line 22): The "a" sound repeats.
Assonance
--"...the graceful slopes / glow..." (Lines 9-10): The long "o" sound repeats in "slopes" and "glow."
-"like a hollow doll..." (Line 13): The short "o" sound repeats.
-"...shining eyes" (Line 20): The long "i" sound repeats.
Irony
Genre
Political Poetry, Poems On Emigration, War Poetry
Setting
The poem takes place inside the speaker's mind as she remembers and imagines her country and thinks about the discrimination she now faces.
Tone
Thoughtful, Conversational, Lyrical
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker's sunlit impression of her native country. The antagonist is everything that conspires to dehumanize the speaker: the tyrants keeping her country in a state of unrest, those in charge of military efforts and the drawing of borders, and the unnamed "they" who discriminate against the speaker.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that the speaker is exiled from her country of origin due to war and tyranny, and she faces discrimination in her new place of residence. The state has banned her native language, and her lack of a valid passport makes it difficult for her to connect to her heritage.
Climax
The climax occurs when the unspecified "they" surround the speaker and her personified city. "They" threaten the speaker, accusing her of absence and darkness.
Foreshadowing
The fact that the speaker is "branded by an impression of sunlight" in the first stanza foreshadows her subsequent focus on sunlight in the following stanzas.
Understatement
Allusions
-The opening line "There was once a country..." alludes to fairytales or fantastical stories.
-The accusation of being "dark" could allude to racism.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Metonymy
-"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15): The "state" is a metonym for the governing body of the country.
Personification
The speaker's city of origin is personified as a docile and childlike figure.
