Originally Task

8/10/2019 Originally Task

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Originally

Number these assertions about the poem in order of importance:

Nostalgia is a powerful human emotion

“A mother singing our father’s name to the turn of the wheel”

creates a nostalgic tone of voice as childhood is remembered

fondly

Experiences in life bring compensation and loss

“But then you forget. Or don’t recall, or change, and, seeingyour brother swallow a slug, feel only a skelf of shame.” The

accumulation of responses accentuates the changes as the

persona moves to the habits of the new culture.

Separation from our heritage brings feelings of grief

The simile used to describe the persona’s emotional

displacement in “My parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose toothin my head” effectively links this grief at separation to a

physical irritation. The use of dialogue, “I want our own

country, I said” is an emphatic assertion that continues thisvery personal response.

We are intrinsically linked to our place of origin

Direct engagement with the reader through the first person in

the rhetorical question; “Do I only think I lost a river, culture,speech, sense of first space and the right place?” Here Duffyutilises a metaphor of a river to denote the geographical loss of

country of origin, the image of the river personalising this

place. Furthermore, references to loss of culture and speech

herald the loss of identity as these are intrinsic to an

individual’s understanding of how they belong. Connections to

place of origin are emphasised through the assertion that it

was “the right place.”’



A child will be moulded to their environment

Duffy’s choice of simile in “I remember my tongue shedding its

skin like a snake, my voice in the classroom sounding just like

the rest” compares the loss of the original language to the

physical change of the snake, thereby implying that the old hasbeen replaced by the new.

Cultural confusion brings ambiguity to our sense of identity

The persona’s confusion is described in her personal response

to strangers who ask where she is from, her reply being

“Originally?” This single word has impact as it implies

uncertainty which is further emphasised by her final comment

“And I hestitate.”

The effects of migration are long lasting and complex

Duffy utilises memories to illustrate the complexity of cultural

change, firstly describing the difficulties in assimilating, “your

accent wrong” and the movement to adapting to culture,

demonstrated by the loss of accent in the classroom. The most

profound effect, however, is the sense of loss not only evident

in the ambiguity of the persona’s identity, but also in the

nostalgic tone of the opening lines as she decribes “the city, the

street, the house, the vacant rooms where we didn’t live anymore.”

Barriers exist in assimilating to a new culture

Duffy employs simple images which convey complex human

reactions, evident in the image of “big boys eating worms and

shouting words you don’t understand.” Second person

reference here serves to implicate the reader, thereby creating

empathy for the persona. Language as a barrier to assimilatingis further emphasised.

Childhood is a time of confusion as the individual tries to

understand the world

Stanza 2 begins with a simple single clause sentence to

metaphorically describe childhood as a time of change and

confusion; “All childhood is an emigration.” This comparisonserves to link childhood itself to the problems of not



understanding the world, much like a migrant in a new

country.

Documents

Originally Task