| Collection
Introduction (2) | The Other Country, 1990
Duffy explores the idea of literal emigration and the metaphorical move from childhood to adulthood
Autobiographical - recounts her own experience with moving from Scotland and the struggles it brought (It is assumed that the persona is Duffy herself, as a child) |
| Subject (2) | Follows the story of a family moving house, and the accompanied stresses
Duffy focuses on the child's response to those changes, and their effect on her innocence |
| Form (3) | Three octets
The unembelished and closed-form structure reminds the reader that it is in fact an everyday, realistic depiction
Duffy writes from a dual perspective - as the adult who was once a child and the child who would later become an adult |
| Theme (5) | Rapid change that children go through and the distress that comes with it
Exclusion due to cultural differences
Inability to adjust to new, foreign circumstances
Betrayal of one's roots to gain acceptance from society
Need for security and sense of belonging (especially during childhood)
- Memory |
| Motifs (5) | "all childhood is an emigration"
"Your accent wrong"
"the other country"
"I want our own country" (Italicised)
"Originally?" presents metaphorical implications of otherness |
| Diction; Pronouns (2)
Nouns
Epithets
Dialect
Conceit metaphor | Plural personal 'We' creates a collective identity
'You' is apostrophic - invites the reader to consider their own childhood
Concrete - 'street', 'house', 'rooms'; immature way of viewing the world
'Vacant' - metaphorical emptiness felt by the family as they leave their home behind
Scottish - 'skelf'; assimilation into a new way of life by betraying an old one
"anxiety stirred like a loose tooth in my head" (parents') - metaphor coined by C.A.Duffy |
| Imagery; Pictorial
Visual (3)
Auditory (2) | "redroom that fell through fields"; child's vivid imagination takes them away from the uncertainty of the move (coping mechanism of children)
"holding its paw"; introduces warmth - it is a child's nature to be affectionate and search for comfort in a time of distress
"Standing, resigned, up an avenue/where no one you know stays"; chilling reference to the loneliness and exclusion
"the house, the vacant rooms/where we didn't live anymore"
"bawling Home,/Home"; brother's sorrow
"shouting words you don't understand"; disconnection between 'foreign' family, and the community that excludes them |
| Rhythm (2) | A sluggish movement indicates a difficult and uneasy journey
Sibilant alliteration in 'shedding its skin like a snake' indicates a new exterior forming, however the intrinsic qualities remain intact; the roots of their origin will always be present, no matter the environment |
| Rhyme (2) | Lack of regular rhyme emphasises confusion surrounding the transition
Loosely approximate rhyme, 'room', 'home'; they are being wrenched away from any familiarity |
| Tone
Mood | Meditative, pensive
Unsettling, anxious |
| Conclusion (3) | The poet invites the reader to reflect on how childhood memories make up an essential part of a person’s identity and how early displacement can lead people to detach themselves from their roots
However, it is suggested from the title itself that Duffy believes that everyone is a product of their past
The poem bears a striking similarity to one found in 1987 collection, Selling Manhattan - 'Foreign'; it simply tackles similar issues from a different perspective (that of the child) |
