Foreign – Carol Ann Duffy

Poem

Imagine living in a strange, dark city for twenty years.
There are some dismal dwellings on the east side
and one of them is yours. On the landing, you hear
your foreign accent echo down the stairs. You think
in a language of your own and talk in theirs.

Then you are writing home. The voice in your head
Recites the letter in a local dialect; behind that
Is the sound of your mother singing to you,
All that time ago, and now you do not know
Why your eyes are watering and what’s the word for this.

You use the public transport. Work. Sleep. Imagine one night
You saw a name for yourself sprayed in red
against a brick wall. A hate name. Red like blood.
It is snowing in the streets, under the neon lights,
as if this place were coming to bits before your eyes.

And in the delicatessen, from time to time, the coins
in your palm will not translate. Inarticulate,
because this is not home, you point at the fruit. Imagine
that one of you says, Me not know what these people mean.
*It like they only go to bed and dream.*Imagine that.

General Analysis

• The cyclic nature of the poem demands the audience to empathise with the speaker.
• The persona is an immigrant from an impoverished country who is still struggling to fit in to his/her new ‘home’ even after 20 years of living there.
• From the collection “Selling Manhattan”
• The collection talks about the place/significance money has in the lives of of people, materialism and the mercenary nature of people
• Set in the U.S.A
• 4 stanzas, 5 lines each (4 sets of quintets)
• Sordid tale of an immigrant
• Almost all the lines are uniform in length, could possibly suggest the uniformity of suffering
• The use of imperatives (like “imagine”), and addressing the reader using the 2nd person pronoun, used to universalize the experience of an immigrant
• Simple language shows the limited vocabulary of the persona
• Caesuras and enjambments are used to show flow in thought and important pauses.
• The repeated use of “Imagine” asks the reader to empathize with the immigrants. Feature of a dramatic monologue.

Analysis

Imagine living in a strange, dark city for twenty years.

• Imperative statement, involves the reader more in the poem

There are some dismal dwellings on the east side

• Dismal dwellings: Not even houses – poverty – not well structured
• East side: Poorer areas of the city

and one of them is yours. On the landing, you hear

• 2nd person pronoun- to create a sense of familiarity

your foreign accent echo down the stairs. You think

• Consciousness of foreign nature

in a language of your own and talk in theirs.

• Even after 20 years, the immigrants still struggle to fit in the new culture

Then you are writing home. The voice in your head
Recites the letter in a local dialect; behind that

• Original language of the persona

Is the sound of your mother singing to you,

• nostalgic

All that time ago, and now you do not know
Why your eyes are watering and what’s the word for this.

• home-sickness, lack of acculturation (the loss of the ability to retain his/her cultural identity

You use the public transport. Work. Sleep. Imagine one night

• short sentences show how mundane the life of the immigrant is.

You saw a name for yourself sprayed in red
against a brick wall. A hate name. Red like blood.

• Exclusion from society
• Shows the intensity of the passion the immigrants are treated with.

It is snowing in the streets, under the neon lights,
as if this place were coming to bits before your eyes.

• Not used to the snow as the immigrant feels like the place is “coming to bits”

And in the delicatessen, from time to time, the coins

• delicatessen: bakery
• sometimes the money is not enough to buy food or “translate” into food

in your palm will not translate. Inarticulate,

• limited vocabulary of the immigrant and therefore emphasizes on the alienation of the immigrant from the general society

because this is not home, you point at the fruit. Imagine

• where you know the word for the fruit in your own language but not in theirs

that one of you says, Me not know what these people mean.
*It like they only go to bed and dream.*Imagine that.

• poor vocabulary of the immigrant shows the unfamiliarity to the new language