Essay and feedback

In Émigrée, Rumen explores how war forces people to leave their country and how exile can affect people emotionally creating a stain in people’s memory.
Similarly in storm on the island, Heaney explores the power of nature affecting the soldiers emotionally and that natural forces are above human predictability.
In Émigrée by Carol Rumen, the speaker remembers her homeland with love and warmth and at the same time dangerous and forbidden. Her assertion “There was once’s a country… I was a child” uses ellipsis to show her nostalgia and how her memory fades over time creating a sense of loss, leaving the readers curious. “Child” symbolizes vulnerability and fragility, she is young to have witnessed the brutality of war, this may leave emotional and psychological wounds illustrating the power of memory. She remembers the past : “sunlight clear” the repeated use of sunlight is idealized and not realistic. Illustrating that when people move out of their country they still take a part of their country with them. This shows how powerful emotions and memories than facts. She identify with her old country “it was sick with tyrants, but I am branded with an impressions of sunlight “ the metaphor “branded” conveys how she is permanently marked by her past and how powerful memory can be, this creates sympathy in the readers illustrating how exile affects a person’s identity. Rumen utilizes this word to reflect the mortal stain caused by the indelible act of war. The word “tyrant” connotes oppression, suggesting that her country is morally corrupted suppressed by oppressive leaders. This grasps the readers attention as they may start to feel empathetic as she was only a child who was forced to exile due to the political corruption of her homeland. Rumen may be exploring how exile can affect people emotionally and it can be beautiful and painful at the same time. Rumen, a British poet writes about refugees, she subtly subverts the ideas of culture and identity in her poems.
Similarly, In Storm on the Island, Heaney explores the power of nature in human vulnerability as nature is unpredictable. He explores the horror of war through natural forces. The storm symbolizes uncontrollable violence. People are “prepared” but the intangible power of nature is beyond human control. Heaney uses oxymoron “huge nothing “ to express the paradox of fearing something that is invisible yet enormous, this shows the soldiers mental deterioration as they’re overwhelmed with intangible forces. The confident opening line “ we are prepared : we are building our houses squat” uses dramatic monologue to invite the readers to connect with the speakers’ personal experience. Heaney captivates the readers making them delve in deeper. The word “ squat” connotes shallow, short and below, suggesting the fear faced by the soldiers physically and psychologically. Heaney ensures the reader's are aware that war is only brutal but mind draining. The caesura creates a pause and builds tension, showing how their sense of control is fragile as nature is unpredictable. The verb ” prepared “ shows how the soldiers’ confidence at the start, this foreshadows their fear at the end, making the readers sympathetic and frightened. This reflects the Irish Troubles as the soldiers thought the were could control the environment but they were overwhelmed by natural forces beyond their power, this shows human vulnerability over the power of natural forces. Both poems reflects how war affects human psychologically. The emigree explores the power of memory while the storm on the island explores the power of nature.