ORIGIN

ALLY

BY CAROL

ANN DUFF

Y

DA

NI E

L A T

AB

I LO

We came from our own country in a red room 1

which fell through the fields, our mother singing

our father’s name to the turn of the wheels.

My brothers cried, one of them bawling Home, 4

Home, as the miles rushed back to the city,

the street, the house, the vacant rooms

where we didn’t live any more. I stared

at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw. 8

All childhood is an emigration. Some are slow

leaving you standing, resigned up an avenue

where no one you know stays. Others are sudden.

Your accent wrong. Corners, which seem familiar 12

leading to unimagined, pebble-dashed estates, big boys

eating worms and shouting words you don’t understand.

My parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose tooth

in my head. I want our own country, I said. 16

ORIGINALLY

ORIGINALLY

But then you forget, or don’t recall, or change,

and, seeing your brother swallow a slug, feel only

a skelf of shame. I remember my tongue

shedding its skin like a snake, my voice20

in the classroom sounding just like the rest. Do I only think

I lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space

and the right place? Now, Where do you come from?

strangers ask. Originally? And I hesitate.24

FORM

• Three stanzas

• Eight lines each – 24 lines total

• Ten syllables in almost each line

• Free verse

• No end rhyme

• Internal rhymes• Line 15: like a loose tooth/in my head. I want our own

country, I said.• Line 22: sense of space/and the right place?

• One repetition:• Lines 4-5: My brothers cried, one of them bawling

Home/Home, as the miles rushed back to the city

• Many enjambment uses (memory)

• Use of italics to show speech

MARKUPWe came from our own country in a red room

which fell through the fields, our mother singing

our father’s name to the turn of the wheels.

My brothers cried, one of them bawling Home,

Home, as the miles rushed back to the city,

the street, the house, the vacant rooms

where we didn’t live any more. I stared

at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw.

 

All childhood is an emigration. Some are slow

leaving you standing, resigned up an avenue

where no one you know stays. Others are sudden.

Your accent wrong. Corners, which seem familiar

leading to unimagined, pebble-dashed estates, big boys

eating worms and shouting words you don’t understand.

My parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose tooth

in my head. I want our own country, I said.

 

Markup Key

Simile/metaphorEnumeration

Metonymy Imagery

HyperboleEnjambment

MiscellaneousPersonification

MARKUP

But then you forget, or don’t recall, or change,

and, seeing your brother swallow a slug, feel only

a skelf of shame. I remember my tongue

shedding its skin like a snake, my voice

in the classroom sounding just like the rest. Do I only think

I lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space

and the right place? Now, Where do you come from?

strangers ask. Originally? And I hesitate.

LITERAL MEANING

• Autobiographical • Duffy moved from Scotland to

England at age 6• Changed schools multiple

times

• Grown woman looking back

• Can be assumed to be a girl

• Reflecting on moving to a new place

• Effects of the move on her/himself and her/his family

• Addressing people who ask where she/he is from

• Nostalgic

FIGURATIVE MEANING

• Emotional impact on childhood

• Scattered childhood memories

• Personality changes involved

• Culture Shock of a move

• Emigration/Immigration during childhood

• Family

• Where you come from = Home ?

• Identity issues when moving

• End of childhood

ENUMERATION

• “as the miles rushed back to the city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms” (Line 5)

• “unimagined, pebble-dashed estates, big boys eating worms and shouting words you don’t understand.” (Line 13)

• “But then you forget, or don’t recall, or change,” (Line 17)

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

• “We came from our own country in a red room which fell through the fields,”(Line 1)

• “I stared at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw.” (Line 7)

• “All childhood is an emigration.” (Line 9)

• “My parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose tooth in my head.” (Line 15)

• “I remember my tongue shedding its skin like a snake,” (Line 19)

• Recurring:• “big boys eating worms” (Line 13)• “seeing your brother swallow a slug” (Line 18)

DICTION

• Speech or sound related words:

• Singing (Line 2)• Bawling (Line 3)• Accent (Line 12)• Shouting (Line 14)• Voice (Line 20)• Speech (Line 22)

• Negative words:• Cried (Line 4)• Vacant (Line 6)• Wrong (Line 12)• Anxiety (Line 15)• Forget (Line 17)• Shame (Line 19)• Lost (Line 22)• Hesitate (Line 24)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• Is it justifiable to feel guilt after adapting to a place different than one’s home town like the speaker did?

• Alike Litany by Carol Ann Duffy, the poem is written from an adult’s point of view who is remembering the past. Do you think this was as effective here as it was in Litany? If not, what would be a better way?

• Would the poem’s main ideas be altered if this were written from the brother’s point of view?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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http://www.existentialpunk.com/.a/6a00d83452358069e20120a5074293970b-800wi

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http://www.famousauthors.org/carol-ann-duffy

http://www.g08english.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Originally-annotated.pdf

http://research-paper-service.blogspot.com/2013/03/originally-carol-ann-duffy-analysis.html

http://www.skoleforum.com/stiler/analyse/det.aspx?id=5125

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