FOREIGN - CAROL ANN DUFFY
General info.
- From the collection “Selling Manhattan”
- Collection talks about the significance money has in the lives of people
- Almost all the lines are uniform in length, could possibly suggest the uniformity of suffering
- The use of imperatives (like “imagine”) + addressing the reader using the 2nd person pronoun
- used to universalize the experience of an immigrant
summary
Alienation and Acceptance
- casts the reader as an alienated foreigner in the city they have lived in for a long time.
- second stanza: "you" (the reader) states that they are unsure why they are feeling so emotional at this moment.
- To a reader though, the loneliness and alienation are clearly being felt deeply.
- third stanza: the experience would be quite a fearful one and cause someone living it to feel even more alienated.
- This character’s world is described as “coming to bits”.
- The tiny parts of life that one could hold onto are slipping away.
- Their current home is turning against them thus, acceptance and alienation.
Alienation and Acceptance
Home
- clear from the beginning that the character does not feel at home in this place.
- They think in a different language and struggle with their own foreign accent.
- Stanza 1: When this person enters their home they hear their own “foreign accent” echoing in the stairwell.
- this person still feels out of place.
- Their accent has not changed, nor has the language they “think” in.
- Stanza 2: The day this person is living continues on until the moment they are “writing home”.
- Time has not made their current house anymore like home to them, and the only way they can access their home is through letter writing.
Fear
- As the poem progresses, this person’s world is developed further and fear is added into their life.
- they forget how to speak their second language
- forget how to read coins
- unable to understand the spoken word
- This happens while “you” are observing a derogatory slur written on the wall in spray paint
- further alienating “you” from “your” place of residence.
STANZA-BY-STANZA ANALYSIS
stanza-by-stanza analysis
Stanza 1
- In the beginning, she starts with talking about her residence.
- ‘Dark and strange’ we can see a form of isolation between her and the home.
- ‘Dismal dwellings’ she feels like she is living in an unknown and not well structured territory.
- ‘Foreign accent echoing’ indicates she is feeling lonely.
- ‘Think in language of our own, talk in theirs’ this conveys that she is struggling to fit in their culture.
1
"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."
Stanza 2
2
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.
- ‘Then writing home’ the only way she can be connected to ‘home’ is writing letters to her family.
- She writes those letters in her native language to feel more connected to her family and culture.
- ‘Sound of your mother singing to you’ the memory of her mom singing brings tears to her eyes unknowingly.
- ‘What’s the word for this’ she is unable to express her feelings and she is not sure how she feels.
Stanza 3
3
- ‘Public transport, work, sleep.’ this refers to how mundane her life is.
- ‘A hate name sprayed in red’ this displays the intensity of the passion she felt being an immigrant.
- Standing under the neon light on a snowy night, she felt like she saw her life fading away in bits and pieces in front of her eyes.
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.
Stanza 4
4
- ‘The coins will not translate’ she is trying to imagine if those coins might ‘translate’.
- ‘Inarticulate’ this shows that she is parting herself from the ‘general society’.
- ‘Me not know what these people mean’ this conveys her unfamiliarity with the language.
- She ends the poem with ‘they only go to bed and dream’ here she is talking about the people who are able to go straight to bed, without worrying about not belonging.
Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- "Foreign". Blitznotes.Org, 2020, https://www.blitznotes.org/ib/eng-langlit-sl/duffy/foreign.html.
- "Foreign". Blitznotes.Org, 2020, https://www.blitznotes.org/ib/eng-langlit-sl/duffy/foreign.html#:~:text=Foreign%20%E2%80%93%20Carol%20Ann%20Duffy%20Poem.%20Imagine%20living,do%20not%20know%20Why%20your%20eyes%20are%20.
- "Summary And Analysis Of Foreign By Carol Ann Duffy". Poem Analysis, 2018, https://poemanalysis.com/carol-ann-duffy/foreign/.