ORIGINALLY
We 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.
1
4
8
12
16
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 voice
20
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
•
•
•
•
•
•
MARKUP
We came from our own country in a red room
Markup Key
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.
Simile/metaphor
Enumeration
Metonymy
Imagery
Hyperbole
Enjambment
Miscellaneous
Personification
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
http://blog.tucsonazrealestate.com/wpcontent/blogs.dir/162/files/2013/07/TucsonAZRealEstate.com_.jpg
http://www.existentialpunk.com/.a/6a00d83452358069e20120a5074293970b800wi
http://www.carto.net/neumann/travelling/locarno_2005_05_08/13_looking_out.jpg
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-duffyanalysis.html
http://www.skoleforum.com/stiler/analyse/det.aspx?id=5125
http://www.mightymove.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/02/MovingcompanyinPlanoTexas.jpg
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/01/11/us/video-finken/video-finkenarticleLarge.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2TUYDCVOsMk/TaAQcVvUNxI/AAAAAAAAAT8/7Kn2k72cVk/s1600/il_570xN.177382426_large.jpg
http://www2.hlss.mmu.ac.uk/english/files/2012/10/CAD.jpg