Where I Come From - Elizabeth Brewster

Where I Come From

Elizabeth Brewster

Summary: This poem is about the poet meeting all sorts of different people in her life. She notes their background and the wonderful adventures that they have about they themselves travelling the world.  She then contrasts it to the world that she grew up in before she met these people. She, living in a small rural area with little need for money and education, finds her life very different from those in the urban world. 

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)

Structural analysis

1.       Repetition on the word “smell”

a.       The smell is the strongest memory sense. Therefore by utilising the sense of smell, it is easier to create a strong empathy link between the reader and the poet so that the reader will be able to relate with poet more easily to point out the vast difference between the urban and rural area.

b.      There is a sense of irony and hypocrisy involved as the poet was educated about the power of smell in memory, yet she is using this to be able to make fun of the urban area and describe the failures that come along with it.

2.       Free verse

a.       Note that the whole poem is in third person and that it is somewhat impossible to be able to express all the contents of the poem if it was in first person. The big shift from urban to rural will not be so dramatic if it was not in first person as it will be gradual. By utilising a third person narration it is easier to illustrate the vast difference between the two.

3.       Indentation in the second stanza

a.       The indentation in the second stanza is so that it starts when the first stanza ends, illustrating the link between the two although there is a shift in idea. They are therefore parallel ideas, although the author is trying to link the two ideas together. She is trying to connect the two ideas together because the poet tries to impress onto the reader that the two co-exist with each other. The rural area is not possible without an urban area as there is no point of comparison and the urban and rural area both depend on each other for progress and development. The urban area depends on the rural area for raw materials and electricity while the rural area depends on the urban area for technology, employment and modern entertainment.

4.       Simplistic writing. This is used by the poet so as to be able to make it easier for the reader to be able to imagine about the reader extensive use of imagery used when the poet describes the place. It is also used to provide fluidity so as to be able to make a quick transition when she starts to list out areas. Secondly when we make the big shift from the rural to urban area, the use of simplistic writing is good to address the big contrast between the two.

Word analysis

First stanza

1.       “People are made of places”. Obviously this means that people are affected with them by their birthplace and that their character reflects the area that they grow up in. Take note that this is also the topic sentence of the whole poem. It is, in essence, the summary of the whole poem.

2.       “They carry with them hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace or the cool eyes of sea-gazers”

a.       It is here that the poet addresses different biomes so as to be able to include all the different parts of the world and in turn to be able to describe everyone from different backgrounds.

b.      The phrase “cool eyes of sea-gazers” demonstrates the atmosphere surrounding sea-gazers (which are people who live along the coast) as the coast along the sea is usually cool (as they usually are in Canada, the place of birth of the poet herself). This once again reflects the fact that once again “People are made of places”.

Note that the lines that lead up to this moment all address either memories or backgrounds, creating a good foundation for the poem as it deals with the constant shift of these areas.

3.       “Atmosphere of cities how different drops from them” note how we the concept of being different is given physical attributes as it cannot actually drop. This is used by the poet to create a sense of imagery to emphasize the difference in individuality and uniqueness of every different person.

4.       “Like the smell of smog or the almost-not-smell of tulips”. This once again deals with the contrast between the smell of something so strong and something so faint (which is the smell of tulips), illustrating the fact that the world is full of contrasts and contradictions, and it is these things that make it so beautiful. As I have said in so many of the old poem analyses, what is the point of having something beautiful if we do not have nothing to compare it with?

5.       “nature tidily plotted in little squares”

a.       This is used as a form of irony by the poet to contradict what she said about the world being full of different places. There are areas that are uniform, however as a whole, the world is different. If you can follow the line of reasoning, we can say that the contradiction of the contradiction, is a contradiction in itself.

b.      Alternatively it can be used to describe how development/globalisation is starting to make everything uniform as urbanisation starts to control the dispersion and growth of plants, taking away the mystery and the uniqueness of different parts of the world.

6.       “With a fountain in the centre; museum smell, art also tidily plotted with a guidebook”. The fountain symbolises the reign of the urban, educated world over nature, being in the centre, as well as the fountain being a beautiful piece of human technology upon closer inspection. The fact that nature has been plotted around it implies a negative force, as if commanding nature to conform. This is in a sense the educated world mocking the natural world, as we often find a way to defend ourselves against the elements using technology (eg: Dubai, which receives its resources from other countries nearby and for what? Money. Something that also the developed world has learned to revolve around.)

7.        “art also tidily plotted with guidebook;” In the poet here can be expressing her criticism on the lack of originality found when you have seen the artworks of too many artists and thus fail to come up with an idea of your own, time and time again pointing out to faults in development, that it has led to the loss of creativity that we used to see so often in people. Living in an urban area, we also start to see people being able to express themselves less and less. Therefore there is a suppression of expression and people start to look, do and sound more and more the same thing as they start to conform to the pressures of the urban area. Once again this can be related to the ‘song’ Ernold Same by Blur, which addresses how this person used to the same thing over and over again till the day he died. What a boring life that was.

8.       “Or the smell of work, glue factories maybe”

a.       The poet is expressing her opinions of the industrial revolution, the place where development all began. Relating to the structure based analysis, note how the poet is using smell once again to try and make us remember those times, as the metaphor found in the smell of work (eg: sweat, grit and dirt) are usually things quite hard to forget when you were living in those times, or if you are now working in the secondary sector.

                                                               i.      The factory can also be used by the poet to convey a sense of claustrophobia and confinement in the reader, which one can often feel when you move from a big open area to an area where you are surrounded by buildings and roads.

b.      Glue is sometimes used as a drug when you sniff it (although low-level). The poet here specifically mentions glue here, perhaps relating this to the production of narcotics on an industrial scale due to the development, once again pointing out the faults of urban development as she tends to favour the rural area. 

9.       “Chromium-plated offices; smell of subways crowded at rush hours” Once again the poet uses smell to try and make us remember of the last time in the subway as it is our strongest memory trigger. This can be related to the previous sentence which relates to the sense of confinement that we can find in the Chromium-plated office and the sense of claustrophobia that we often feel when we are in the “Subways crowded at rush hours”

Second Stanza

1.       “Where I come from”. This already shows a shift as we shift from the urban perspective to the rural perspective, from her point of view. She is about to talk about her life in the rural area and her experiences.

2.       “people carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;” this indicates that in the poet’s hometown, the main point of trade is in the wood trade, particularly fine woods like pinewood. The fact that she mentions the ‘front-liners’ that are the front line of people that bring income to the country gives the implication that the poet feels a sense of pride towards her hometown, especially these people who she regards as her heroes. The fact that she also mentions these people first creates an image of the town being strong and having the potential to uphold their own weight and to be able to overcome any obstacles that might come their way.

3.       “blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;” this indicates the concept of rejuvenation and how we can create something new from old. This is basically because the nutrients from the burned-out bush is used for growth in the blueberry patches. This means that it has the ability to generate new things from old.

a.       The poet here could be addressing development and how we always tend to get rid of the old things of the past and keep replacing it with something new (eg: technology. We keep throwing away the old devices and keep buying the new ones, even though there is not much difference). She could also be addressing urban sprawl, and how the old (rural area) will be eventually replaced with the new (urban area) given enough time.

4.       “wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint, with yards where hens and chickens circle about, clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses behind which violets grown.”

a.       This is where the poet relates the poem to memories of the past, specifically hers. The fact that the wooden farmhouse and schoolhouse(s) is old, battered and is in need of paint exemplifies the fact that the farmhouse has been used a lot, probably by the childhood in her past which implies that she has spent a long time in that area and probably has a very big impact on her. This creates a sense of nostalgic feelings in poet and in the reader due to the empathetic bond between the two. This gives the impression that what the poet is seeing through her own eyes is not what is physically there, but what is metaphorically there – her childhood. This causes the reader to thinking about his or her own nostalgic memories and how what they physically see is not what they mentally see.  This creates an even stronger bond between the two parties, despite the fact that they are not mentally seeing the same thing.

b.      The fact that the “violets grown” along the school house demonstrates a symbol representing a rebellion against the structured and organised world, as the growing pattern of the violet is often the opposite – disorganised. Furthermore it gives the image of the plant and thus nature trying to engulf the place of study, the place of development, to give a sense of nature finally being able to triumph over something man-made.

5.       “Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons; ice and the breaking of ice”. This is when the poet starts to get surreal as she starts to get lost in her own memories of her past. She is implying that the spring and winter are the two main peaks in the thought pattern of the brain. The other two seasons are the times that lead up to that very special moment, which is the ice and the breaking of ice, completely metaphoric though.

a.       The ice represents rigidity, the conformity into acting as one. The fact that you are confined to studying and working all day with no rest.

b.      The breaking of it represents the fact that we cannot do this forever and that in some time of our lives we will all crack and leave. We will all change to be the person that we once were. It can also represent the vast difference between the rural and urban area, as if the area was a ‘break’ from the stresses and that they are so vastly different as if the rules and regulations of the urban area did not apply in the rural area.

Also note the link between the nature and the mind in this line. The poet here could be addressing the similarities yet differences between the two aspects. Similar to how the urban and rural area are so different, yet completely linked.

6.       “A door in the mind blows open, and there blows a frosty wind from fields of snow” the door represents a new alternative to the ‘line of thought’ that she is about to go through.

a.       Therefore the poet here is trying to imply the fact that there will be something that she will experience that will change the way that she interprets the world, change the way that she thinks as a person. She here could be addressing urbanisation and how urban sprawl will eventually catch up with its rural counterpart, specifically the area around it, changing the area forever and the people with it. Change is coming. The fact that there are fields of snow represent the fact that it is something that is tough and it is something that you can overcome quickly, but whether or not you are prepared you will have to go through it, else the snow might enter the door and engulf you from there before you are ready, therefore you should go and meet the challenge first.

b.      Alternatively, the door to her mind could indicate a doorway to her past as she starts to remember more and more. She then realises that this is something that she wants to do but is hard to do due to the time constraints of our fast paced world. This constraint is represented obviously by the snow. She is also aware of the bad aspects of her past and that she will have to overcome that as well if she has to experience the good aspects of her past as well.

                                                               i.      The snow may also represent her memories and how easily it for her to get engulfed into it.

                                                             ii.      It could also meant that the snow represents her memories and it is very easily to let the memory sink into her character, affecting it, whether positively or negatively.

c.       Also, note that the door is man-made while snow is naturally formed. The poet recognizes its power of the duality of having both natural and man-made devices in our lives and that it is obviously important to us because we carry it/it affects us. In other words, our identity is shaped by the nature/world around us.

 Speaker of the poem: the poet herself, both the semi-physical (second stanza) and the omniscient part of her (first stanza), Elizabeth Brewster

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem:  – duality, positive and nostalgic about nature and negative about city

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1.       The Planners in the similar hatred over the urban environment and the consistency, conformity, and the lack of creativity from the people that come with it.

2.       Horses in the sense that there is a similar time shift in the poem. The time shift can be found here when the poet mentions her childhood and the industrialization period. However, it is not chronological.

3.       Summer Farm in the sense that there is great detail in the natural aspect of the world in order to reinforce the subject matter. In this poem, it is the fact that nature conquers over development, of which nature made up more of the poet’s childhood than the latter. In the other poem, it was of course to reinforce the mental state of the poet.

Memorable Lines:

1.       People are made of places.

2.       Nature tidily plotted in little squares with a fountain in the centre; museum smell, art also tidily plotted with a guidebook

3.       Wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint, with yards where hens and chickens circle about, clucking aimlessly;

4.       Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons; ice and the breaking of ice.