The Full Text of “Foreign”
The Full Text of “Foreign”
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“Foreign” Introduction
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“Foreign” Summary
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“Foreign” Themes
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Immigration and Alienation
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-20
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Xenophobia, Intolerance, and Miscommunication
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 4-5
- Lines 11-20
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Foreign”
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Lines 1-5
Imagine living in ...
... talk in theirs. -
Lines 6-10
Then you are ...
... word for this. -
Lines 11-15
You use the ...
... before your eyes. -
Lines 16-20
And in the ...
... Imagine that.
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“Foreign” Symbols
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Redness/Blood
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 11-13: “Imagine one night / You saw a name for yourself sprayed in red / against a brick wall. A hate name. Red like blood.”
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“Foreign” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “dismal dwellings”
- Line 7: “letter,” “local”
- Line 8: “sound,” “singing”
- Line 9: “now,” “not know”
- Line 10: “Why,” “watering,” “what’s,” “word”
- Line 14: “snowing,” “streets”
- Line 15: “bits before”
- Line 16: “time,” “time”
- Line 17: “translate”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 4: “stairs”
- Line 5: “theirs”
- Line 7: “letter,” “dialect,” “behind”
- Line 9: “ago,” “know”
- Line 10: “Why,” “eyes”
- Line 12: “name,” “sprayed”
- Line 13: “hate name”
- Line 19: “mean”
- Line 20: “only go,” “dream”
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Caesura
Where caesura appears in the poem:- Line 1: “strange, dark”
- Line 3: “yours. On”
- Line 4: “stairs. You”
- Line 6: “home. The”
- Line 7: “dialect; behind”
- Line 9: “ago, and”
- Line 11: “transport. Work. Sleep. Imagine”
- Line 13: “wall. A,” “name. Red”
- Line 14: “streets, under”
- Line 17: “translate. Inarticulate”
- Line 18: “home, you,” “fruit. Imagine”
- Lines 19-19: “says, / Me”
- Lines 20-20: “dream. / Imagine”
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Enjambment
Where enjambment appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “side / and”
- Lines 3-4: “hear / your”
- Lines 4-5: “think / in”
- Lines 6-7: “head / Recites”
- Lines 7-8: “that / Is”
- Lines 11-12: “night / You”
- Lines 12-13: “red / against”
- Lines 16-17: “coins / in”
- Lines 18-19: “Imagine / that”
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Repetition
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Imagine”
- Line 6: “home”
- Line 11: “Imagine”
- Line 12: “name”
- Line 13: “name”
- Line 16: “time,” “time”
- Line 18: “home,” “Imagine”
- Line 20: “Imagine”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Line 13: “Red like blood.”
- Lines 14-15: “It is snowing in the streets, under the neon lights, / as if this place were coming to bits before your eyes.”
- Lines 19-20: “Me not know what these people mean. / It like they only go to bed and dream.”
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Parataxis
Where parataxis appears in the poem:- Lines 1-5
- Lines 6-9
- Lines 11-20
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“Foreign” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Dwellings
- Dialect
- Hate name
- Delicatessen
- Inarticulate
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “There are some dismal dwellings on the east side”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Foreign”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Foreign” Speaker
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“Foreign” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Foreign”
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More “Foreign” Resources
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External Resources
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An Interview with the Poet — Watch a 2009 interview with Carol Ann Duffy.
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The Poet's Life and Work — A biography of Duffy at Poets.org.
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The Poet as Laureate — Read about Duffy's appointment as the first female Poet Laureate in Britain's history.
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Immigration in the UK — A brief timeline of immigration-related events in Duffy's native UK.
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Migrants and Discrimination in the UK — An overview of some of the discrimination experienced by migrants to the UK, compiled by the Migration Observatory at Oxford.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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