Where I Come From
People are made of places. They carry with them
hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace
or the cool eyes of sea-gazers. Atmosphere of cities
how different drops from them, like the smell of smog
or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring,
nature tidily plotted in little squares
with a fountain in the centre; museum smell,
art also tidily plotted with a guidebook;
or the smell of work, glue factories maybe,
chromium-plated offices; smell of subways
crowded at rush hours.
Where I come from, people
carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;
blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;
wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint,
with yards where hens and chickens circle about,
clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses
behind which violets grow. Spring and winter
are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice.
A door in the mind blows open, and there blows
a frosty wind from fields of snow.
hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace
or the cool eyes of sea-gazers. Atmosphere of cities
how different drops from them, like the smell of smog
or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring,
nature tidily plotted in little squares
with a fountain in the centre; museum smell,
art also tidily plotted with a guidebook;
or the smell of work, glue factories maybe,
chromium-plated offices; smell of subways
crowded at rush hours.
Where I come from, people
carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;
blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;
wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint,
with yards where hens and chickens circle about,
clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses
behind which violets grow. Spring and winter
are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice.
A door in the mind blows open, and there blows
a frosty wind from fields of snow.
Summary
Brewster emphasizes the importance of place by expressing her nostalgia and her obvious preference to life in the countryside in “Where I Come From”. This is achieved through the use of metaphor, olfactory imagery, and frequent contrasts between the city and the countryside.
Brewster emphasizes the importance of place by expressing her nostalgia and her obvious preference to life in the countryside in “Where I Come From”. This is achieved through the use of metaphor, olfactory imagery, and frequent contrasts between the city and the countryside.
First stanza
We know that places are metaphorically going to stand in for people from the very first line. The city is represented negatively - the selection of detail from “the smell of smog”. Alliteration is used in this line to emphasize this. The “almost-not-smell” shows that the natural elements that you find in the city come across as artificial. The fact that nature is tidily plotted emphasizes the detail from the previous point. The poet uses olfactory imagery throughout the first stanza to intensify the smells that are presented in the first stanza. The “chromium” makes the offices sound plain, boring and soulless.
We know that places are metaphorically going to stand in for people from the very first line. The city is represented negatively - the selection of detail from “the smell of smog”. Alliteration is used in this line to emphasize this. The “almost-not-smell” shows that the natural elements that you find in the city come across as artificial. The fact that nature is tidily plotted emphasizes the detail from the previous point. The poet uses olfactory imagery throughout the first stanza to intensify the smells that are presented in the first stanza. The “chromium” makes the offices sound plain, boring and soulless.
Second stanza
In the second stanza, we go from confinement to freedom. The “blueberry patch” is a positive, enticing image, and is juxtaposed with the black of the “burned out bush”. This represents the variety that exists in the natural world. The mention of the “old, in need of paint” farmhouse and the “battered schoolhouses” contrasts with the “chromium-plated offices” in the city. The chickens that are “clucking aimlessly” gets across a sense of freedom and relaxation. The play in the idiom “breaking the ice” suggests that nature exposes you to new experiences.
In the second stanza, we go from confinement to freedom. The “blueberry patch” is a positive, enticing image, and is juxtaposed with the black of the “burned out bush”. This represents the variety that exists in the natural world. The mention of the “old, in need of paint” farmhouse and the “battered schoolhouses” contrasts with the “chromium-plated offices” in the city. The chickens that are “clucking aimlessly” gets across a sense of freedom and relaxation. The play in the idiom “breaking the ice” suggests that nature exposes you to new experiences.
Third stanza
[When you’re in the countryside], “a door in the mind blows open, and there blows a frosty wind form fields of snow”. Expresses the speaker’s nostalgia and her preference to life in the countryside.
[When you’re in the countryside], “a door in the mind blows open, and there blows a frosty wind form fields of snow”. Expresses the speaker’s nostalgia and her preference to life in the countryside.