Language constructs meaning. Analyse how true this is of Duffy's poems "Foreign" and "Nostalgia".

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Q: Language constructs meaning. Analyse how true this is of Duffy’s poems “Foreign” and “Nostalgia”.

In both the poems “Foreign” and “Nostalgia” by Carol Ann Duffy, meaning was constructed effectively through the poet’s exquisite language used. In “Foreign”, Duffy portrays the psychological barriers associated with living in a different place, as well as the possible racial discrimination when foreigners attempt to become a part of a different society; likewise, in “Nostalgia”, Duffy presents the psychological suffering of the “early mercenaries” caused by their desperate desire to return to their homeland. The idea of alienation and separation occurring is also displayed through Duffy’s subtle use of diction and structure in both poems.

Primarily, the depression and emotional sadness suffered by people is evident in both poems, as Duffy attempts to use language to emphasise its meaning. In “Foreign”, the phrase “writing home” evokes a sense of nostalgia and depression; for the people who have arrived in a new society, Duffy shows their reminiscence of their past world and families, as they have been separated from their original society. The “local dialect” in the immigrants’ “head” is coupled with the memory of their “mother singing to [them]”. Here, Duffy again exemplifies the idea of how much they miss their homeland as they face adversities and their struggle to evade the difficulties for living in a foreign place. In “Nostalgia”, Duffy displays the melancholy suffered by the early Swiss “mercenaries” going to wars and battles through a variety of diction. As they leave the “high, fine air” to go “down, down”, Duffy shows their emotional sadness in this repetition; they have left their homeland for wars and sacrificed the pleasure of living with their family, which is obviously not worth it. They can only receive “money, dull crude coins clenched in the teeth” for doing this, as this alliteration further emphasises their emotional pain and suffering. Moreover, Duffy uses a series of exhalations “of how it hurt, in that heavier air, to hear” to portray their feelings of misery for moving away from a valued home. Therefore, Duffy has demonstrated in both poems the emotional “ill[ness]” suffered by those who have moved away from their homeland, as she also evokes a sense of sympathy for readers to feel for those people.

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Additionally, Duffy presents the idea of alienation and separation in both poems occurring in people due to the fact that they have been separated from their origin. In “Foreign”, Duffy shows the struggles in people of understanding the differences in a foreign culture. Despite living in a city for “twenty years” it remains “strange” for the immigrants, they are aware of their own “foreign accent” as it sounds to others. Moreover, Duffy emphasises this idea through the phrase “And in the delicatessen, from time to time, the coins in your palm will not translate”, as this implies psychological restrictions and ...

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