Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Originally”

 

Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Originally”

Summary

The poem opens with the speaker recalling her family leaving their homeland in a red car, racing through fields. Her mother softly repeats her father's name over the hum of the wheels. In the backseat, her brothers weep, with one desperately calling out “Home, Home” as they leave behind their “city, street, building, renovation, room / where we didn’t live any more.” Seeking comfort, the speaker clutches her stuffed animal, staring into the “eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw.”

She reflects that “All childhood is an emigration,” comparing growing up to leaving a country. Sometimes this change is slow, leaving you to walk down an “avenue / where no one you know stays,” coming to terms with an unfamiliar world. Other times, it happens suddenly: your accent feels “wrong,” and familiar corners lead to confusing new neighborhoods where “big boys / eating worms and shouting words you don't understand.” The speaker senses her parents’ hidden anxiety, feeling it like a “loose tooth / in my head” while longing to return to her “own country.”

Over time, her memories and feelings transform. Watching her brother swallow a slug, she feels only “a skelf of shame” rather than total shock. Her speech adapts as she remembers her “tongue / shedding its skin like a snake,” until her voice in the classroom sounds “just like the rest.” She asks herself if she truly lost “a river, culture, speech, sense of first space / and the right place?” The poem ends in the present day: when strangers ask where she is from, she hesitates, replying, “Originally? And I hesitate.”

Key Themes

1. The Pain of Growing Up

The poem uses literal migration as a metaphor for the universal experience of growing up. Duffy states that “All childhood is an emigration,” suggesting that transitioning from child to adult always involves a loss of safety, innocence, and belonging.

• Loss of Comfort: Leaving Scotland causes physical and emotional disorientation. Holding her “blind toy” shows how comfort items lose their magic as childhood ends.
• Fear of the Unknown: Facing an unfamiliar world is highlighted by local “big boys / eating worms,” representing the intimidating nature of growing up.
• Loss of Innocence: Adapting to new surroundings feels like a fall from grace, leaving behind the “first space / and the right place” of early childhood.

2. Emigration and Identity

The text explores how leaving your homeland creates isolation and fundamentally alters who you are.

• Feeling Out of Place: The speaker describes living on an “avenue / where no one you know stays,” capturing the loneliness of an immigrant.
• Language and Assimilation: Accent plays a central role in identity. Initially, her Scottish accent feels “wrong.” To fit in, her tongue sheds its skin until her voice sounds “just like the rest.”
• Incomplete Identity: Even after assimilating, traces of her past remain, such as the Scottish word “skelf” (a tiny splinter). When asked where she is from “Originally?”, her hesitation reveals she no longer has a single, clear answer to who she is.

Symbols

• Snakes: Appearing when her “tongue / shedding its skin like a snake,” the serpent symbolizes both transformation and betrayal. Like the biblical snake in the Garden of Eden, shedding her original Scottish accent represents a loss of innocence and a subtle betrayal of her true roots to fit in with her English peers.
• Rivers: Mentioned when asking if she lost “a river, culture, speech,” the river represents the spirit of her homeland, the passage of time, and the alternative life she might have lived had she stayed in Scotland.
• The Blind Toy: Staring at the “eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw” illustrates the loss of childhood comfort. The toy cannot see or offer real help, symbolizing the abrupt end of childhood imagination when faced with harsh reality.
• A Loose Tooth: The feeling of “my parents’ anxiety stirring like a loose tooth / in my head” symbolizes a constant, irritating pain that cannot be ignored, reflecting how children absorb their parents' stress during major life transitions.
• A Skelf: The phrase “a skelf of shame” uses the Scottish dialect word for a splinter. It symbolizes how her original identity isn't completely gone, but exists as a tiny, painful remnant sticking under her skin.

Additional Important Elements

Form and Structure

• Three Stanzas: The poem is structured into three eight-line stanzas (octaves), following a chronological timeline:
1. Stanza 1: The physical journey away from Scotland (Past).
2. Stanza 2: The emotional struggle and disorientation of living in England (Transition).
3. Stanza 3: Assimilation, loss of accent, and present-day reflection (Present).
• Meter: Written in free verse, mimicking the natural flow of memory and speech.

Tone

• The tone shifts from fearful and sorrowful in the first stanza, to confused and anxious in the second, and finally to thoughtful, reflective, and uncertain in the final stanza.