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Where I Come From

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Where I Come From
where i come from
- elizabeth brewster
Discuss the way brewster uses language to convey her ideas about the link between identity and place.

The main subject of the poem is the contrast between the city and the countryside where the speaker came from. Although there is no straight forward judgment made, the poet very cleverly, leaves subtle hints by showing a big difference in the tone of the two stanzas, which leads us to believe that she speaks in favour of the countryside, yet at the same time bringing on the idea that she is not too keen on the city. However a concept that takes up even more importance in the poem is the fact that the speaker believes that we are shaped by the places where we live.
Even the opening line of the poem starts off with “People are made of places”. This indicates that Brewster is dug deep into the concept of the fact that people are shaped by the places they live in. This is something which I indeed agree on, since the only reason why we are different from each other, is because we are in those different places at different times. People are all influenced by the actions of their surroundings. Even when it comes to simple cases, such as accents. The poet even tries to tell us that atmosphere is a very important aspect of this issue, since atmosphere can affect the living because throughout the year nature tries to progress through its cycle of seasons, whereas city life changes greatly atmospherically.
In lines eighteen and nineteen, Brewster uses references to “spring and water” to reflect the two most important seasons within the region. Spring and winter are related to the “ice and the breaking of ice”. Brewster uses these two seasonal references, in order to relate to the emotional and mental transition a person experiences in life, therefore finding a relationship between a person’s identity and the season of the place, in this case.
Brewster uses a lot of imagery to make us think in a very unique way. For example in

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