Where I Come From by Elizabeth Brewster

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.

 

This poem is about different people that the poem has met in the past and compares where she comes from to the city. She says that the 'Atmosphere of cities' is very different from the more rural places like the 'jungles or mountains' and the beaches 'sea- gazers'.

 

The poet at the start gives a general feeling of how people are different as they are shaped by the places that they grew up in, so they have unique identities, pasts and memories. She then goes on using the third person (eg. 'They carry with them') to describe the smells and scenes of the city. Here the word 'smell' is repeated very often. Smell is one of our senses and it can often trigger strong memories inside us as do sight and sound, which is what the writer may be trying to get us to experience so that we can personally connect with the poem more strongly. Imagery is also used in order for us to more easily imagine the scenes that the writer is describing. Simple language, for example, 'smell of work' is used in order for the reader to be able to easily imagine the scenes. Enjambment is used to emphasise how strong these memories are and how deeply people are tied to the places they come from.

Then the poem changes from the urban to the rural, from third person to first person as she finally personally relates the poem to herself by writing 'Where I come from'. She becomes very engaged with her memories of her birthplace and she gets lost in it, by giving us a list of her memories non-stop (enjambment) which emphasises the strength of her personal bond to the place that she is describing.

 

The adverbs 'tidily' are repeated in the second stanza. Although the poet seems to write in a neutral tone, by repeating 'tidily' and putting it along with words such as 'nature' and 'art', it appears as if the poet is criticising the urban areas/ cities. The poet writes:

'nature tidily plotted' and 'art also tidily plotted'

However, nature and art are things that do not seem to have boundaries and are often presented as free and in a way, disorganised and messy. The fact that they are 'tidily plotted' seem to suggest that the poet dislikes how the urban areas are so restricted in the sense that people in the urban areas/ cities seem to be more interested in 'factories', 'chromium plated offices' and 'guidebook(s)' leaving no space for nature and art. She also emphasises the idea that urban areas lack space in the stanza by using words that give off connotations related to space, such as 'plotted' and 'crowded'.

 

In the third stanza, she compares her birthplace with the cities, showing that there is a lot of freedom in the sense that there is a lot of space, as she says 'acres of woods'. The poet writes here, 'people carry woods in their minds, acres of woods', and in this way she seems to be criticising that people in urban areas have more restricted minds than people in the rural areas. This is supported by the contrasting words you find in the third and second stanza, for example 'aimlessly' and 'in the centre', as one does not suggest any direction but the other does.

 

Another reason that the poet seems to be negative about the cities is because she says that the 'Atmospheres of cities/ how different drops from them (the rural parts)'. The verb 'drops' brings negative connotations as we think of a drop in status or in rank.

 

In contrast the poet seems much more positive and loving about the rural areas, as well as nostalgic since she grew up there. This is emphasised by the presence of words that remind us of colour in the third stanza, but there are hardly any colours in the second stanza mentioned (or dull colours are mentioned). For example, the words 'violets', 'paint' and 'blueberry patches' remind us of vibrant and bright colours, whereas in the second stanza words like 'chromium', 'factories' and 'subways' remind us of dull metallic colours (like grey and black) which do not appeal to us.

 

Anyway, I did spend quite a lot of time thinking about the poem (because poetry is hard, for me, at least). But I'm glad I'm finished with this one! :)