"Foreign" appears in Carol Ann Duffy's collection Selling Manhattan (1987). The poem urges readers to imagine themselves as an immigrant who has lived for 20 years in their adopted country. In the scenario the poem sketches, "you" still live at the margins of society, miss your homeland, struggle with your adopted language, and face prejudice from native residents. Without invoking a specific country or period, the poem encourages readers to empathize with "foreign" communities in their own societies.

• Read the full text of “Foreign”

• “Foreign” Summary

• “Foreign” Themes

  • 

    Immigration and Alienation

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-20
  • 

    Xenophobia, Intolerance, and Miscommunication

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-5
    • Lines 11-20

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Foreign”

  • Lines 1-5

    Imagine living in ...
    ... talk in theirs.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 6-10

    Then you are ...
    ... word for this.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-15

    You use the ...
    ... before your eyes.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-20

    And in the ...
    ... Imagine that.

    

    

    

    

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• “Foreign” Symbols

  • 

    Redness/Blood

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-13: “Imagine one night / You saw a name for yourself sprayed in red / against a brick wall. A hate name. Red like blood.”

• “Foreign” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “dismal dwellings”
    • Line 7: “letter,” “local”
    • Line 8: “sound,” “singing”
    • Line 9: “now,” “not know”
    • Line 10: “Why,” “watering,” “what’s,” “word”
    • Line 14: “snowing,” “streets”
    • Line 15: “bits before”
    • Line 16: “time,” “time”
    • Line 17: “translate”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “stairs”
    • Line 5: “theirs”
    • Line 7: “letter,” “dialect,” “behind”
    • Line 9: “ago,” “know”
    • Line 10: “Why,” “eyes”
    • Line 12: “name,” “sprayed”
    • Line 13: “hate name”
    • Line 19: “mean”
    • Line 20: “only go,” “dream”

  • Caesura

    

    

    

    

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    Where caesura appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “strange, dark”
    • Line 3: “yours. On”
    • Line 4: “stairs. You”
    • Line 6: “home. The”
    • Line 7: “dialect; behind”
    • Line 9: “ago, and”
    • Line 11: “transport. Work. Sleep. Imagine”
    • Line 13: “wall. A,” “name. Red”
    • Line 14: “streets, under”
    • Line 17: “translate. Inarticulate”
    • Line 18: “home, you,” “fruit. Imagine”
    • Lines 19-19: “says, / Me”
    • Lines 20-20: “dream. / Imagine”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “side / and”
    • Lines 3-4: “hear / your”
    • Lines 4-5: “think / in”
    • Lines 6-7: “head / Recites”
    • Lines 7-8: “that / Is”
    • Lines 11-12: “night / You”
    • Lines 12-13: “red / against”
    • Lines 16-17: “coins / in”
    • Lines 18-19: “Imagine / that”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “Imagine”
    • Line 6: “home”
    • Line 11: “Imagine”
    • Line 12: “name”
    • Line 13: “name”
    • Line 16: “time,” “time”
    • Line 18: “home,” “Imagine”
    • Line 20: “Imagine”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 13: “Red like blood.”
    • Lines 14-15: “It is snowing in the streets, under the neon lights, / as if this place were coming to bits before your eyes.”
    • Lines 19-20: “Me not know what these people mean. / It like they only go to bed and dream.”

  • Parataxis

    

    

    

    

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    Where parataxis appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-5
    • Lines 6-9
    • Lines 11-20

• “Foreign” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Dwellings
  • Dialect
  • Hate name
  • Delicatessen
  • Inarticulate
  • (Location in poem: Line 2: “There are some dismal dwellings on the east side”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Foreign”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Foreign” Speaker

• “Foreign” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Foreign”

• More “Foreign” Resources

  • External Resources

    • An Interview with the Poet — Watch a 2009 interview with Carol Ann Duffy.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A biography of Duffy at Poets.org.

    • The Poet as Laureate — Read about Duffy's appointment as the first female Poet Laureate in Britain's history.

    • Immigration in the UK — A brief timeline of immigration-related events in Duffy's native UK.

    • Migrants and Discrimination in the UK — An overview of some of the discrimination experienced by migrants to the UK, compiled by the Migration Observatory at Oxford.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

    • A Child's Sleep

    • Anne Hathaway

    • Before You Were Mine

    • Circe

    • Death of a Teacher

    • Demeter

    • Education For Leisure

    • Elvis's Twin Sister

    • Eurydice

    • Havisham

    • Head of English

    • In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

    • In Your Mind

    • Little Red Cap

    • Mean Time

    • Medusa

    • Mrs Aesop

    • Mrs Darwin

    • Mrs Faust

    • Mrs Icarus

    • Mrs Lazarus

    • Mrs Midas

    • Mrs Sisyphus

    • Originally

    • Penelope

    • Pilate's Wife

    • Pope Joan

    • Prayer

    • Pygmalion's Bride

    • Queen Herod

    • Quickdraw

    • Recognition

    • Salome

    • Standing Female Nude

    • Stealing

    • The Darling Letters

    • The Dolphins

    • The Good Teachers

    • Thetis

    • Valentine

    • Warming Her Pearls

    • War Photographer

    • We Remember Your Childhood Well

    • Work

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