Where I Come From

Where I Come From- Elizabeth Brewster


1.  People are made of places. They carry with them
2.  hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace
3.  or the cool eyes of sea-gazers. Atmosphere of cities
4.  how different drops from them, like the smell of smog
5.  or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring,
6.  nature tidily plotted in little squares
7.  with a fountain in the centre; museum smell,
8.  art also tidily plotted with a guidebook;
9.  or the smell of work, glue factories maybe,
10. chromium-plated offices; smell of subways
11. crowded at rush hours.

12.                              Where I come from,
13. people carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;
14. blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;
15. wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint,
16. with yards where hens and chickens circle about,
17. clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses
18. behind which violets grow. Spring and winter
19. are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice.
20. A door in the mind blows open, and there blows
21 a frosty wind from fields of snow. 

Summary- This poem highlights the differences between rural and urban life, drawing attention to the restraints of freedom and liberty that exist within the world and uses nature and worldly experiences to explain the multiplicity of the human character. 

Poetic Voice- References the city in the third person- "they" but moves to the first person when communicating about the countryside with the nostalgic use of "I". This suggests that the poet has an affinity to the country that she does not share with the city and this idea is reinforced by the consistent negative imagery that the poet associates with the city, citing a lack of freedom through her portrayal of different urban features. 

Structure- The poem is comprised of two stanzas describing either the city or country life.  The first stanza reflects at length about the city and is no so coherent or free flowing as the second which concerns the rural environment. This may suggest that the country is naturally more free and less hectic and disjointed than the city. The simple language also allows the poet to emphasize this contrast.

Quote Analysis-

"Tidily Plotted"
Intimates the rigid structure of city life and the prison-lack entrapment of urban life. Reflects the confinement and lack of creativity and originality of modernization. Despotic and inhumane organization. Later repeated.

"Smell of smog"
"Smell" is the strongest sense attributed to memory and maintains the nostalgic essence of the poem. "Smog" is also dirty and unpleasant byproduct of industry. 

"Almost-not-smell of tulips"
Natural odours are being subdued by the more pungent smells of the city until they are hardly recognizable. This suggests that the city is destructive to nature and perhaps displays the environmental issues that have arisen from industrialization and commercialism. 

"Museum smell...chromium-plated"
Musty, stifling and ancient "museum". "Chromium" is artificial and functional, resisting nature and weathering. The technical language also elevates the sense of counterfeit and artifice.

"Crowded at rush hours"
"Crowded" encompasses the dehumanizing and unsustainable aspects of the city, intimating that every day is a struggle and there is fierce competition in life. "Rush" connotes hectic and stressful pressure. 

"Acres...burned out bush"

"Clucking aimlessly...circles"