Nostalgia by Carol Ann Duffy
Linda Wang
When we were younger we might have been homesick at school camps or sleepovers at someone that is not family. But we were lucky for the next day we would return to our family's embrace but there are people out in the world that suffer from nostalgia for years and decades before being able to see their hometown again. In
Nostalgia by Carol Ann Duffy, the mercenaries, strong brave men, described in the poem are tormented by the same feeling of nostalgia. In the new land they find it hard to adapt but when they return their home has changed as well. They feel like strangers to everyplace they go. Using sound devices, structure, diction and language techniques, Carol An. Duffy presents a sentimental story of the mercenaries from Switzerland fighting in a foreign land.
The author uses examples of repetition and other language techniques to give the most possible amount of impact on describing the feelings and thoughts of the mercenaries from Switzerland.
When they decided to leave and began their journey, the repeated use of 'leaving' (1,2) indicates the hard choice of leaving, this idea is emphasised by contrasting the description of home as high, fine air (1,2) with the process of leaving described as 'down, down' (1,3). The double use of 'down' also expresses the feeling of the mercenaries leaving their further and further. The harsh constanent sound in 'crude coins clenched' (1,4) emphasise that coins were not worth the sacrifice made by not living in the homeland. The caesura (1,3) was drawing a boundary line between home and new land, it seemed to express that once you pass this mark there is no going back.
By including a range of language techniques in the poem, the mercenaries are...