Journey's in Carol Ann Duff's 'Originally'

Investigate the liberating and/or destabilising power of journeys.

In her poem Originally, Carol Ann Duffy demonstrates the destabilising power of journeys. Within the poem is the story of a physical journey of childhood of the speaker and her family from one country to another. The poet shows how physical journeys result in a corresponding emotional journey, which in this poem ultimately proves destabilising in terms of the speaker’s sense of identity and belonging.

By implication the speaker initially had a sense of security and belonging in her “own country”. Her identity was centred around “the city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms where we didn’t live any more”. But her sudden emigration away from these familiar surroundings shakes her sense of self and changes her identity.

The journey to a new country, to “corners, which seem familiar, leading to unimagined, pebble-dashed estates” begins the process of destabilisation of the speaker. At her arr...