Exploring Identity and Belonging in "Originally"

Ever wondered what it feels like to completely uproot your life as a child? Duffy opens with the striking metaphor "All childhood is an emigration," comparing growing up to moving to a foreign country - both involve massive, life-changing transitions.

The poet uses brilliant imagery to show how migration affects language and identity. Her simile "my tongue shedding its skin like a snake" compares losing her Scottish accent to a snake's natural process of growth. Just as snakes must shed old skin to grow, she's forced to abandon her original accent to fit in with her new English surroundings.

Lists throughout the poem emphasise the overwhelming sense of loss. "But then you forget, or don't recall, or change" shows the gradual erosion of her previous identity, whilst "the street, the house, the vacant rooms" highlights everything she's physically leaving behind.

Key Insight: The lack of specific place names in her descriptions suggests how migration can make your past feel distant and impersonal, even when it once meant everything to you.