Transcript of I Have Visited Again

I Have Visited Again Paraphrase : A man is exiled from his home land
for two years. After ten years he decides
to go visit his old home again. He notices how
everything has changed, just as he has as he's
gotten older. The trees have grown bigger, the old
nurse has passed. He reminisced about his childhood
as he walks though this land. Biographical Information: Alexander Pushkin Aleksandr Pushkin was born in Moscow
into a cultured but poor aristocratic family.
His first published poem was written when he was only 14. He became associated with members of a radical
movement who participated later in the Decembrist uprising in 1825. Some of them were hanged or exiled for life to
Siberia. In May 1820 Pushkin was banished from the town because of his political poems, among them 'Ode to
Liberty'. In his last years Pushkin started to write a historical work on Peter the Great, which was left unfinished.
Pushkin defended in a duel his wife's honor with her brother-in-law.
Pushkin died on February 10, 1837. Romantic Period At the turn of the century, fired by ideas of personal and
political liberty and of the energy and sublimity of the natural world, artists and intellectuals sought to break the
bonds of 18th-century convention. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a
major impact on historiography, education and natural history. Poetry terms Simile: " Their solitary comrade stands,
morose, like some old bachelor, and round its roots. Personification: "But may my grandson hear your
welcomemurmur" Flashback: "That corner of the earth where I spent two unnoticed, exiled years."
a sudden vivid memory of a past event Theme. A: The theme of my poem is exile and nostalgia.
exander Pushkin's "I Have Visited Again" uses sentimental and warm images to support his theme of
"coming home." The poem begins with the following lines:
I have visited again
That corner of the earth where I spent two
Unnoticed, exiled years.
The word "exiled" may be misleadingusually negative, it does not have that effect here since it is a metaphor for
time spent with his Nurse (perhaps to nurse her in her old age) but his "exile" wasunnoticedhe greatly enjoyed this
place for two years.
Instead of writing with sadness (inferred by "exile"), the speaker describes memories that he holds dear. His "old
nurse" is gonewe assume she is dead. We can infer that she cared for him even though it was hard:
No more behind the wall
Do I hear her heavy footsteps as she moved
Slowly, painstakingly about her tasks.
His memories recall the age that hung on herhow she took care of him, despite her pain. We can also infer that he
remembers her fondlyfor the sacrifices she made; after all, his "exile" was hers as well, and perhaps it was
especially difficult for her out in the country.
Because of his "unnoticed exile," there is no pain in his recollections, but a fondness that he now revisits.
He knew the land: it was a regular companion

Here are the wooded slopes where often I

Sat motionless, and looked down at the lake,
Recalling other shores and other waves...
He spent time before looking off and remembering where he used to live. He describes the beauty of the water and
the land that surrounds it in the present:
It gleams between golden cornfields and green meadows...
The speaker on this day sees a fisherman with an "ancient net," and the sails of the windmill that struggle to turn
because the mill has grown "crooked" over time. There is the sense here of timelessnesswhere things move much
the way they have for many, many years, even before he arrived twelve years before.
This land belonged to his family (and still might); he refers to it as his "ancestral acres." This continues the sense of
time: for the land has been in his family for generations. We can safely assume that the satisfaction he found here is
tied most closely with the trees at the top of the road.
There are three trees, which he rode under beneath the moonlight. The trees "spoke" to him in a welcoming way.
When he rode on horseback with the trees above him, he would hear:
The friendly rustling murmur of their crowns...
And the sound of the moving leaves "welcomed" him. There can be no doubt now that he found pleasure in this
spot. Seemingly, he was allowed to move freely, especially evident if he was on his horse at night. Around the base
of the two of the trees, where nothing used to grow, there are now "young pines," sprouting "like green children."
The third tree stands some distance away, "morose, / Like some old bachelor," and nothing grows around it. It has no
"children."
The speaker's greeting of the trees excludes the solitary tree. And the speaker notes that while he will not be
returning to this place again, his grandson might. And when coming home one night from perhaps a party, in a happy
mood, he will hear the trees and think of the speaker.
The initial image of "exile" and the old single tree may symbolize what someone had intended for him when he was
sent there years beforea solitary lonely existence. However, what he found was beauty and family seen
in images of naturedear memories that he hopeshis grandson will one day enjoy.