Across the Walls (Poetry Collection): Home, Alienation and Re-homing in Four Migrant Poets in London

This thesis investigates contemporary poetry of migrants and expatriates in the United Kingdom. The thesis starts with a collection of my poems that emerges as a correspondence to changing locations from Jordan, my homeland, to England, the host land.

The second part is a dissertation that studies the work of four poets: Merle Collins and her Rotten Pomerack (1992); Amjad Nasser and Shepherd of Solitude (2009); Fathieh Saudi and Daughter of the Thames (2009); Sofia Buchuck and Orange Nights in Autumn (2008).

The approach taken in this dissertation is through giving special attention to political context and to the ways in which Collins, Nasser, Saudi and Buchuck reflect it in their poems. In addition, the study shows how both Saudi and Buhcuck use poetry as a means of renewing identity and creating a new homeland. The study also includes personal interviews with Saudi and Buchuck that tell about the difficulties and opportunities faced by

migrant poets.

Both the critical and creative work offer insights into different experiences with location which result in various poetic expressions and definitions of host land, homeland, and home.