Immigrant Chronicle: Key Poem Analysis

Activity

Make notes about a key poem in Immigrant Chronicle, taking into account:

• language techniques

• examples (quotes) of the techniques from the text

• analysis of how these examples relate to belonging.

Then write a full analysis of the poem and its techniques, and their relation to belonging.

An example of a poem has been included in the following modelled response. After you have read the modelled response, choose a different poem to analyse.

Modelled response

Key poem: ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’

Techniques and examples:

• The metaphor ‘the Joneses of his own mind’s making’
• The simile ‘Loved his garden like an only child’
• Visual imagery ‘shook hands too violently’
• Visual imagery of the garden with the ‘golden cypress’ border and the ‘geraniums’
• Hadrian’s Wall metaphor: ‘After that, like a dumb prophet, watched me pegging my tents/Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall’.

Analysis:

• The poet is paying tribute to his father in order to demonstrate the strong link between the family and feelings of belonging
• The poet is in awe of how his father has overcome pain and suffering and yet still feels a sense of contentment, which can be associated with belonging
• The poet feels isolation and distance from his parent’s heritage
• The poet regrets that he will never know his father’s heritage.

Full analysis of how the techniques and examples represent belonging:

In ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, the poet explores the ideas of how family and respect are conducive to belonging despite differences in culture. Feliks Skrzynecki is the poet’s stepfather. The poet is paying tribute to his father in order to demonstrate the strong link between the family and feelings of belonging. The poet depicts how well his father has adjusted to being away from his native Poland. He is in awe of how his father has overcome pain and suffering and yet still feels a sense of contentment. In observing his father, the poet also explores his own sense of place and meditates on how he can not escape his own cultural heritage if he is to understand himself. In stanza 1, the metaphor ‘the Joneses of his own mind’s making’ suggest that his father’s identity is strongly linked to individualism and that he wants to do things simply in his own way. The simile ‘Loved his garden like an only child’ suggests that his father takes pride in his garden and finds a sense of himself there. In stanza 3, the poet’s isolation and distance from his parent’s heritage is demonstrated through his observation of how his father interacts with his Polish friends. He suggests through visual imagery they ‘shook hands too violently’, as if their interaction would not be acceptable and conducive to belonging in Australian culture. This behaviour also excludes the son from his Polish heritage. Visual imagery of the garden with the ‘golden cypress’ border and the ‘geraniums’ illustrates the poet’s admiration for his father, and the sense of contentment that he has worked hard to achieve. The poet uses this image to show his sense of regret that he will never know his father’s heritage nor feel the contentment that his father feels. The poet’s sense of loss of self is further represented by the Hadrian’s Wall metaphor: ‘After that, like a dumb prophet, watched me pegging my tents/Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall’. The son is aware that he will move further and further away from his father’s heritage and there is nothing his father, a ‘dumb prophet’ (‘dumb’ meaning mute or unspeaking), can do about it.