Peter Skrzynecki Poem Analysis
Migrant Hostel (spatial belonging) – White Ribbon
Poem
No one kept count of all the comings and goings— arrivals of newcomers in busloads from the station, sudden departures from adjoining blocks that left us wondering who would be coming next.
Nationalities sought each other out instinctively— like a homing pigeon circling to get its bearings; years and name-places recognised by accents, partitioned off at night by memories of hunger and hate.
For over two years we loved like birds of passage— always sensing a change in the weather: unaware of the season whose track we would follow.
A barrier at the main gate sealed off the highway from our doorstep— as it rose and fell like a finger pointed in reprimand or shame; and daily we passed underneath or alongside it— needing its sanction to pass in and out of lives that had only begun or were dying.
Analysis:
Present participle in ‘comings and goings’ and the impersonal description of ‘busloads from the station’ emphasize the vast number of European immigrants arriving in Australia
Factual language used to describe the hostel convey the sense of disconnection poet feels to the hostel
‘Sudden departures from adjoining blocks that left us wondering who would be coming next’: immigrants have no control over their fates, they do not understand the situation and the system. Helpless, dislocated feeling
Homing pigeon simile emphasizes the instinctive need to find someone or something familiar in a foreign setting to feel at home. Repeated image of migratory birds shows need for comfort of a home and distance travelled
Bird image repeated in simile ‘birds of passage’: impermanence of existence, no settling down, unaware of what direction and time they will take
‘Barrier at the main gate sealed off the highway from our doorsteps’ boom gates separate immigrants from the rest of the world, the highway symbolizes the road tot eh world outside that the immigrants do not know
Poem
No one kept count of all the comings and goings— arrivals of newcomers in busloads from the station, sudden departures from adjoining blocks that left us wondering who would be coming next.
Nationalities sought each other out instinctively— like a homing pigeon circling to get its bearings; years and name-places recognised by accents, partitioned off at night by memories of hunger and hate.
For over two years we loved like birds of passage— always sensing a change in the weather: unaware of the season whose track we would follow.
A barrier at the main gate sealed off the highway from our doorstep— as it rose and fell like a finger pointed in reprimand or shame; and daily we passed underneath or alongside it— needing its sanction to pass in and out of lives that had only begun or were dying.
Analysis:
Present participle in ‘comings and goings’ and the impersonal description of ‘busloads from the station’ emphasize the vast number of European immigrants arriving in Australia
Factual language used to describe the hostel convey the sense of disconnection poet feels to the hostel
‘Sudden departures from adjoining blocks that left us wondering who would be coming next’: immigrants have no control over their fates, they do not understand the situation and the system. Helpless, dislocated feeling
Homing pigeon simile emphasizes the instinctive need to find someone or something familiar in a foreign setting to feel at home. Repeated image of migratory birds shows need for comfort of a home and distance travelled
Bird image repeated in simile ‘birds of passage’: impermanence of existence, no settling down, unaware of what direction and time they will take
‘Barrier at the main gate sealed off the highway from our doorsteps’ boom gates separate immigrants from the rest of the world, the highway symbolizes the road tot eh world outside that the immigrants do not know