1. The Immigrant Chronicles
Peter Skrzynecki
The Immigrant Chronicles

4. Within each prescribed poem…
Evaluate belonging concepts or motifs and how they impact on those concerned.
Examine the narrative lens and perspective used and how this shapes response.
Discuss how poetic and other devices and techniques have been used to communicate the poet’s belonging ideas to the reader?

5. Migrant Hostel Parkes, 1949-51
For over two years  We lived 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.
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 .

6. Migrant Hostel – analysis continued
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
‘No one kept count/of all the comings and goings-’
Idiom , negative or neglected tone
Suggests chaos and lack of administration
‘Sudden departures.../That left us wondering’
Chaotic, erratic and uncertain tone
No preparations made to assist the migrants to feel as if they belong
‘Like a homing pigeon/circling to get bearings’
Bird motif, simile
The migrants are trying to find something familiar
‘We lived like birds of passage/Always sensing a change’
Bird motif, reference to temporary migrant workers, simile
Simile suggests they will be moving often.
‘A barrier.../sealed off the highway’
Metaphor
Sealed off from Australia and the chance to belong
‘As it rose and fell like a finger/Pointed in reprimand or shame’
Simile, accusatory tone
Figurative language refers to negative treatment – invited to migrate.
‘Needing its sanction/to pass in and out of lives/That had only begun/Or were dying’
Sibilance, irony
Patronising bureaucracy that control their existence

7. St Patrick’s College analysis Quote Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
‘impressed by the uniforms/Of her employer’s sons’
Mother does not base her decision on tradition or belonging but a desire for betterment.
‘with never a thought to fees and expenses’
Desire to belong determining factor not money.
‘-wanting only what was best’
‘From the roof.../Our Lady watched...her face overshadowed by clouds’
Ominous – as if statue suggests he will not be welcomed at this school.
‘Mother crossed herself’
‘I stuck pine needles/Into the motto’
Poet’s disengagement with school or sense of rebelliousness
“‘Luceat Lux Vestra’/I thought was a brand of soap”
‘For eight years/I walked Strathfield’s paths and streets
Tone suggests ritual and lacks any passion. Not belonging

8. St Patrick’s analysis continued...
St Patrick’s College Analysis continued Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
‘Like a foreign tourist/Uncertain of my destination.’
‘For eight years/I carried the blue, black and gold’
Assimilation into this school is a burden he must carry.
‘I’d been privileged to wear’
‘Could say the Lord’s Prayer/In Latin, all in one breath
No sense of connection to what he has learnt.
‘Our Lady still watching.../With closed eyes’
Poet is figuratively excluded by her ‘closed eyes’
‘Out of Edgar street for good;’
Relief at leaving place poet did not belong.
‘Prayed that someday Mother would be pleased’
Realises his mother has not achieved her aims.
“The darkness around me/Wasn’t ‘for the best’”
Darkness represents his sense of isolation and exclusion
‘Before I let my light shine’
He has succeeded in spite of school
St Patrick’s analysis continued...

9. St Patricks College:
A reflective appraisal – with the benefit of hindsight and experience.
Overall tone is condemnatory, hints at institutional alienation rather than imbuing school spirit or inclusion
No reference to positive growth or learning.
Catholicism referenced by statues, prayers, ethos and Mass but no real affinity inferred by such ‘decorums’.
Large part of childhood spent there (repetition of 8 years) but no reference to period being enjoyable.
Anonymity dominates – symbolises few meaningful connections poet has made.
Overall perception is drudgery and uniformity – a penance to be endured.
Conformity to strict educational codes has appeared to stultify poet’s individuality.
Mother’s notion of ‘What was best’ was not ‘for the best’
Note irony in last sentence –before I let my light shine

10. Ancestors Who are these shadows That hang over you in a dream –
Behind them are
Mountains, the sound of a river,
A moonlit plain
Of grasses and sand. 
Why do they
Never speak – how long
Is their wait to be?   
Why do you wake  
As their faces become clearer –
Your tongue dry 
As caked mud?   
From across the plain 
Where sand and grasses never stir
The wind  tastes of blood.
Who are these shadows
That hang over you  in a dream –
The bearded, faceless men 
Standing shoulder to shoulder ?
What secrets
Do they whisper  into the darkness-
Why do their eyes
Never close?
Where do they point to
From the circle  around you-
To what star
Do their footprints lead?

11. Ancestors Strongly speculative tone
Reflects on human identity and the chain of life that links us all to our ancestors.
Understanding of who we are involves a consideration of our connection to others.
Emphasis on our own mortality within a context of eternity.
Simple structure of mostly four line stanzas
Mainly rhetorical questions which query our relationship with those who have preceded us.
Sinister connotations arise from references to ‘shadows’, ‘dream’, ‘whispers’ and ‘darkness’ and the ‘tastes of blood’
Loaded terms which conjure disturbing and eerie associations.
Perceptions are indistinct and give a dark, dreamlike quality to the verse.
Enigmatic element to the poem’s examination of life and death, with complex layers of meaning that are never fully developed.

12. Ancestors Analysis Quote Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
Ancestors – title
allusion
Reference to the chain of life that links us all to our ancestors
‘hang over you’
‘bearded, faceless men’
Intimidating tone
Forbears, the people who have preceded the poet are important but relatively unknown to him.
‘What secrets/Do they whisper’
Sibilance
Enigmatic, half formed, hold key to past but not worshipped
‘Why do their eyes/Never close?’
Visual imagery
Rhetorical question
Disturbing image – intent of ancestors unknown
‘From the circle around you’
symbolism
Trapped by an unknown past.
‘To what star/Do their footprints lead?’
metaphor
Directional, descendant is led to undetermined places.

13. Ancestors analysis continued...
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
‘A moonlit plain/ Of grasses and sand’
Simple visual imagery
Disquieting image. Details of past is lost to the sleeper.
‘Why do they/Never speak?’
Rhetorical question
Reader included. We too will join ancestors.
‘Why do you wake/As their faces becomes clearer -’
Visual imagery
Irony
As we age, role of ancestors becomes clearer but as yet they are metaphorically out of reach.
‘Your tongue dry/As caked mud?’
simile
Innate fear of death, fear of vision.
‘Where sand and grasses never stir/The wind tastes of blood.’
Juxtaposition contrasting notions, metaphor
Jars expectations - waking usually alleviates fear however the disquiet continues, emphasised by reference to death (‘blood’).

14. 10 Mary Street Analysis Technique repetition
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
For nineteen years/We departed.../to school and work
repetition
My parents watered/Plants – grew potatoes.../Tended roses and camellias
alliteration and juxtaposition
I’d ravage the backyard garden/Like a hungry bird
The Australian land and their efforts are literally supporting them.
With paint guaranteed/For another ten years
Assimilation – adopting practices
Lawns grow across/Dug-up beds of /Spinach
Assimilation is encroaching on migrant traditions
For nineteen years/We lived together-/Kept pre-war Europe alive
Naturalised more/Than a decade ago/We became citizens of the soil
Inheritors of a key/That’ll open no house/When this one is pulled down.

15. Belonging Motif in Postcard
A simple postcard sparks off a chain of reverie as the poet addresses the demands of cultural heritage on expatriates, years after they have left their homeland.
The poet was four years old when he arrived in Australia yet the postcard has a strong impact on him.
He can predicts his parents’ reactions to the card but cannot predict the impact the image will have on him.
It strangely has the power to call to him as the city whispers an invitation that he will probably be unable to resist.
We are taken through a number of stages of his response. We listen to the two-way conversation between him and the city he really does not know as it beckons him home.
The poet’s ‘stare’ indicates the city’s pull and while he attempts to dismiss its cultural connection, he seems compelled to answer the city’s siren voice as she confidently whispers ‘we will meet/before you die’.