Skryznecki_Poems

Feliks Skrzynecki Context (What's Happening) | Quotation/What You See | Technique | Effect | What it shows about Belonging | Feliks talking to his old Polish friends and how they remember the old ways of life | "Talking, they reminiscedAbout farms where paddocks floweredWith corn and wheatHorses they bred, pigs" |  Incluing | Gives the reader an insight into the world that Feliks comes from, a heritage of culture and tradition that is not present in his new life. | It shows the reader the image in Feliks' mind his intrinsic belonging to his heritage and where he would rather be which contrasts the extrinsic contemporary world of suburbia/city in which he lives. | Feliks reminiscing in his garden. | "Loved his garden like an only child" "He swept it's pathsTen times around the world" | Simile + Personification Hyperbole | Shows where Feliks' priorities are held. A lack of attention to Peter. Feliks is of a different generation and is alienated from the extrinsic world/finds comfort in his intrinsic world of his garden where he spends most of his time. | Represents how Peter was isolated from his father Feliks who spent all his time belonging intrinsically to his garden. Peter has developed to the new environment where Feliks has not. A choice in belonging, Peter is assimilating. | Peter describes how Feliks feels in his garden. | "Watching stars and street lights come onHappy as I have never been" |   | This shows the reader a reflection of Peter through his father Feliks - he clearly happy to belong in his garden and Peter is unhappy because he has assimilated | A choice to belong in his garden has proven to Feliks that he can be happy without assimilating and belonging to the new world he has immigrated to. Peter has chosen the opposite direction to assimilate and conform making him unhappy. | Peter forgetting his first Polish word at thirteen | "I forgot my first Polish wordHe repeated it so I never forgot." "Watched me pegging my tentsFurther and further south of Hadrian's Wall" |    Imagery + Metaphor | Feliks sees Peter forgetting his heritage and moving away from a culture he cherishes. Imagery of Peter moving away from the wall that he has overcome through his immigration and moving away from his culture and heritage. | This shows Peters developed assimilation that is slowly pushing away his old culture, he is moving on into new culture even though his father does not want him to forget the old ways in which he lives. |   Migrant Hostel Context (What's Happening) | Quotation/What You See | Technique | Effect | What it shows about Belonging | Other people leaving the migrant hostel | "Sudden departures from adjoining blocksThat left us wonderingWho would be coming next" | Emotive Language | Peter's use of the words 'Sudden' give us a sense that there is an unpredictability towards the people in the hostel . | It gives us the idea that the migrant hostel is a static environment and it is difficult to understand and belong to a situation that constantly changes. | People from other nations finding each other to develop a connection | "Nationalities soughtEach other out instinctively -Like a homing pigeonCircling to get its bearings;" | Metaphor + Simile | Gives us the impression of communication within the hostel drawing people together through race and culture. | Shows us an 'instinctive' yearning to belong, these people all search to belong through 'years', 'name-places' and 'accents'. They are able to find similar people to easily connect with so they can belong to a group. | Describes how the hostel is ever-changing and waiting the change to leave for himself | "For over two yearsWe loves like birds of passage-Always sensing a change" | Simile | Describes him and his family like birds in a place always changing, gives the reader a sort of anxious feel to the hostel. | Shows the struggle to belong in the static environment of the hostel and how Peter feels towards his new home in the hostel. | Talking about the barrier at the main gate and how it controlled their lives within the hostel. | "As it rose and fell like a fingerPointed in reprimand or shame;...needing it's sanction" | Anthropomorphism(Personification)Simile | The barrier controlled their lives as the authority to the outside world and as an authoritive object is was able to give judgement. | Shows how the need to belong is being controlled by the environment around Peter, his freedoms and access to the world around him limit him and his connection to assimilate. |   St Patricks College Context (What's Happening) | Quotation/What You See | Technique | Effect | What it shows about Belonging | Peter's mothers intentions of Peter achieving an education for a bright future to help him through life | "To fees and expenses - wanting only"What was best"."  | Emotive Language | Gives the reader a look at the sacrifices his mother made so that he could become sophisticated and intelligent to achieve successfully in life. Ironically, he describes these teenage years as some of his darkest. | Peters mother wants him to belong to his new surroundings and assimilate well so he can succeed in life. Peter's mother has chosen a path of conformity for him. | Peter describing his new school, looking at the concrete statue of Our Lady on the roof. | "With outstretched arms,Her face overshadowed by clouds" "Our Lady still watching,Unchanged by eight years' weatherWith closed eyes" | Symbolism | The original idea of the welcoming warm statue fails Peter as from the foreshadowing in the beginning with the clouds he knew it was going to be a bleak time rather than an illumination which he returns to with 'unchanged' and 'closed eyes' | Peter found it hard to emotionally belong to his school and did not take school pride in a place where his forced conformity stifled his identity. The lady has failed to welcome and assimilate him into the school. | Peter vandalising his school motto and describing how unilluminating his time in St. Pat's really was. | "Luceat Lux VestraI thought it was a brand of soap" "That the darkness around me/wasn't for the best" | Extended metaphor  | Shows how Peters school life may have educationally fulfilled it's duties but had failed to give him satisfaction and illuminate him. | A choice not to belong to the school and deny conformity undercuts the symbolism of the statue and his mothers intentions denying them both. A cold and cheerless environment. | Describing how he took a lot of transport to get to school and how it affected him | "Like a foreign touristUncertain of my destination" | Simile | Ideas of being lost and uncertain. A lack of connection and attention. A very cold environment hard to become attached to. | Shows how Peter was very lost and uncertain of his surrounding, detached. A reflection on the bleak portrait that was his school career. Lack of conformity and assimilation. |