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Immigrant
chronicle by Peter Skrzynecki a rap
Teacher support material
Overview of perspectives
and how they are presented: ESL course
Focus
Question
Peter Skrzynecki’s collection of poems, Immigrant chronicle, offers
a personal perspective on the experience of Australian migrants.
What is his view and how is this revealed in the poems
set for study? Refer to at least THREE of the
poems in your answer.
| Perspective |
Poem in which perspective is featured |
How perspective is revealed through the
language structures and features |
Migrants are dispossessed of culture/ exiled from homeland |
Migrant
hostel |
Sustained
imagery of birds projects the perspective of feeling uncertain about
the future and reflects the transitionary stage of the composer’s
life. |
| Crossing the Red Sea |
The
image of the ‘cave’ suggests a sense of pathos and great suffering
experienced, as does ‘memories of hunger and hate.’ |
| Feliks Skrzynecki |
Simile
‘like a dumb prophet’ conveys Feliks’ inability to interfere with
or control his son’s assimilation into Australian culture. |
Assimilation to new culture
Barriers to assimilation |
Crossing the Red Sea |
The
poem is divided structurally into numbered sections and not just by
stanzas. There is a sense of movement of time, charting the changing
perspective of the immigrants throughout their journey to their new
life. |
| 10 Mary Street |
Repetition
of time ‘for nineteen years’ suggests rhythm and routine of new life.
‘With paint guaranteed…’ reveals the introduction of ideas associated
with new culture. The use of everyday phrase ‘bursting at the seams’
reinforces the sense of change and assimilation. |
| Migrant hostel |
The
physical and metaphorical image of the ‘barrier at the main gate’
conveys the poet’s negative perspective of Australian society and
sense of shame, guilt and isolation he feels associated with being
an immigrant. |
Search for identity: Who am I? |
Post card |
Skrzynecki
addresses the town as an old friend in the second section, and this
is contrasted with the impersonal use of the third person in the
first section. It suggests an odd intimacy with the place, further
spelled out in the observation ‘You survived in the minds of a dying
generation’, revealing that his perspective of Warsaw is bound up
in the memories of his parents. The parting image of the lone tree
whispering ‘we will meet again’ suggests a sense of hope for the
future as well as the impression that the poet will confront and
resolve some of the issues that concern him.
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10 Mary Street |
Imagery
of the old world and Polish culture “Kept pre-war Europe alive” contrasts
with the descriptions of Australian life. There is a sense of duality,
of two lives lived, with the poet accessing both and yet neither in
any meaningful way to him. |
Love/understanding/ appreciation of parents and the
trials they have experienced. |
Feliks Skrzynecki |
Personal
pronoun ‘my’ denotes a particular relationship between the speaker
and the character. The adjective ‘gentle’ helps define the way the
poet feels about his father. This adjective also sets the tone of
the poem and reveals the poet’s perspective of his father is one of
love and admiration. |
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10 Mary Street |
The
garden is a rich and positive image of life, growth and nurture. The
simile ‘tended roses..like adopted children’ reveals the poet’s positive
perspective of his parents of deep love and admiration. |
Guilt/frustration/fear of isolation |
Kornelia Woloszczuk |
The
use of rhetorical questions reveals the poets’ perspective of himself
in his role of son is frustrated, ‘Where did I go wrong?’ The disturbed
natural imagery ‘darkness of storms’ conveys Skrzynecki’s perspective
of his mother: war/alienation/immigration have all impacted on her. |
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Post card |
The
use of the word ‘haunts’ suggests that something is wrong. The description
of the image of the post card is emotionless and reveals the poet
is removed, as it is a place he has never seen. There is an intense
feeling of guilt through the use of the simple and commanding ‘let
me be’ as the poet attempts to deny the pull of his heritage. |
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Chronic ward |
The
mental patients are, like the immigrants, a marginalised and isolated
group of people who have also experienced great suffering. Their desire
to escape the reality of their situation is revealed through the description
of cliched ways to commit suicide. The conversational tone and use
of ‘we’ reveals a personal perspective of their ordeals. |
Credits
Thank you to Maya
Puiu, ESL teacher at Willoughby Girls High School, Pat Adams, Head
Teacher English at Girraween High School, and Lesley Fitzpatrick, Senior
Project Officer, Multicultural Programs Unit, for developing the support
material.
This rap is a joint
project of the Library and Information Literacy and English units,
Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate, and the Multicultural
Programs Unit, NSW Department of Education and Training.
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