Peter Skrzynecki (2 Viewers)

[honsaw]

Can anyone share their notes and techniques for 10 Mary St by Peter
Skrzynecki.

 

[bored of sc]

Yes. But I will find them first.

 

[mamoz]

- The poem paints a picture of a family at peace of 10 Mary St . They belong there, especially as it provides the sanctuary from the more uncertain world. The house symbolises the family units connection for that long , difficult time. In this way the poem represents a positive view of family belonging.
- Yet the poem shows change. The Skrzyneckis seem to have later found more ease. When the poet refers to his family as "citizens of the soil" and "inheritors of a key" there is a positive sense of development. In this way the poem shows that belonging is a changing concept.

 

[bored of sc]

Some very short points:
- routine/mundane
- blank verse quality
- recollections
- meticulous preservation of garden
- low socio-economic status
- "St Patrick's College cap" ---> intertextuality to himself
- American dream = paid off house in short amount of time
- materialistic and ritualistic
- familiarity and security associated with house
- hostile surroundings: contrast to Europe - created garden = pieces of Europe = belonging to old culture
- communal shuffle - rush
- short, sharp language
- always a migrant
- loss of culture - globalisation, death of generations
- pride
- ownership as form of belonging
- commerical domination
- urban growth
- inevitability of house being destroyed
- organic V urban
- Europe V Australia
- Old V New
- Familial V Material
- History V Inevitability
- food, mannerisms, smoking
- conversation of culture - links to the point above
- tautological
- ironic
- listing
- repetitious
- minimalist
- ambivalence
- regret
- gullability
- didactic
- reminiscient
- stagnant, static, still
- convention
- lifestyle, dreams, possessions, fragments of belonging
- symbolism
- similes
- difference/change V harmony/love/reverence
- care/concern for nature
- idealistic
- cyclic, actionary
- icon of sucess in foreign country = achievement of the Australian dream
- address, labels
- mourning
- hyperbolic?
- humourous
- volta
- aside
- transient state
- cultural accessibility
- links to Earth/nature
- duality/confusion/purgatory
- cadence/resolution
- passive V active voices
- assonance, consonance


I'll post up my analysis of this if I can find it.

 

[SimonLee13]

Some very short points:
- routine/mundane
- blank verse quality
- recollections
- meticulous preservation of garden
- low socio-economic status
- "St Patrick's College cap" ---> intertextuality to himself
- American dream = paid off house in short amount of time
- materialistic and ritualistic
- familiarity and security associated with house
- hostile surroundings: contrast to Europe - created garden = pieces of Europe = belonging to old culture
- communal shuffle - rush
- short, sharp language
- always a migrant
- loss of culture - globalisation, death of generations
- pride
- ownership as form of belonging
- commerical domination
- urban growth
- inevitability of house being destroyed
- organic V urban
- Europe V Australia
- Old V New
- Familial V Material
- History V Inevitability
- food, mannerisms, smoking
- conversation of culture - links to the point above
- tautological
- ironic
- listing
- repetitious
- minimalist
- ambivalence
- regret
- gullability
- didactic
- reminiscient
- stagnant, static, still
- convention
- lifestyle, dreams, possessions, fragments of belonging
- symbolism
- similes
- difference/change V harmony/love/reverence
- care/concern for nature
- idealistic
- cyclic, actionary
- icon of sucess in foreign country = achievement of the Australian dream
- address, labels
- mourning
- hyperbolic?
- humourous
- volta
- aside
- transient state
- cultural accessibility
- links to Earth/nature
- duality/confusion/purgatory
- cadence/resolution
- passive V active voices
- assonance, consonance


I'll post up my analysis of this if I can find it.

*bookmarks this page

 

[zec42]

Does anyone actually have the entire poem of 10 Mary St?
Much thanks

 

[settle*precious]

my dad is friends with Skrzynecki, lulz.

 

[acevipa]

For ninteen years
We departed
Each morning, shut the house
Like a well-oiled lock,
Hit the key
Under a rusty bucket:
To school and work -
Over that still too-narrow bridge,
Around the factory
That wasw always burning down.

Back at 5p.m.
From the polite hum-drum
Of washing clothes
And laying sewerage pipes,
My parents watered
Plants - grew potatoes
And rows of sweet corn:
Tended roses and samellias
Like adopted children
Home from school earlier
I'd ravage the backyard garden
Like a hungry bird-
until, bursting at the seams
Of me little blue
St Patrick's College cap,
I'd swear to stay off
Strawberries and peas forever.

The house stands
In its china-blue coat -
With paint guaranteed
For another ten years.
Lawns grow across
Dug-up beds of
Spinach, carrots and tomato.
(The whole block
Has been gazetted for industry).

For nineteen years
We lived together -
Kept pre-war Europe alive
With photographs and letters,
Heated with discussion
And embracing gestures:
Visitors that ate
Kielbasa, salt herrings
And rye bread, drank
Raw vodka or cherry brandy
And smoked like
A dozen Puffing Billies
Naturalized more
Then a decade ago
We became citizebs if the soil
That was feeding us -
Inheritors of a key
That'll open no house
When this one is pulled down.

 

[biancapo]

hey can anyone help me with the poems ancestors and postcard

 

[zec42]

For ninteen years
We departed
Each morning, shut the house
Like a well-oiled lock,
Hit the key
Under a rusty bucket:
To school and work -
Over that still too-narrow bridge,
Around the factory
That wasw always burning down.

Back at 5p.m.
From the polite hum-drum
Of washing clothes
And laying sewerage pipes,
My parents watered
Plants - grew potatoes
And rows of sweet corn:
Tended roses and samellias
Like adopted children
Home from school earlier
I'd ravage the backyard garden
Like a hungry bird-
until, bursting at the seams
Of me little blue
St Patrick's College cap,
I'd swear to stay off
Strawberries and peas forever.

The house stands
In its china-blue coat -
With paint guaranteed
For another ten years.
Lawns grow across
Dug-up beds of
Spinach, carrots and tomato.
(The whole block
Has been gazetted for industry).

For nineteen years
We lived together -
Kept pre-war Europe alive
With photographs and letters,
Heated with discussion
And embracing gestures:
Visitors that ate
Kielbasa, salt herrings
And rye bread, drank
Raw vodka or cherry brandy
And smoked like
A dozen Puffing Billies
Naturalized more
Then a decade ago
We became citizebs if the soil
That was feeding us -
Inheritors of a key
That'll open no house
When this one is pulled down.

cheers big help

 

[shoepopper]

ancestors anyone?

 

[The Spectre]

I'm sure there is something blatantly obvious that I'm missing...but what does the phrase "Like a well oiled lock" actually mean? I know it's supposed to be a simile but for what exactly?

 

[erm]

doesn't Skryznecki lecture at UWS?

 

[The Spectre]

I think that may be true. He actually did a lecture at my school which I found particularly useful.

 

[bored of sc]

He's coming to our school. Win.

 

[Aerath]

LOL, same here.

 

[stepONme]

hey can anyone help me with the poems ancestors and postcard

would greatly appreciate if anyone has some info on these..theyre the two poems im doin...

 

[bored of sc]

Felik's Skrzynecki:
- father driven by personal goals
- historical, cultural belonging
- relatively materialistic
- restore cultural identity
- reflective tone
- renaissance: economic
- observational
- introspective
- motif: natural environment, garden (pre war Europe)
- context: populational cleansing
- gaps/silence: Peter not present i.e. father doesn't prioritise him
- Polish v English/Australian
- dominant hegemony/culture
- Americanisation
- paragraphs act as vignettes, eposidic
- fractured, fragments of the past e.g. language, animals, garden etc
- hard-working
- obedient
- verbs = actionary = father's physicality
- loyalty to Polish heritage
- history/memory of Poland = continual care of garden (more important than Peter since he is intergrated further into new Australian culture = disobeying unwritten cultural loyalty)
- home is where the heart lies
- past dominates
- social purgatory
- flashbacks/reminiscient
- cultural mannerisms (handshakes, Pete doesn't fit with it)
- ambiguity
- many people died of malnutrition
- respect, regard for father
- father lives in the moment, Peter lives in past (vice-versa, meh!)
- content with status in society
- best of both worlds
- master of nature
- relationship to 10 Mary Street = idea of new entity (home) to belong = material, cultural and psychological

St. Patrick's College:
- sense of pride
- culturally driven
- fees are irrelevant (wanting only what was 'best')
- working class
- distracted/externalised school environment for Pete
- 1956
- biblical allusion to mother Mary = iconographic = guardian = judgemental = good/evil?
- compassionate, caring
- Christian school founded on religious values
- juxtapostion
- burdenous
- omniscient
- conservative
- foreboding: 'clouds' tone of negativity
- mother = fashion = related value
- personification statue of Mary
- geographical isolation
- humour (brand of soap) reflects naivety/alienation
- duality
- chronological
- evaluates school experience (good at spelling etc)
- inclusive
- endearing
- "let your light shine" wrong place for Pete i.e. belongs writing without stresses of schoolyard
- time = routine
- cutlural emphasis = education
- socioeconomic superiority
- ownership/belonging
- childhood games

Ancestors:
- active voice = demanding/pleading
- beard: wisdom/knowledge
- generic representation = depersonalised but connected to Pete
- unknown: aspects of culture, sense of alienation
- power/focreful
- cultural heritage = naivety
- ever-haunting past
- mythological
- photographical
- historical
- elemental
- imagery
- family
- melacholic
- no sense of cadence
- connectivity collective power
- motif = sand/grass = dead/alive = Poland/Australia = past/present = 10 Mary St./Polish Home etc
- timeless figures
- tainted, torturous past
- nightmares
- extended symbol: faces
- hyperbolic
- melodramatic
- continued searching for a home not found
- cultural re-rooting
- crossing red sea = blood allusion
- association with past
- questioning
- mysterious
- stable home
- spiritual connectedness
- displacement
- religious illusion: following Christmas star
- unity
- detachment from ancestors = main idea = haunts him = feels alienated/guilty for not being attached to culture

10 Mary Street
- routine/mundane
- blank verse quality
- recollections
- meticulous preservation of garden
- low socio-economic status
- "St Patrick's College cap" ---> intertextuality to himself
- American dream = paid off house in short amount of time
- materialistic and ritualistic
- familiarity and security associated with house
- hostile surroundings: contrast to Europe - created garden = pieces of Europe = belonging to old culture
- communal shuffle - rush
- short, sharp language
- always a migrant
- loss of culture - globalisation, death of generations
- pride
- ownership as form of belonging
- commerical domination
- urban growth
- inevitability of house being destroyed
- organic V urban
- Europe V Australia
- Old V New
- Familial V Material
- History V Inevitability
- food, mannerisms, smoking
- conversation of culture - links to the point above
- tautological
- ironic
- listing
- repetitious
- minimalist
- ambivalence
- regret
- gullability
- didactic
- reminiscient
- stagnant, static, still
- convention
- lifestyle, dreams, possessions, fragments of belonging
- symbolism
- similes
- difference/change V harmony/love/reverence
- care/concern for nature
- idealistic
- cyclic, actionary
- icon of sucess in foreign country = achievement of the Australian dream
- address, labels
- mourning
- hyperbolic?
- humourous
- volta
- aside
- transient state
- cultural accessibility
- links to Earth/nature
- duality/confusion/purgatory
- cadence/resolution
- passive V active voices
- assonance, consonance

Migrant Hostel
- chaotic
- large amounts of migrants
- concentration camp atmosphere
- animalisatic
- imprisoning
- simile = homing pigeon
- obstacles to belong = entire cultural way of being/prejudices/racism
- basic human need to belong = sensory, instinctual, primal
- disorganisational
- impermanence
- speculative
- carelessness
- state of nothing = existentialist
- accent = indicates belonging/culture
- lack of security
- stream of consciousness approach
- punctuation = emjambment
- alliteration
- assonance
- people as commodities = dehumanisation
- 'we' = finding similarities of experience = all alienated = all belong to each other
- communities
- peer groups
- collective
- warn, criticise
- uncertainty
- motif = bird
- chaos
- confusion
- classification
- metonomy
- reactionary, responsive
- conformity
- willing to conform in order to belong
- curfew
- cannot belong

Post Card
- tree = cross, cultural/religious allusion
- active/catalyst
- simple and complex
- idealistic
- sense of duty
- process driven
- patriotic
- fake reality
- italics = direct/upfront
- lingering/unwanted
- symbolism
- personification
- communism
- dichotomy
- cultural dilemma
- rhetorical question
- justifying
- pain
- demands
- cyclic
- sky's brightest shade
- pride
- angst
- subconscious

In The Folk Museum
- double entendre
- tedium
- darkness = entity = pervasive = nothing
- listing = lack of relevance
- denying
- capitalisation
- personification
- moves beyond frame of reference
- apathy/ageing
- dying/sensory
- contrast: life/death, past/future, hopelessness/hopeful
- relates to ancestors = denying past
- validate
- soft 'w' sound
- alliteration
- can't be more than visitor to Australia and Poland = no man's land
- representation of past culture
- ritualistic
- biblical allusion
- multispace sound
- abandoning heritage = haunts him
- generalised title = detachment
- physicalisation of reality/past

 

[stepONme]

thanks heaps! now i just need to find related material

 

[michellemichell]

dude thankYOU for writing all those notes!