kimmeh
Sleeping
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2003
- Messages
- 4,501
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2004
Notes on Skrzynecki/Road Not Taken/Starthorn Tree and Women of the West
10characters ...Modern Hot Chic said:Skrzynecki
Immigrants at Central Station
“Immigrants at Central Station” is a poem about the collective immigration experience shared by a group of migrants. The journey undertaken in this poem is very emotional, and this is portrayed by the use of imagery, such as the phase “Families stood / Keeping children by their sides”. The poem, once again by its strong use of imagery, demonstrates and illustrates the fear that surrounds the migrants. The experience which this poem recounts is very empty and confusing for the subjects. The poem symbolizes a very emotional climatic point in the migration experience, and it depicts family as a human strength – that with the comfort, love and support of family, people can get through anything.
Skrzynecki uses alliteration (“...With dampness that slowly / Sank into our thoughts…”), personification (“…The air was crowded”, “...But we ate it all: / The silence, the cold, the benevolence”, “Time waited: “Space hemmed us against each other..”, “..time ran ahead..”) and similes (“Like cattle bought for slaughter”, “Like a word of command”, “Like a guillotine/ Cutting us off from the space of eyesight”) to illustrate the intensity and the uncertainty of the poem. “The air was crowded.” This personification demonstrates that the atmosphere was full of fear and anticipation. “But we ate it all: the silence, the cold, the benevolence.” This personification suggests a tense atmosphere. The simile: “Like cattle bought for slaughter” suggests a feeling of entrapment, with a predetermined future.
War is a central theme which is depicted in many of the language techniques, such as “Like cattle bought for slaughter”, which gives a strong allude to the genocide the Nazis inflicted on the Jews by way of the Holocaust, and this is an indication of the common emotion which is shared by the migrants – fear. These migrants have been forced to leave behind their world, their old lives. This creates an uncertain element about the future. They feel detached from life, as if they have lost their identity, as they “Watch pigeons / That watched them.” Likewise, “Like a word of command” strongly relates to the traumatizing concentration camps set up by the Nazis at the beginning of World War Two. As such, this then makes the tone depressive as it conveys feelings of entrapment, anxiety and fear. The tone is portrayed by dark, lonely words such as silence, cold and dampness.
This poem strongly depicts the concept of the future and time. Time is represented by the train “along the glistening tracks” – this indicates that life and time go on, as so too must we. This creates better understanding of the value of the love, comfort and support of family. It also presents the idea that while they have left behind a war time period, there is a whole world out there which can offer so much more. The migrants within this poem, however, show reluctance to move ahead with their lives because the fear that they lived through is still fresh and will forever haunt them.
Feliks Skrzynecki
In the poem “Feliks Skrzynecki”, Skrzynecki and his family have been ripped from their familiarities and placed in a foreign country, where their culture and lifestyle is unlike those of what people may call ‘pure – bed Australians’. Peter learns a lot about human nature and how, despite his father’s experiences, he can retain his dignity and culture when faced with situations such as the one Peter is placed in when a clerk rudely asks, “Did your father ever attempt to learn English?” This quote displays the reluctance to accept Feliks. However, Feliks appears to be unfazed by this- as is displayed in the quote “Kept with the Joneses/ Of his own minds making.” This indicates that Feliks evidently had his own standards and ideals, thus did not care what other people thought of him. Yet this quote may also be an indication that the experience which he has gone through has created a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, though he feels at peace, and has accepted who he is.
This poem focuses on the theme of culture- that is, Feliks’ heritage, and the journeys taken by both father and son: Feliks’ journey from Europe to Australia with his strong Polish culture and Peter’s journey away from his father’s background, as his father “like a dumb prophet/ Watched me pegging my tents / Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall”.
In the first stanza, Skrzynecki talks about his father’s garden, how he “Loved his garden like an only child.” This personification helps the responder to understand that Feliks, as his son is trying to expresses, spent a lot of time in his garden because it was almost like a sanctuary to him; a place where he could be alone and ponder on his life experiences.
This poem poses as a good example of a reflective text. In this poem, the poet brings to life the memories that he, as a child, had of his “gentle father”. The poet’s childhood memories of his father held admiration for Feliks, but, now, as Peter grows up, he finds himself distancing himself from his father, and the tent in the last stanza signifies his physical journey further away from his father, and from his childhood in a metaphorical context.
Crossing the Red Sea
“Crossing the Red Sea” depicts a dramatic change of direction is Skrzynecki’s life. This poem focuses on the concept of new beginnings. The physical journey here is the movement between lives; with the knowledge that while they journey from a war zone, hope still remains.
The title alludes to the biblical story of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt, resulting in liberation from slavery, thus centering around the concept of hope, a prominent theme. The physical journey portrayed in this poem is the journey between two countries, and this is reflected in the quote “…to watch a sunset/ They would never see again.”
The poem represents life as a long journey sectioned into smaller journeys that help to teach the traveler to make the right choices. “Memories strayed / From behind sunken eyes” – this line represents the wile life moves into the unknown future, the memories of a past life will live n as long as the person(s) they belong to keep them alive.
“Crossing the Red Sea” also poses as a reflective text. These migrants learn, as they embark on this uncertain journey, to mingle with others, and build up new friendships by with “Patches and shreds / Of dialogue...” talking about the life that was, and remembering the times filled with laughter and a positive aura – a motivation for them to keep going.
Leaving Home
The poem “Leaving Home” is very similar to “Feliks Skrzynecki” in relation to the concept that once on journey ends, another is born. This poem represents the forced journey Skrzynecki must take to become a teacher. The powerful word in this poem is “verdict”. This indicates that Skrzynecki did not have a choice. “Unless I became my own Scipio Africanus…” which portrays his feelings of loss of identity. He describes that this experience has weakened him, and he “Swore that’s Head Office / Would not see my face again / “Unless I became my own Scipio Africanus…” – a quote which portrays his feelings of loss of identity.
The Road Not Taken
“The Road Not Taken” is a classic example of the combination of an intellectual and a physical journey. The poem clearly depicts that any form of journey affects individuals at an intellectual level to a variable extent. This poem depicts the significant role our decision – making ability plays in our lives. Robert Frost, the poet, has clearly outlined that our lives contain many unpredictable and unexpected twists and turns, and that it is us who decide on the direction we follow. But the point Frost makes is that we cannot travel in both directions.
The road in this poem is evidently a metaphoric expression for life. The poem expresses that journeys can lead to self satisfaction, self discovery and may also lead to the pursuit of dreams. Journeys, as the first stanzas imply, may hold elements of regretful situations, but as the poem also expresses, at the end of the ‘road’ we can only turn back and decide whether the decision has “made all the difference” in a positive or negative way.
This poem represents that in life there will come times when one will be forced to make choices, such as which direction to take – a choice which will often result in different responses. The persona in this poem represents initial regret. Such can be seen in the quote “And sorry I could not travel both.” Choices are an inevitable part of life, and will usually determine one’s future path. The traveler in this poem is confronted with such a decision and the title portrays that people will often choose “the one less traveled by” to add a challenge in their life.
The Starthorn Tree
The novel “The Starthorn Tree” by Kate Forsyth tells the tale of a fictitious physical journey undertaken by six companions who must journey deep into the Perilous Forest to seek counsel from the Erlune. They are on a journey in search of the truth about unsolved matters in their Kingdom.
The main emotional experience gained on this journey is the issue of trust, and the ability to accept. This is eminent through the acceptance of Briony, one of the Crafty – of who people were taught to fear and hate.
This novella is written in the third person, allowing periodic insight on the impact the journey has had on each person. An example of this is from Lady Lisandre, who was impressed on us as a snobbish, conceited princess, with a narrow view of life. However, by the end of the text responders view her as a matured adult. This is eminent in a comment she makes to a servant “…everything’s not right in the world…I’ve seen a lot…and I never knew…” This quote portrays that physical journeys do often result in giving the traveler a better understanding of life, and can often result in a change in personality.
Women of the West
“They left the vine wreathed cottage and mansion on the hill / The houses in the busy streets where life is never still.” So begins the poem “The Women of the West” which pays homage to the women who left comfortable city lives to go with their husbands as pioneers of the Western districts, over the mountains and across “the never ending sameness of the never ending plains” to live in “Slab built, iron roofed homesteads on some lately taken run” or “a camp beside the embankment of a railway just begun”. With no women friends to confide in, hard work and harsh weather “the slow years rob the nameless grace that never comes again”. Theirs was a journey physically demanding without plause or praise – “for love they faced the wilderness/ the women of the West” and they helped to shape our nation “For them no trumpet sounds their call, the women f the West”.
Last edited:
