Peter Skrzynecki
and Belonging –
The Immigrant Chronicles
Contents:
 Biography
 Migrant Hostel
 Fitting In, by Din Tran – related
 Feliks Skrzynecki
 10 Mary Street
 And the Bond Cannot be Broken, Daniel Fudge – related
 St Patricks College
 Ancestors
 Postcard
 Folk Museum
Biography
 Peter Skrzynecki (pronounced sher-neski was
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born 1945, Germany)
Polish/Ukrainian background
Emigrated to Australia in 1949 with his parents.
After a four-week sea journey on the "General
Blatchford" the family arrived in Sydney on 11
November.
Lived in a migrant camp in Bathurst for two
weeks before being moved on to the Parkes
Migrant Centre, a former Air Force Training
Base. It is this camp, in central-western New
South Wales, that the poet regards as his first
home in Australia.
WWII destruction
Migrant ship, the ‘General
Blatchford’
 1951 the family moved to Sydney, to the
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working-class suburb of Regents Park,
where a home had been purchased
at 10 Mary Street.
Feliks Skrzynecki worked as a labourer
for the Water Board and Kornelia as a
domestic for a number of families in Strathfield. The parents worked hard
and had the house paid off in four years.
They grew their own vegetables and had a magnificent flower garden.
Peter attended St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where he completed his
Leaving Certificate in 1963.
After an unsuccessful year at Sydney University in 1964, he completed a
Primary Teacher Training Course at Sydney Teachers' College in 1965-66 .
In 1968 he had recommenced his university studies as an external student
and has a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and a Master of Letters.
 From 1967 to 1987 Peter Skrzynecki taught in various
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primary public schools in the western suburbs of Sydney, in
the inner-west and the south-west
While at Sydney University, Peter Skrzynecki began writing
poetry and was introduced to the work of such modern
writers as Dylan Thomas, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett,
W.B.Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen and D.H. Lawrence.
He had his first poems published professionally in Poetry
Magazine in 1967 and again in 1968. His work began to
appear in the Weekend Australian, the ABC began
broadcasting his poems on its "Poet's Tongue" programme
and his work was included in the Australian Poetry 1969
anthology,
Skrzynecki's first books, There, Behind the Lids and
Headwaters, were published in 1970 and 1972
respectively
These two collections, for the most, were concerned with
the poet's experiences during the three years he taught in
the country. They were reflective or meditative poems that
dealt with the natural world, with the countryside, its
people, its fauna and flora.
In 1975, Immigrant Chronicle is published.
 Traces of themes from the two earlier books.
 For the first time the poet writes about his
European background, his experiences as a
migrant in Australia, the problems associated
with being an exile, with his parents'
dispossession and the difficulties, such as racism,
bigotry and resettlement, encountered by them
and other immigrants in trying to assimilate to a
new life in a new land.
Skrzynecki mainly writes three kinds of poems, all in a similarly distinctive, almost prosaic style:
•the family poem, in which he often displays a deft ability to portray character through description
•the immigrant experience, which ranges between the new and old worlds and often has a documentary
quality
•and the landscape poem, which is often idyllic, with a poetic persona not that dissimilar to a
Wordsworthian boy wandering and meditating in a garden or countryside.
Surprisingly, the poems that focus on family and the poems that observe people, primarily, stand out in this
book, rather than specific accounts of the immigrant experience, although this theme is rarely absent from
his work.
Postscript
 Feliks Skrzynecki died in June, 1994. He was 89.
 Kornelia (Woloszczuk) died in February, 1997. She was 79.
 The house at 10 Mary Street, Regents Park, was sold later that
year.
Today
Peter Skrzynecki is that rare thing in
Australia: a poet with a substantial
readership.
 Sales of his autobiographical collection Immigrant Chronicle (1975)
exceed 20,000 copies according to his website, although many of
these would be due to his good fortune at having had this volume
included on the HSC list for many years.
 Peter Skrzynecki is married to Kate and has three children,
Judith, Andrew and Anna.
As you study Skrzynecki’s poems you
should consider the questions:
 How is the concept of belonging expressed in each poem?
 What effect does the idea of belonging have on the persons concerned?
 Is belonging explored in a positive or negative way?
 From whose perspective is the poem written?
 From what/whose perspective is it meant to be read?
 What is the responders’ reaction to the idea of belonging as explored
in the poem?
 Evaluate the techniques used by the composer to convey the concept
of belonging.
 Keep detailed notes for each of the poems in the prescribed text,
Immigrant Chronicle.
Vocabulary
 migrant [ˈmaɪgrənt]n1. a person or animal that moves from one
region, place, or country to another
 im·mi·grant (m-grnt)n.1. A person who leaves one country to settle
permanently in another
Migrant Hostel
Images of Migration
Bathurst Camp - 2
Children’s
activities in camp
Florence Owens
Thompson (September 1, 1903 –
September 16, 1983),
born Florence Leona Christie,
was the subject of Dorothea Lange's
photo Migrant Mother (1936),
an iconic image of the Great
Depression.
Migrant Hostel
Read, discuss for meaning, analyse
Parkes, 1949-51
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.
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—
Nationalities sought
As it rose and fell like a finger
Each other out instinctively—
Pointed in reprimand or shame;
Like a homing pigeon
And daily we passed
Circling to get its bearings;
Underneath or alongside it—
Years and name-places
Needing its sanction
Recognised by accents,
To pass in and out of lives
Partitioned off at night
By memories of hunger and hate . That had only begun
Or were dying.
Analysis of Migrant Hostel
Composer: Peter Skrzynecki
Source: The Immigrant Chronicles, Parkes, 1949-51
Context:
Migrant hostels, like the ones described in this poem, were old army camps with dormitorystyle accommodation. Men and women were not housed together. The migrants Skrzynecki
depicts in this poem are those who came to Australia after WWII at the invitation of the
government.
These migrants where segregated and isolated from the rest of the population even though they
were actually invited to come to Australia. These immigrants where helping Australia to recover
after the war but were treated appallingly.
RELATE TO YOUR OWN micro/MACRO WORLD CONTEXT: Brainstorm how the context
of the poem is still relevant today. Who migrates? Where do they go? How are they received?
Belonging Motif: It is this separation from the rest of Australian society that induces feelings of
isolation and lack of belonging in their new country  they neither belong to their homeland or
their new promised life.
Key features/techniques:
Four stanzas
Imagery
Irony
Simile
Metaphorical motifs  imprisonment and segregation/migratory birds
Juxtaposition  hope is contrasted with fear
Symbolism
Birds of Passage
A term used to describe temporary migrants who move so they can
fill jobs that are often viewed as beneath native-born labourers.
The term was used in the United States as early as the 1840s to refer
to British immigrants and remained in use through the late twentieth
century to refer to Asian, European, and Latin American immigrants.
The phenomenon of temporary or return migration can be traced
back to the early decades of industrialization. In particular, in the
latter half of the nineteenth century, the steamship made travel easier
and moving back and forth all the more possible. Industrial
expansion, economic opportunities, and the possibility of returning
to their homelands motivated birds of passage.
return
Migrant Hostel – analysis continued
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not
belonging
‘No one kept count/of all the
comings and goings-’
‘Sudden departures.../That left
us wondering’
‘Like a homing pigeon/circling
to get bearings’
‘We lived like birds of
passage/Always sensing a
change’
Idiom , negative or
neglected tone
Chaotic, erratic and
uncertain tone
Bird motif, simile
Suggests chaos and lack of
administration
No preparations made to assist the
migrants to feel as if they belong
The migrants are trying to find
something familiar
Bird motif, reference Simile suggests they will be moving
often.
to temporary
migrant workers,
simile
Metaphor
Sealed off from Australia and the
chance to belong
Simile, accusatory
Figurative language refers to negative
treatment – invited to migrate.
tone
‘A barrier.../sealed off the
highway’
‘As it rose and fell like a
finger/Pointed in reprimand or
shame’
‘Needing its sanction/to pass in Sibilance, irony
and out of lives/That had only
begun/Or were dying’
Patronising bureaucracy that control
their existence
Metalanguage
Metonym: Object, person or concept is represented by a word that
substitutes a part for the whole it is associated with. Eg, "crown"
for "monarch".
Fitting in, by Dinh Tran
Villawood Detention Centre
Related Text: Fitting in, by Dinh Tran
Fitting in
Purpose
Inform and educate
Audience
General readers of newspaper
Reflection on childhood experience
Situation
Structural features
Text type
Newspaper article, non-fiction prose
Language/plot
Factual, first person, linear reflection – past tense
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
‘Flooded with memories from my
childhood until the day I left my
country – with no hope of
returning.’
Metaphor
Figurative language
Hyperbaton
Emotive tone
Sense of loss – from the
day I left emphasises that
was the moment his sense
of belonging was
interrupted.
Fitting in continued
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
‘Flooded with memories from my
childhood until the day I left my
country – with no hope of
returning.’
Metaphor
Figurative language
Hyperbaton
Emotive tone
Sense of loss – ‘from the
day I left’ emphasises that
was the moment his sense
of belonging was
interrupted.
‘I hugged his skinny shoulders, I
couldn’t stop myself crying like a
child...the last time I saw him’
Graphic realism
Simile, declarative
statement
“If you enter Singapore we will kill Dialogue, declarative,
you all”
graphic realism
Grief and loss at the
separation from, and death
of a parent.
‘The Malaysians offered us
Sarcasm
something special: ...10 ...ships...to
scare us away’
Prevented from finding
new land to re-establish
family.
‘It was an historic event’
Connection to Australia
Declarative
Prevented from finding
new land to re-establish
family.
Fitting in continued
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
‘Readers may think this
Explanatory tone
inconceivable, but we were happy’
The protagonist had no
extended family or friends
and sought company with
another family.
‘The dirtiness of the tanks and the Graphic realism
smell ...made me sick’
Willing to suffer further
hardships to belong
‘I was nearly in a fight because of
the language differences and the
racism from another migrant
worker’
Examines notion that
migrants’ isolation can be
further effected by other
migrants
Confessional tone
‘the most valuable achievement ... Alliteration
children have completed their
sibilance
schooling with great success.’
‘I hope my children will never
Revelation
forget that Australia was our
benefactor.’
Pride in accomplishment
and achievement
Identifies sense of
belonging
Similarities and Differences Between Texts
Migrant Hostel
Fitting In
Text type
Poem
Prose non-fiction
Language
First person past tense
First person past tense
Context
Migrants
Refugee/sponsored
Narrator
Author, memoir
Author, memoir
Belonging
Nationalities grouped together Hardship experienced in attempt
to belong
Not
Belonging
Migrants grouped in their
combined plight of not
belonging.
Developed English speaking skills,
successful children and finance.
Not welcomed – careless
administration, feelings of
retribution
Intimidated by other migrant racism
Feliks Skrzynecki
10 Mary Street
 Think about a house or place where you felt that you truly
belonged. List five things about that house which made you feel
as if you belonged. Develop each of these five things into similes,
metaphors or other imagery.
 10 Mary Street was the poet’s first real home in Australia, where
they were able to create a routine and found a sense of belonging.
How does the poet convey this? Use evidence.
 How does the bird symbolism differ in 10 Mary Street from the
bird symbolism in Migrant Hostel?
10 Mary Street Analysis
Quote
Technique
For nineteen years/We departed.../to
school and work
My parents watered/Plants – grew
potatoes.../Tended roses and
camellias
repetition
I’d ravage the backyard garden/Like a
hungry bird
With paint guaranteed/For another
ten years
Lawns grow across/Dug-up beds of
/Spinach
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.
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not
belonging
alliteration
and
juxtaposition
The Australian land and their efforts
are literally supporting them.
Assimilation – adopting practices
Assimilation is encroaching on
migrant traditions
Related text: And the Bond Cannot be
Broken, by Daniel Fudge
 Read the prose fiction by Fudge.
 What is the sense of belonging and how is it conveyed in this
text?
 How does belonging and the connection to land differ
between this text and 10 Mary Street?
And the Bond can not be Broken Analysis
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
And the Bond Can Not be Broken Analysis
The land continued into the distance
forever...It was still as unforgiving as it had
been when his grandfather won it in a
game of cards.
It was horribly beautiful...it scared the shit
out of him
Just as the storm sucked the breath out of
the earth, the Land had suffocated his
family.
Women came and went, unable to
understand the stifling pull the Land had
on their men.
He was older now, with 24 years of
exhausting work buried in the land
Wild landscape that will not be
harnessed.
Family’s future was casually or
carelessly acquired in a card game.
He would be spending the rest of his life
out here...alone in this oil-paint landscape
of timelessness.
Connected, but tone of desperation
suggests it will not bring satisfaction.
The land is something to be feared.
Again, the land is powerful and to be
feared. Suggests a continuing negative
sense of attachment to the land.
The men have an inexorable
connection to the land. Is it the
challenge it presents?
Protagonist has worked the land but
without the reward that the poet
examines in 10 Mary Street.
St Patrick’s College
The College's crest was designed in 1938 and is made up of three
components:
 The Shield: a symbol of strength and fortitude.
 The Motto: Those who wear the crest pledge fidelity to the
College motto 'Luceat Lux Vestra', Latin for "Let Your Light Shine".
 The Star: the College lights the way to
knowledge and to the Heavenly Father.
The school has a strong sporting focus.
Consider: What do school traditions,
values and the motto ’Christ is my light”
mean to you? How will you remember
your school days?
Activity
 In the form of a diary entry, record a time when you felt
isolated at school.
 Think about who, what, when, where, why and how.
 Remember to include an emotional response to the incident.
 How did you overcome the event?
St Patrick’s College
Impressed by the uniforms
For eight years
Of her employer’s sons,
Mother enrolled me at St Pat’s
With never a thought
To fees and expenses – wanting only
“What was best”.
I walked Strathfield’s paths and streets,
Played chasings up and down
The station’s ten ramps –
Caught the 414 bus
Like a foreign tourist,
Uncertain of my destination
Every time I got off.
From the roof
Of the secondary school block
Our Lady watched
With outstretched arms,
Her face overshadowed by clouds
Mother crossed herself
As she left me at the office –
Said a prayer
For my future intentions.
Under the principal’s window
I stuck pine needles
Into the motto
On my breast:
Luceat Lux Vestra
I thought was a brand of soap.
For eight years
I carried the blue, black and gold
I’d been privileged to wear:
Learnt my conjugations
And Christian decorums for homework,
Was never too bright at science
But good at spelling’
Could say The Lord’s Prayer
In Latin, all in one breath.
My last day there
Mass was offered up
For our departing intentions,
Our Lady still watching
Above, unchanged by eight years’
weather.
With closed eyes
I fervently counted
The seventy-eight pages
Of my Venite Adoremus,
Saw equations I never understood
Rubbed off the blackboard,
Voices at bus stops, litanies and
hymns
Taking the right-hand turn
Out of Edgar Street for good;
Prayed that Mother would
someday be pleased
With what she got for her money
–
That the darkness around me
Wasn’t ‘for the best’
Before I let my light shine.
St Patrick’s College Analysis
 A reflective appraisal – with the benefit of hindsight and experience.
 Overall tone is condemnatory, hints at institutional alienation rather than imbuing
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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
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
Tone suggests ritual and lacks
any passion. Not belonging
StPatrick’s
Patrick’s
College
Analysis
St
analysis
continued...
continued....
Quote
‘Like a foreign tourist/Uncertain of my
destination.’
‘For eight years/I carried the blue, black
and gold’
‘I’d been privileged to wear’
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
Assimilation into this school is a
burden he must carry.
‘Could say the Lord’s Prayer/In Latin, all
in one breath
‘Our Lady still watching.../With closed
eyes’
No sense of connection to what
he has learnt.
‘Out of Edgar street for good;’
Relief at leaving place poet did
not belong.
‘Prayed that someday Mother would be
pleased’
“The darkness around me/Wasn’t ‘for
the best’”
‘Before I let my light shine’
Realises his mother has not
achieved her aims.
Poet is figuratively excluded by
her ‘closed eyes’
Darkness represents his sense of
isolation and exclusion
He has succeeded in spite of
school
Further Activities for St Patricks College:
 How has the poet achieved a sense of belonging and isolation?
Use textual evidence to support your answer.
 What do the mother’s reasons for sending her son to St Patrick’s
College suggest about her desire to assimilate?
 It is possible to fit in without belonging. Use this statement as the
basis for an interview with Peter Skrzynecki. Write a transcript of
this interview with specific reference to St Patrick’s College.
Pre-reading for Ancestors
 What is an ancestor?
 Who are your ancestors?
 What do they mean to you?
 How do your ancestors contribute to your sense of belonging or not
belonging?
Some words you need to know:
Enigmatic – not clear, or difficult to understand
Apocalyptic – involving or suggesting widespread devastation or doom
Disquiet - troubled, uneasy, deprived of peace,
Discordant -at variance; disagreeing
Ancestors
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
darknessWhy do their eyes
Never close?
Where do they point to
From the circle around youTo what star
Do their footprints lead?
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.
Ancestors - Belonging Motif
 Strongly speculative tone
 Reflects on human identity and the chain of life that links us all to our
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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.
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.
Ancestors analysis continued...
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
‘A moonlit plain/ Of grasses and sand’ Simple visual
imagery
‘Why do they/Never speak?’
Rhetorical
question
‘Why do you wake/As their faces
Visual
becomes clearer -’
imagery
Irony
Disquieting image. Details of
past is lost to the sleeper.
‘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’).
Reader included. We too will
join ancestors.
As we age, role of ancestors
becomes clearer but as yet
they are metaphorically out of
reach.
Postcard
Consider:
 In what circumstances
do people usually send
postcards?
 What are the word
associations ‘postcard’
conjures?
1
A postcard sent by a friend
Haunts me
Since its arrival –
Warsaw: Panorama of the Old
Town.
He requests I show it
To my parents.
Red buses on a bridge
Emerging from a corner –
High-rise flats and
something
Like a park borders
The river with its concrete
pylons.
The sky’s the brightest
shade.
2
Postcard
Warsaw, Old Town
I never knew you
Except in the third
person –
Great city
That bombs destroyed,
Its people massacred
Or exiled –You survived
In the minds
Of a dying generation
Half a world away.
They shelter you
And defend the patterns
Of your remaking,
Condemn your politics,
Cherish your old religion
And drink to freedom
Under the White Eagle’s
flag.
3
I stare
At the photograph
And refuse to answer
The voices
Of red gables
And a cloudless sky.
On the river’s bank
A lone tree
Whispers:
“We will meet
Before you die.”
Belonging Motif in Postcard
 A simple postcard sparks off a chain of reverie as the poet addresses the
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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’.
Postcard
Analysis
St
Patrick’s analysis
continued...
Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
Haunts me
He requests I show it/To my parents
The skies the brightest shade
Warsaw, Old Town/I never knew
you/except in the third person
You survived in the minds/Of a dying
generation
They shelter you
Drink to freedom/Under the White
Eagle’s flag
For the moment,/ I repeat,I never knew
you
Irony of patriotism to a country
in which they no longer live and
does not give them regard.
Postcard Analysis continued...
Quote
My father/Will be proud/Of your domes
My mother/Will speak of her/Beloved
Ukraine
What’s my choice/To be?
What more/Do you want/Besides/The
gift of despair?
I stare/At the photograph/And refuse
the answer the voices
... A cloudless sky
“We will meet you before you die.”
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
Postcard
 In this poem Skrzynecki is confronted with a journey to
Warsaw if he is to truly understand his parents experience.
He will also need to undertake this journey if he is to feel
that he belongs and understands his heritage. How do we
detect the poet’s reluctance to take this journey? Use textual
examples.
 How are migrants’ connectedness to the land of their birth
reinforced in this poem? What figurative devices reinforce
this notion?
 Why is the poet unable to share his parents’ pride in their
homeland?
 Does the poem suggest he will find peace if he travels to his
native country? Explain using textual evidence.
In the Folk Museum
Pre-reading activity:
 The title of the poem ‘In the Folk Museum’ provides a
sense of place. Visualise a folk museum and describe
what it looks like.
 Why do you think the museum was not called by its
actual name? Does this denote a sense of unfamiliarity?
In the Folk Museum
A darkness in the rooms
Betrays the absence of voices,
Departing from steps
And verandah railsOn to a street that leads around Autumn
Which stands at the door
Dressed in yellow and brown.
I look at words
That describe machinery, clothes,
transport,
A Victorian Bedroom –
Hay knife, draining plough,
Shoulder yoke, box iron:
Relics from Tablelands heritage
To remind me of a past
Which isn’t mine.
The caretaker sits
Beside a winnowing machine
And knits without looking up –
Her hair’s the same colour
As the grey clay bottle
That’s cold as water to touch.
In the Town Hall next door
They sing to Christ –
Of the Sabbath Day and the Future of Man.
I try to memorize
The titles of books
While ‘Eternity, Eternity’
Is repeated from a reader’s text.
The wind taps hurriedly
On the roof and walls
And I leave without wanting a final look.
At the door the old woman’s hand
Touches mine.
‘Would you please sign the Visitors’ Book?’
Belonging Motif
 No real sense of belonging developed in this poem, except that of
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belonging to a bygone era.
Poet feels alienated by relics of the past – no substantial connection
to his own existence through mismatched collection of utensils and
tools.
Momentary interest is shown in random items, nothing sustained
prompts him to look closer.
The caretaker is not connected to the artefacts in the museum in
any real sense as she knits in the doorway, interacting superficially
with occasional visitors.
Place of past has little connection with the present.
Over-riding feeling is one of disaffection and disconnection.
The collection ‘isn’t mine’ and does not reach this young man and
holds no significance, historically, culturally or personally.
Postcard Analysis continued...
Quote
A darkness in the rooms betrays the
absence of voices
...Autumn/...Dressed in yellow and
brown
I look at words
To remind me of a past/Which isn’t
mine.
The caretaker sits.../And knits without
looking up.
Her hair’s the same colour/As the grey
clay bottle
In the Town Hall next door/They sing to
Christ –
‘Eternity, Eternity’
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
Postcard Analysis continued...
Quote
The wind taps hurriedly
I leave without wanting a final look
the old woman’s hand/Touches mine
Would you please sign the Visitors’
Book?’
Technique
Effect – how it relates to
belonging/not belonging
Activities for Folk Museum
1. How does personification in the opening lines establish atmosphere?
2. The narrative stance shifts in the second stanza – why? What does it
change to and why do you think the poet has done this?
3. ‘To remind me of a past which isn’t mine’ – what does this suggest
about the concept of belonging.
4. How does the use of similes in the third stanza enhance the description?
5. What is the symbolism of the ‘old woman’s hand’ touching the persona?
6. Why does the poet introduce the caretaker’s voice in the final line? Is
this an effective ending?
7. Write a poem – at least four stanzas – describing a setting where you
either belong or don’t belong. Use at least one example of
personification, one simile and feature both first and third person
narrative stances. Aim to make the reader see, feel and hear the setting.
 http://belonging4hsc2009.wikidot.com/
 http://virtualsalt.com/rhetoric6.htm#Hyperbaton