Migrant Hostel
In Migrant Hostel, Skrzynecki writes, “Nationalities sought each other out instinctively — like a homing pigeon circling to get its bearings.” What does the simile suggest about the behaviour of the migrants?
Possible Answers:
Migrants feel a natural connection to others from similar backgrounds
They search for familiarity and comfort within their own cultural group
Highlights instinctive need for belonging after displacement
Suggests security found in shared language and customs
What emotions are conveyed through the description of the rain and dampness in the lines “All night it had rained. / The air was crowded / With a dampness that slowly / Sank into our thoughts”?
Possible Answers: Sadness, melancholy, weariness, uncertainty, homesickness, or emotional heaviness reflecting the migrants’ inner turmoil.
What daily routine does the family follow in the opening stanza, and what does this suggest about their lifestyle?
Possible Answers:
The family leaves for school and work every morning and returns home at 5 p.m., showing a structured, hardworking migrant family routine.
It suggests diligence, stability, and integration into Australian working life.
Reflects an orderly, industrious pattern emphasising belonging through routine.
In St Patrick’s College, Skrzynecki writes, “Mother enrolled me at St Pat’s / With never a thought / To fees and expenses – wanting only / ‘What was best’.” What does this line reveal about the mother’s intentions and values?
Possible Answers: She values education; she believes Catholic schooling ensures a better life; she’s influenced by social status; she acts out of love but misunderstanding; she wants connection to higher society.
In “Post Card,” the speaker receives an image of Warsaw that “haunts” him since its arrival. What emotion does this word choice suggest about his connection to his family’s homeland, and why might it trouble him?
Possible Answers: Feelings of guilt, displacement, or homesickness; the postcard reminds him of his cultural roots that he feels disconnected from; he is haunted by the weight of expectation to connect with a place he doesn’t personally know.
What is the effect of Skrzynecki’s frequent use of simple, conversational language across his poems?
Possible Answers: It creates a reflective and personal tone; it makes complex ideas about belonging and identity accessible; it mirrors oral storytelling traditions; or it encourages empathy and connection with shared migrant experiences.
The lines, “A barrier at the main gate … rose and fell like a finger pointed in reprimand or shame” describe a physical gate. What symbolic meaning can be drawn from this description?
Possible Answers:
Symbolises authority restricting freedom
Represents the migrants’ lack of autonomy and control over movement
Connotes judgment or exclusion from wider society
Highlights the emotional impact of feeling confined
How does the imagery of “Families stood / With blankets and packed cases” communicate the migrants’ situation and experiences?
Possible Answers: It shows displacement, transience, vulnerability, preparation for an uncertain journey, or a sense of waiting and expectation.
The poem mentions the parents “watered plants – grew potatoes and rows of sweet corn.” How does this imagery contribute to the poem’s broader themes?
Possible Answers:
Gardening symbolises growth, care, and maintaining cultural traditions from the old world.
It conveys comfort, identity, and belonging in their new environment.
The garden becomes a metaphor for cultivation of both roots and heritage in Australia.
The line “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.” uses irony and humour. How does this passage express the poet’s feelings about his school experience?
Possible Answers: It shows alienation and lack of understanding of school traditions; it highlights cultural or linguistic disconnection; the humour masks discomfort or exclusion; it reflects a childlike confusion about belonging.
The lines “Warsaw, Old Town, / I never knew you / Except in the third person” show the poet’s relationship with Poland. What does the phrase “in the third person” reveal about his personal identity and sense of belonging?
Possible Answers: It shows distance and detachment; he feels like an outsider to his heritage; his relationship to Warsaw is secondhand, known only through his parents’ stories; symbolizes the difficulty of forming identity across cultures.
How does Skrzynecki’s use of imagery help him explore themes of belonging and displacement?
Possible Answers: His imagery evokes sensory experiences that connect or alienate characters from their surroundings; it visualises emotional experiences of migration; it transforms ordinary scenes (like a hostel or school) into symbols of larger cultural struggles.
The stanza beginning “For over two years we lived like birds of passage” uses a sustained metaphor. Explain how this metaphor develops the idea of impermanence in the migrants’ experience.
Possible Answers:
Birds of passage migrate seasonally, reflecting the transient nature of hostel life
Suggests they are always ready to move, never settling
Highlights uncertainty and lack of long-term stability
Conveys detachment from place and ongoing change in surroundings
Explain how Skrzynecki uses simile in the line “Like cattle bought for slaughter.” What effect does this comparison have on the reader’s perception of the migrants?
Possible Answers: The simile dehumanises the migrants, suggesting powerlessness, loss of agency, and fear; it highlights the inhumanity of migration and the migrants’ suppressed individuality.
How does Skrzynecki use symbolism in “The house stands in its china-blue coat” to represent lasting family values or identity?
Possible Answers:
The “china-blue coat” symbolises pride, stability, and the careful preservation of home and memory.
It shows the family’s effort to maintain dignity and permanence despite impermanence around them.
The paint’s “guarantee for another ten years” implies endurance but also foreshadows change and loss.
Skrzynecki recalls, “For eight years / I walked Strathfield’s paths and streets... / Uncertain of my destination / Every time I got off.” How does this imagery and metaphor contribute to the poem’s exploration of identity and belonging?
Possible Answers: Reflects physical and emotional displacement; symbolises loss of direction and uncertain sense of self; suggests he’s disconnected from place; captures an immigrant child’s confusion; reinforces alienation despite stability.
Skrzynecki writes: “They shelter you / And defend the patterns / Of your remaking.” Who are “they,” and what does this reveal about generational attitudes toward homeland and migration?
Possible Answers: “They” refers to his parents’ generation; it highlights their nostalgia and pride for their homeland; older migrants preserve the culture their children struggle to relate to; it contrasts the parents’ emotional investment with the child’s detachment.
Identify how Skrzynecki’s use of enjambment and free verse contributes to the rhythm and meaning of his poetry.
Possible Answers: Enjambment mirrors the flow of memory and thought; free verse reflects the fluidity of identity and exile; the irregular rhythm mimics uncertainty or dislocation; it helps the reader experience ongoing emotional journeys.
In the stanza starting “No one kept count of all the comings and goings…”, what techniques does Skrzynecki use to convey the unpredictability of life in the migrant hostel, and what might this suggest about the migrant experience?
Possible Answers:
Use of enjambment to mimic movement and constant change
Lack of punctuation reflects fluidity and instability
Imagery of arrivals and departures suggests instability in relationships and community
Implies emotional disconnection or lack of permanence in migrants’ lives
What does the personification of time and space in “Time waited anxiously with us / Behind upturned collars / And space hemmed us / Against each other” suggest about the migrants’ psychological state?
Possible Answers: It conveys tension, confinement, and anxiety; shows time dragging painfully; creates a sense that even the environment reflects their emotional unease and lack of control.
In what ways does “10 Mary Street” explore the tension between cultural heritage and assimilation, as seen through lines like “We became citizens of the soil that was feeding us”?
Possible Answers:
The line reflects both gratitude and irony — they have adapted to Australian life but still hold tightly to their European identity.
Shows dual belonging: naturalised citizens materially, but emotionally attached to their old culture.
Suggests the migrant experience of balancing old-world traditions with new-world acceptance.
In the stanza “For eight years / I carried the blue, black and gold... / Learnt my conjunctions / And Christian decorums for homework”, what attitudes toward education and conformity does Skrzynecki communicate, and how does form or tone help deliver this meaning?
Possible Answers: Education feels ritualised and meaningless; tone is detached or ironic; suggests assimilation without understanding; shows surface-level learning versus deeper identity formation; formal, list-like structure reflects uniformity and lack of individuality.
In the lines “What’s my choice / To be? / I can give you / The recognition / Of eyesight and praise.” what internal conflict is the speaker expressing, and how does it reflect the poem’s exploration of identity and belonging?
Possible Answers: The conflict between cultural obligation and personal acceptance; he feels pressured to embrace a homeland he doesn’t know; it reflects the broader migrant experience of being torn between heritage and adopted home; he questions the limits of cultural connection through memory and image.
Explain how Skrzynecki uses contrast and juxtaposition across his body of work to develop the notion of identity.
Possible Answers: He contrasts past and present, belonging and alienation, or homeland and new land; reinforces the tension between longing for connection and maintaining individuality; highlights generational differences between immigrant parents and children; exposes how identity is formed through opposites.
Discuss how Migrant Hostel critiques the broader social and political context of immigration in post-war Australia. Use at least one textual reference in your answer.
Possible Answers:
“Barrier at the main gate” symbolises controlled access and systemic exclusion
The hostel setting reflects government policies that segregate migrants and limit their integration
Suggests Australia’s reluctance to fully welcome diverse cultures
Critiques the bureaucracy and impersonal nature of migrant processing
Highlights the emotional toll of institutionalised separation and lack of stable community
Discuss how the final image “The signal at the platform’s end / Turned red and dropped / Like a guillotine” symbolically represents the migrants’ experience of separation and change.
Possible Answers: It symbolises a violent severing from the past, the death of their old lives, and the start of an irreversible transition; the guillotine evokes finality, fear, and emotional disconnection from their homeland.
The poem ends with “Inheritors of a key that’ll open no house when this one is pulled down.” What interpretations can be drawn from this metaphor about memory, displacement, and belonging?
Possible Answers:
The “key” symbolises memory, family, and the remnants of a life soon lost as the physical house disappears.
It suggests the fragility of belonging — though the family worked to make Australia home, displacement still haunts them.
The image conveys the end of a chapter: belonging exists in memory, not geography.
Reflects the transience of migrant identity and the tension between permanence and change.
The poem ends, “Prayed that Mother would someday be pleased / With what she’d got for her money – / That the darkness around me / Wasn’t ‘for the best’ / Before I let my light shine.” Explain how Skrzynecki’s use of religious and light/dark imagery presents his complex emotions about belonging and identity at St Patrick’s College.
Possible Answers: Religious imagery shows tension between faith and disconnection; ‘darkness’ represents isolation and confusion; ‘light’ suggests identity struggling to emerge; highlights failure of education to provide belonging; expresses guilt, irony, or self-awareness about family sacrifices and assimilation.
The poem ends with the lines “I stare / At the photograph / And refuse to answer / The voices / Of red gables / And a cloudless sky.” How does this conclusion use imagery and personification to explore the theme of inherited culture and personal autonomy?
Possible Answers: The “voices” of Warsaw personify cultural memory calling him back; his refusal symbolizes resistance to imposed identity; the imagery of “red gables” and “cloudless sky” contrasts nostalgia with emptiness; it suggests a struggle for independence from a past he didn’t live but can’t entirely ignore; reflects the tension between memory and individuality in migrant identity.
Discuss how Skrzynecki uses form, tone, and symbolism together to represent memory and cultural connection in his poetry.
Possible Answers: His structured stanzas provide order against emotional chaos; tone shifts from nostalgic to reflective suggest growth and acceptance; recurring symbols (like journeys, homes, or photographs) unite the poems’ themes; the combination reveals complex relationships between self, culture, and belonging.