1. Peter Skrzynecki
Belonging

2. Biography
Peter Skrzynecki (pronounced sher- neski was 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’

3. 1951 the family moved to Sydney, to the
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
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.

4. 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.
From 1967 to 1987 Peter Skrzynecki taught in various 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 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.

5. 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.

6. Postscript Feliks Skrzynecki died in June, 1994. He was 89.
Kornelia (Woloszczuk) died in February, She was 79.
The house at 10 Mary Street, Regents Park, was sold later that year.

7. 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.

8. Kept pace only with the Joneses Of his own mind’s making –
Feliks Skrzynecki
My gentle father
Kept pace only with the Joneses
Of his own mind’s making –
Loved his garden like an only child,
Spent years walking its perimeter
From sunrise to sleep.
Alert, brisk and silent,
He swept its paths
Ten times around the world.
Hands darkened
From cement, fingers with cracks
Like the sods he broke,
I often wondered how he existed
On five or six hours’ sleep each night –
Why his arms didn’t fall off
From the soil he turned
And tobacco he rolled.
Emotive
language
Cliché used to show his father living up to high standards
Simile shows love of garden. Tone is humourous
hyperbole
Descriptive language. Simile used
Hyperbole and humour used

9. The poet can not relate to his polish heritage
His Polish friends
Always shook hands too violently,
I thought… Feliks Skrzynecki,
That formal address
I never got used to.
Talking, they reminisced
About farms where paddocks flowered
With corn and wheat,
Horses they bred, pigs
They were skilled in slaughtering.
Five years of forced labour in Germany
Did not dull the softness of his blue eyes
I never once heard
Him complain of work, the weather
Or pain. When twice
They dug cancer out of his foot,
His comment was: ‘but I’m alive’.
The poet’s father is nostalgic about his past. Such skills are of no use in his current life. His fellow countrymen make him feel a sense of belonging.
A historical allusion is used to show the trauma his father went through. Despite this difficult time is father is not hardened. Visual and descriptive language is used
The poet’s admiration for the stoic nature of his father is shown. This brave quotation provides clear evidence of how brave he is
Personal pronouns are used to reinforce the personal nature of this poem

10. The poet’s father has a level of contentment that the poet envies
Most of his knowledge of the Polish language is gone yet he has inherited parts of his cultural without realising it.
Personal pronoun
Growing older, I
Remember words he taught me,
Remnants of a language
I inherited unknowingly –
The curse that damned
A crew-cut, grey-haired
Department clerk
Who asked me in dancing-bear grunts:
‘Did your father ever attempt to learn English?’
On the back steps of his house,
Bordered by golden cypress,
Lawns – geraniums younger
Than both parents,
My father sits out the evening
With his dog, smoking,
Watching stars and street lights come on,
Happy as I have never been.
The quotation shos the ignorance that exists in society and the struggle associated with belonging. It also shows the poet’s respect for his father
The poet’s father has a level of contentment that the poet envies

11. Stumbling over tenses in Caesar’s Gallic War,
As the poet learns a new language he loses his grasp of the polish language
At thirteen,
Stumbling over tenses in Caesar’s Gallic War,
I forgot my first Polish word.
He repeated it so I never forgot.
After that, like a dumb prophet,
Watched me pegging my tents
Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall.
Feliks struggles to help his son retain his culture
Hadrian’s Wall is a dividing wall in England. The tent represents the immigration of the family
Biblical/religious allusion

12. Feliks Skrzynecki
Reflective poem on a father deeply loved and respected and the changing relationship they shared
Conflict is generated between the two as a result of the persona further becoming further embedded in Australian culture.
Information on Feliks is provided by the poet’s memory and reminiscences. The impact on Feliks’ experiences is as a strong for the son as it is for the father.
The persona recognises in maturity that his father understood the gap that existed between them
Feliks felt that his son would come to comprehend the value of his Polish heritage despite his initial dislocation from it

13. Feliks Skrzynecki
Stanza 1…explain Peter’s p.o.v of his father, the garden and himself, include positives and negatives and how his understanding developed and changed over time.
Stanza 3…through the use of imagery, peter depicts a world that intrigued him but alienated him at the same time. Explain how and why this is a passage of time that he will never belong to…
Connections through relationships can develop over time. Explain how this aspect has been explored through the poem.

14. Feliks Skrzynecki

15. Kept pace only with the Joneses Of his own mind’s making –
Social and physical environments are usually determining factors in providing a sense of identity or connectedness, yet some individuals may seal themselves off in a metaphorical vacuum, finding solace in their memories of the past. The composer establishes this characteristic in ‘Feliks Skrzynecki,’ suggesting his father is ignoring the social pressures of conformity, exemplified in the idiomatic statement‘kept pace only with the Joneses…’ His determination to find his own sense of self is reinforced through the alliterative ‘minds making’ and the caesura that strikingly segregates Feliks through the structure of the poem itself and identifies him as a character who has found comfort without the need for broader social inclusion.

16. I often wondered how he existed
The different perspectives and assumptions about our place in the world, and our sense of identity can often cause a dislocation between individuals who foster these divergent views. The composer elucidates this sense of bewilderment through enjambment “I often wondered how he existed…” The responder naturally lingers on this key word ‘existed’ and we gain a sense of the existential musings and confusion that abounds between father and son. The inquisitive, childlike tone questioning notions of his identity, and how his father seems to benignly struggle through life seem completely foreign and alien to the composer. This further accentuates the generational divisions that exist when acclimatising within a new physical and social environment.

17. Always shook hands too violently
How different groups affiliate and form their collective identity varies. It is these associations that can enrich an individual’s life and create a sense of belonging. These traditions and shared practices may be completely foreign to those on the outside. The composer conveys this feeling through the paradox “Always shook hands too violently”. The collision of the handshake, a symbol of camaraderie, and the incongruous description of it’s violence, perplexes the composer as he struggles to decode these strange interactions between his elders. This generational split leads to feelings of alienation and an emotional chasm between father and son, at a time when both are trying to find their sense of belonging within Australia.

18. About farms where paddocks flowered With corn and wheat,
When an individual finds themself in a new, adoptive environment, they may mentally regress to a place of sanctuary. Feliks Skrzynecki reminiscing with his old friends allows this group to transcend the physical barriers of their current milieu to return to their homeland. The simple imagery in “About farms where paddocks flowered,With corn and wheat”, represents their uncomplicated lives and sense of belonging to their homeland. The symbols ‘corn’ and ‘wheat’, simple, staple food, further demonstrate the oneness Feliks and his friends have to this natural environment - and provides a barrier from assimilating to life in Australia in the same way the Peter has embraced.

19. ‘but I’m alive’
In an ever changing, contemporary world the desire to be more and more connected through different spheres of our lives is endemic. Young people are more connected than ever, and this may be at odds with a generation of their forebears who appreciated simple gifts during the World Wars, such as food, shelter and life itself. The inclusion of dialogue by Feliks Skrzynecki comes in the form of a short, simplistic declaration “but I’m alive”, which encapsulates the resilience of his character. In the face of adversity, cancer and Nazi concentration camps his own sense of identity and self efficacy has been unshaken. This is heavily contrasted to the composer, who is searching through the recesses of his own experiences and relationships to unveil who he is and his place in the world.

20. Feliks Skrzynecki My Gentle Father Kept pace only with the Joneses
Personal Pronoun and familial personal descriptive ‘gentle.’ suggests affection.
My Gentle Father
Kept pace only with the Joneses
Of his own mind’s making –
Loved his garden like an only child,
Spent years walking its perimeter
From sunrise to sleep.
Alert, brisk and silent,
He swept its paths
Ten times around the world.
Joneses/Society
Free from stigma
Simile/hyperbole
Sibilance
Sibilance
The use of hyperbole at the end of stanza one links to Immigrant Experience.

21. Feliks Skrzynecki
Vivid memories of a father from the perspective of an awed child.
Hands darkened From cement, fingers with cracks Like the sods he broke, I often wondered how he existed On five or six hours’ sleep each night – Why his arms didn’t fall off From the soil he turned And tobacco he rolled.
Simile
Personal Pronoun
Reminder that the immigrant experience is one of first and second generation.
Hyperbole
There is the strong suggestion of a cultural and generational divide.
Task: Find an example of a text with an immigrant experience that mirrors this one. You should find something to show the difference and dissonance between first and second generations.

22. Feliks Skrzynecki
Cultural Exclusivity
His Polish friends Always shook hands too violently I thought … Feliks Skrzynecki, That formal address I never got used to. Talking, they reminisced About farms where paddocks flowered With corn and wheat, Horses they bred, pigs They were skilled in slaughtering. Five years of forced labour in Germany Did not dull the softness of his blue eyes.
Ellipsis to create stream of consciousness
Generational Alienation
Historical Context
Link to ‘Gentle.’
Note: the use of enjambment throughout the poem. Suggest the effect of the use of enjambment in lines 9-10.

23. Immediacy through speech
Feliks Skrzynecki
I never once heard Him complain of work, the weather Or pain, When twice They dug cancer out of his foot, His comment was: “but I’m alive.”
Stoicism
Immediacy through speech
Note: The tone of admiration in this stanza. Where else do we see this tone of admiration. You may also notice that whilst there is the suggestion of respect and affection this leaves the persona excluded from the father’s experiences and in a way incidentally and accidentally alienated from the father’s world. Task: List all incidents like this in the text.

24. Feliks Skrzynecki Return of Personal pronoun
Growing older, I Remember words he taught me, Remnants of a language I inherited unknowingly – The curse that damned A crew-cut, grey-haired Department clerk Who asked me in dancing-bear grunts: “Did your father ever attempt to learn English?”
Return of Personal pronoun
Memories and legacy – suggestion of loss and lament. Emotive alienation through ‘curse.’
Satirical representation of an unwelcoming society. Bureaucracy is scorned here.
Task: What is the effect of direct speech at the end of this stanza?

25. Cyclical return to home
Feliks Skrzynecki
Cyclical return to home
On the back steps of his house, Bordered by golden cypress, Lawns – geraniums younger Than both parents My father sits out the evening With his dog, smoking, Watching stars and street lights come on, Happy as I have never been.
Note: the existence outside Australian society. Shunning of policy of assimilation
Task: What does this last line connote about the conflict between the migrant experience of first and second generation migrants?

26. Feliks Skrzynecki
School education ‘kicks in’ and affects the ability to connect with his parents language.
At thirteen Stumbling over tenses in Caesar’s Gallic War, I forgot my first Polish word. He repeated it so I never forgot. After that, like a dumb prophet, Watched me pegging my tents Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall.
Feliks corrects the persona at first and then eventually concedes defeat.
Hadrian’s Wall: This is a reference to the wall built on the English and Scottish border by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This is used as a metaphor by skrzynecki to suggest the alienation of the son from the father as he becomes more embroiled in the dominant culture and forgets his parent’s heritage.

27. Questions
There are emotions conveyed regarding the immigrant experience throughout this poem. How are they conveyed by the author to encompass both the experience of Feliks and his son?
How does this experience convey a sense of the concept of ‘immigrant voices’?
How does the use of non-native plants such as cyprus and geraniums metaphorically convey a sense of the migrant experience?

28. Migrant Hostel Parkes, 1949-51
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— As it rose and fell like a finger  Pointed in reprimand or shame; And daily we passed Underneath or alongside it—  Needing its sanction  To pass in and out of lives That had only begun Or were dying.
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. Nationalities sought Each other out instinctively— Like a homing pigeon Circling to get its bearings; Years and name-places Recognised by accents, Partitioned off at night By memories of hunger and hate .
Read, discuss for meaning, analyse

29. Trying to find a sense of belonging
The title sets the scene. The date is just after the end of WWII
The word migrant was used in the title and the sheer number of people moving through the hostel reinforces the instability. Hyperbole is used
Migrant Hostel.
Parkes,
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.
Nationalities sought
Each other out instinctively –
Like a homing pigeon
Circling to get its bearings;
Years and place-names
Recognised by accents,
Partitioned off at night
By memories of hunger and hate.
The use of ‘us’ adds a personal note. The tone is uncertain
Trying to find a sense of belonging
The simile is used to show the immigrants are uncertain and unsettled in their new country. The migrants are depicted as being temporarily lost
Historical allusion to war. May be a metaphor. Refers to conflicts from the past and also references the very real fear that would be felt.

30. Simile comparing the immigrants to birds is used again.
The bird motif continues. The tone is emotive and reinforces instability
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 –
As it rose and fell like a finger
Pointed in reprimand or shame;
And daily we passed
Underneath or alongside it –
Needing its sanction
To pass in and out of lives
That had only begun
Or were dying.
The boom gate is personified. This also serves as visual imagery. The language is emotive
Emotive language is used to make reference to the uncertainty and the fact that the immigrants old lifestyle is being left behind and being replaced with a new life in Australia.

31. Analysis of Migrant Hostel
Composer: Peter Skrzynecki
Source: The Immigrant Chronicles, Parkes,
Context:
Migrant hostels, like the ones described in this poem, were old army camps with dormitory-style 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?
Key features/techniques:
Four stanzas Imagery Irony Simile Symbolism
Metaphorical motifs  imprisonment and segregation/migratory birds
Juxtaposition  hope is contrasted with fear

32. Migrant Hostel
The persona reminisces about the two years his family spent at the Parkes hostel for newly arrived migrants.
The immigrants are forced to spend this time in Parkes as a transition into Australian society.
The poet conveys the immigrants’ sense of isolation and dislocation during this time.
The promise of new life is not quickly realised and there is a sense of enforced imprisonment at the hands of an unsympathetic bureaucracy.

33. Some important concepts to remember:
The inhabitants of the hostel come and go but no one seems to have control or to have achieved a place to belong.
The immigrants continue to be haunted by their recent experiences that impact upon their ability to belong.
The barrier at the main gate symbolises isolation from the outside world and acts as a barrier to belonging.
The family question whether they will achieve belonging in their lives.
The immigrants congregate in nationality groups to provide mutual support and to create a transitory sense of belonging.

34. Migrant Hostel – analysis continued
Quotation
Technique
Effect and connection to IV
‘No one kept count/of all the comings and goings-’
Idiom , negative or neglected tone
Suggests chaos and lack of administration
‘Sudden departures.../That left us wondering’
Chaotic, erratic and uncertain tone
No preparations made to assist the migrants to feel as if they belong. They were left without a voice
‘Like a homing pigeon/circling to get bearings’
Bird motif, simile
The migrants are trying to find something familiar
‘We lived like birds of passage/Always sensing a change’
Bird motif, reference to temporary migrant workers, simile
Simile suggests they will be moving often.
‘A barrier.../sealed off the highway’
Metaphor
Sealed off from Australia and the chance to belong with society
‘As it rose and fell like a finger/Pointed in reprimand or shame’
Simile, accusatory tone
Figurative language refers to negative treatment – invited to migrate.
‘Needing its sanction/to pass in and out of lives/That had only begun/Or were dying’
Sibilance, irony
Patronising bureaucracy that control their existence

35. Questions
1. How does the first stanza create a sense of the instability and insecurity of the migrants? 2. Whose perspective is this poem from? How does this change the way that the migrants’ emotions are experienced? 3. Why would people from the same nationality seek “each other out instinctively”? What does this suggest about humans’ need for belonging? 4. What is the effect of the simile, “like a homing pigeon/ Circling to get its bearings”? 5. Even in a new country, groups separate themselves at night. What technique(s) are used to create a sense of their alienation from each other? 6. What is the effect of the simile, “like birds of passage”? What does it suggest about their existence and identity? 7. What did the barrier at the gate signal to the migrants about Australians’ acceptance of them? What is the effect of the simile, “rose and fell like a finger pointed in reprimand or shame”?

36. 8. What are the connotations of the words “partitioned”, “barrier” and “sealed off”? What do these words suggest about the migrants’ sense of belonging? 9. What is the effect of the last two lines? What do these lines mean? 10. Comment on the migrants’ perceptions of the extent of their belonging in Australian society, and the barriers to their belonging

37. St Patrick’s College Of her employer’s sons,
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.
Impressed by the uniforms
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”.
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 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.
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.

38. Impressed by the uniforms Of her employer's sons,
His mother’s reason for sending him seems superficial yet well intentioned.
Colloquial
St Patrick’s College
Impressed by the uniforms
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”.
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.
Religious reference to Mary the mother of Christ. The shadow has negative connotations
Reinforces his mother’s good intentions and hopes for his future
Let you light shine. This motto has no meaning to the poet at this point
Shows immaturity and a lack of respect for the school crest

39. I walked Strathfield's paths and streets, Played chasings up and down
He caught a bus & a train just to get to school. Irony is also used.
For eight years
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.
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.
Simile shows that he never felt like he belonged
Repetition of the time
The tone is sarcastic
Humour is used. The poet doesn’t feel like he has much to show from his time at the school

40. Everything seems to pass in a blur
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'd got for her money ‐
That the darkness around me
Wasn't "for the best"
Before I let my light shine
This links back to the 1st satnza of the poem. Note that Mary remains unchanged
Everything seems to pass in a blur
This also links to the previous stanza. The tone is quite dark. The school motto is mocked.

41. 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?

42. 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 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

43. Impressed by the uniforms Of her employer's sons,
His mother’s reason for sending him seems superficial yet well intentioned.
Colloquial
St Patrick’s College
Impressed by the uniforms
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”.
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.
Religious reference to Mary the mother of Christ. The shadow has negative connotations
Reinforces his mother’s good intentions and hopes for his future
Let you light shine. This motto has no meaning to the poet at this point
Shows immaturity and a lack of respect for the school crest

44. 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 paths and streets
Tone suggests ritual and lacks any passion. Not belonging

45. St Patrick’s analysis continued...
St Patrick’s College Analysis continued Quote
Technique
Effect – how it relates to belonging/not belonging
‘Like a foreign tourist/Uncertain of my destination.’
‘For eight years/I carried the blue, black and gold’
Assimilation into this school is a burden he must carry.
‘I’d been privileged to wear’
‘Could say the Lord’s Prayer/In Latin, all in one breath
No sense of connection to what he has learnt.
‘Our Lady still watching.../With closed eyes’
Poet is figuratively excluded by her ‘closed eyes’
‘Out of Edgar street for good;’
Relief at leaving place poet did not belong.
‘Prayed that someday Mother would be pleased’
Realises his mother has not achieved her aims.
“The darkness around me/Wasn’t ‘for the best’”
Darkness represents his sense of isolation and exclusion
‘Before I let my light shine’
He has succeeded in spite of school
St Patrick’s analysis continued...

46. 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.