Feliks Skrzynecki

Feliks Skrzynecki, composed by Peter Skrzynecki, is an affectionate, yet puzzled poem of the persona’s father, as seen through the eyes of the composer. The first stanza beings with the line, ‘My gentle father’ showing the reader that not only does this show some sort of affection and admiration the composer had for his father, but also some detachment. In the verse, it states the father’s devotion to his tasks stems from his sense of belonging to his garden; ‘Loved his garden like an only child’. This this tells the reader that his father took pride into his garden as if his son was merely nothing. Showing a strong connection lost between son and father. “Spent years walking its perimeter”, perimeter may represent some sort of boundary or barriers that the composer’s father had to face or endure endless loneliness.

The second stanza displays a strong emphasis on the composer’s father’s physical actions. The portrait is still depicted as an affectionate one, and admiration. “On five or six hours’ sleep each night-“directs one’s attention that his father was usually out and working long hours. The use of hyperbole - ‘Why his arms didn’t fall off’, is a display of subtle humour and deliberate exaggeration. This may act as a symbol of the difference in maturity between the son and father, and how he perceives his father’s actions as something he couldn’t achieve.

The first verse of the third stanza - ‘His Polish friends -’ again shows a sense of ownership and belonging by the use of possessive pro noun. It also states a cultural reference and shows how the son feels as if he doesn’t belong. ‘Talking, they reminisced…’ this line reflects how this group of men hold a shared past and highlights the sense of ‘brotherhood’. All of this ‘Did not dull the softness of his blue eyes’, which again signifies the love and admiration the son possesses for his father. Mild and subtle expression is used to symbolise his character through the depiction of his son. Even when