Feliks Skrzynecki's Poem Analysis: Belonging

Belonging is the process of identification that recognizes the relationship between individuals and the society. It expands over time and is inconsistent, depending on the social and cultural contexts. This process can reveal our identities by challenging our morals. This can create tension between our need to fit in and our aspirations of individuality to establish the significance of inner self. The concept of belonging isn’t just the perception of identity, but the connections they create with broader communities. Belonging accommodates for shifting attitudes and enlightens new experiences with people and places hence a constantly evolving relationship between ourselves and the world.

Feliks Skrzynecki is a poem which examines the consequences of immigration by investigating the psychological and emotional implications it has on belonging. Immigration is a disruptive process which transfers a person from one location to another, it can be
destabilizing and daunting. The poem expresses the alienation of living his life in Australia and losing his traditions and customs of his father’s Polish background. Time is an important factor which emphasizes the disconnection between father and son as Peter stars to get older. He struggles to understand his culture and essentially he attaches to the Australian culture and he alienates himself from his father’s Polish culture.

The poem emphasizes on the shifting perspectives of Peter Skrzynecki from his childhood the adulthood.
Hyperbole reveals an impression of how extremely proud and admired his stepfather was in Poland. Imagery of his father’s strength and power as well as the exaggeration of his stamina suggests the strength of courage during the War after being captured and kept in a concentration camp. Centralization of “his garden”, that presents that he could invest his himself and energy into it. The quotation of Feliks Skrzynecki creates a discordant effect and the level of formality shows a sense of alienation between his father’s friends and him imply a distancing effect. The use Enjambment to portray the psychological dimensions of his pain and the contrast between the father and son and their shifting attitudes towards his son’s disconnection with his Polish spirituality. The irony of forgetting his forgetting his first word whilst studying Latin is symbolic because he starts losing his faith and has ultimately lost his
belief.

Inevitably this poem depicts the unstoppable cycle of immigration and how it can tarnish the cultures of generations causing a distancing effect therefore isolating himself from his fathers Polish background. Moving away from the Northern hemisphere and attaching himself Southern is the path of belonging for his son who has adapted the cultures and traditions of Australia and has forgotten his ancestors traditions.