Peter Skrzynecki Summary And Analysis Of The Poem Belonging

‘Belonging doesn’t just happen; it involves many factors and experiences in order to feel that you truly belong’.
It is very true that or an individual to feel they truly belong. Belonging is a complex process and concept; it is not something that is felt strongly or sustained unless many elements work together. Feliks Skrzynecki lost his sense of connection with his son because his son peter Skrzynecki lost his sense of identity, connection with his background, culture and heritage.
Felix Skrzynecki explores the relationship between the poet and his, father, and contrasting experiences of belonging in a new land. The poem opens with a positive description of peter Skrzynecki claiming him as “My gentle father” and “the softness of his blue eyes”, indicating his dual nature; tough and uncompromising at work, soft and gentle inner nature at home.
This is a subdued poem in
tribute to his father, a common labourer, whose dignity, integrity and resolute principles leave a lasting impression on his son. Feliks does not dance to the dominant tune as evidenced by the modified cliché “kept pace only with the Joneses/of his own mind’s making-“He is a man who lives by his own standards, a non-conformist, not influenced by those around him. Feliks feels a close connection to place and people. He described at the beginning of the poem as loving ‘’his garden like an only child’’, sweeping its paths/ Ten times around the world’’. The simile and hyperbole evoke a sense of his of dedication to his garden and his paternal feelings towards it, connecting to this place like a father connects to an only child.
The second stanza further builds on the sense of belonging in the garden established in the first stanza. He is a hard labourer “Hands darkened with cement, fingers with cracks”. He has a strong sense of connection with garden and he worked so hard that and still he could cope with it. ‘’Like the sods he broke’’ and ‘’ from the soil he turned and the tobacco he rolled. The simile and hyperbole creates a sense of belonging in this setting, as he chooses to stay within its boundaries.
His sense of belonging also comes from his close connection to his polish friends who ‘’reminisced/ about the farm where paddock flowered/ horses they bred.’’ The accumulation of positive verbs conveys a sense of their nostalgia and shared pride in their culture heritage; a heritage that connects them together and fosters a sense of belonging.
The disconnection between father and son comes from the latter’s inability to retain his Polish heritage fully. He cannot relate to the Polish friends, with their violent handshakes, their formal address, their reminiscing about farming in Poland; he even begins to forget some Polish words, much to his father’s dismay. At the same time the persona – here the poet, admits that his father may be “Happy as I have never been.”
In contrast to the friends sense of belonging when they reminisce together, peter finds their speech and action alienating. The polish friends shake hands ‘’too violently,’’ and he never gets used to the formal address’’ by which they greet his father’’. Further suggest his disconnection and choice not to belong with his father’s friends. The negative connotations of ‘’violently’’ heighten the sense of peter’s discomfort in this situation. This feeling of alienation signals the beginning of peter’s movement from his polish heritage as a young person, but also the natural movement of a child away from their parents as they grow up.
The end of the stanza highlights Peter’s difference from his father in the face of discomfort; his father has endured the suffering of ‘’Five years of forced labour’’ without allowing ‘’the softness of his blue eyes’’ to be dulled. This forced labour was possible in a labour camp or a concentration camp during World War Two. The connotations of the verb ‘’dug’’ highlight Feliks’s stoicism in his direct speech, ‘’’but I’m alive’’’. His identity is firmly established as brave and resilient in the face of many obstacles, in contrast to Peter’s later reflections on his shifting identity.
The last three stanzas emphasise the contrast between the contrast between Feliks’s intimate sense of identity and Peter’s anxiety about his identity. Peter describes how he realized he unconsciously absorbed/ remembered parts of the polish language as he grew older: ‘’Remnants of a language/ I inherited unknowingly’’, highlighting peter’s lack of involvement in his cultural inheritance and his consequent lack of belonging in this domain. Peter Skrzynecki remembers his father’s ‘’curse that damned/ A crew-cut, grey-haired/ Department clerk’’. The unflattering description of the clerk conveys Peter’s contempt for this man’s prejudice and vindicates Feliks’s decision to live in an isolated world where he is comfortable.
An image of peace, security and belonging is presented in the sixth stanza’s description of Feliks in his garden.
A harmonious and peaceful atmosphere is created through the accumulation of positive images: My father’s sits out in the evening/ with his dog, smoking, / watching the stars and the street lights come on’’. Feliks’s self-sufficiency and contentment contrast to Peter’s discontent: ‘’ Happy as I have never been.’’ This is ironic, considering that Feliks’s life has been more difficult. Feliks’s capacity to enjoy a sense of belonging has come through his experience of suffering. His mind has been broadened to understanding what really matters in life.
The final stanza shifts the poem’s focus from Feliks to Peter’s lack of belonging in the domain of his heritage. Peter tells how he ‘forgot his first Polish word’, and then pegged his ‘’tents/Further and further south to Hadrian’s Wall.’’ This wall symbolizes the barrier between father and son, and the barrier that Peter self-imposes to impede his belonging in Polish culture. Yet, his belonging in his new culture is somewhat
ambiguous.
Peter Skrzynecki’s education has resulted in him moving away from his European heritage in a way that could appear to be positive. Yet, he moves away through Latin, a dead language that he ‘stumbles over’’ rather than masters. Indeed, he seems to be aware of the negative impact of his movement away, acknowledging that his father is ‘’Happy as I have never been.’’ Placing the adjective ‘’Happy’’ at the beginning of the line foregrounds his uncertainly about his process of movement away from his heritage. He perceives that his Polish heritage have been negative, but seems to have a modified awareness that it is not necessarily a positive thing to move away from one’s cultural homeland.