Skrzynecki

__The Immigrant Chronicles - Prescribed Text__

Peter Skrzynecki is a Polish/Ukranian migrant who came out to Australia with his parents when he was a child. His poetry re-lives the experiences of that social and cultural sphere, the shock of culture change. The poems we will study include: These seven poems make up the prescribed text list for your HSC. It is therefore important that you familiarise yourself with the content and meaning each poem. And, most importantly, you need to understand and be able to communicate how the poems represent the concept of belonging.
 * 10 Mary Street
 * Migrant Hostel
 * Post Card
 * Feliks Skrzynecki
 * Ancestor's
 * St. Patrick's College
 * In the Folk Museum


 * To prepare yourself for exams and assessments, use the following questions:

__10 Mary Street__
 * 1) What is the tone of the author?
 * 2) How does the shift in tense affect the meaning of the poem?
 * 3) What impact does the description of the 'china blue coat' have?
 * 4) Evaluate Skrzynecki's attachment to the house? What does it symbolize to him?

__Migrant Street__
 * 1) Discuss how the following techniques have been used to convey a sense of belonging (include examples from the poem):
 * 2) Irony
 * 3) Juxtaposition
 * 4) Personification
 * 5) Metaphor
 * 6) How does this poem explain the migrant experience?
 * 7) Throughout the poem birds have been used to describe the shared experience of migrants as a whole. Why is this so powerful and how has this been achieved?

__Post Card__
 * 1) How has colour been used to gauge the mood of the poem?
 * 2) Discuss Skrzynecki's use of irony in illustrating the differences between the idealised perception of the postcard and the author's reality of 'old Warsaw'.
 * 3) What is the significance of the postcard? What does it stand for?

__Feliks Scrzynecki__
 * 1) What is the basis of this poem?
 * 2) How does it explain the relationship between Peter and his father? What techniques have been used to achieve this? And, how have they been used?
 * 3) How has the use of person affected the poem?

__Ancestors__
 * 1) Discuss who the ancestors are; What do they mean to Skrzynecki?
 * 2) The landscape is used progressively throughout this text to allude to the ancestors. Assess the effectiveness of this imagery in expressing the author's view.
 * 3) List three other techniques that have been used in this poem:
 * 4) What is it?
 * 5) How has it been used?
 * 6) How does it convey a sense of belonging OR how does it add to the overall sense of belonging?

__St. Patrick's College__
 * 1) In the first stanza, it is apparent that Skrzynecki does not come from a economically advantaged background. What affect does this have on his need to belong?
 * 2) Assess the role of his mother - what is it about her that Skrzynecki subversively mocks?
 * 3) How does culture manifest itself in this poem?
 * 4) How is the little cap he wears symbolic?

__In the Folk Museum__
 * 1) What is the mood Skrzynecki has created in the museum?
 * 2) Evaluate the role of the artefacts that litter the museum? How are they uncomfortable reminders of a unattached past?
 * 3) Why does the author regress from the old woman when she asks him to sign the visitors book?