10 Mary St Essay

The poem 10 Mary street by Peter Skryznecki changes the reader’s perspective toward the migrant experience as it is written from the eyes of a young Peter looking at his parents new life in Australia and how they attempted to keep a bond with the old Poland that he himself never knew. As in the poem ‘the door’ by Miroslav Holub, the poet uses one metaphor to tie the entire poem together, in the case of Skryznecki’s poem, this metaphor is that of the house. The house represents the old culture of the parents and their attempts to keep it alive within a distant culture. Within the house the culture, and time, is preserved through “photographs and letters” from relatives, whereas outside the house time is passing, things are aging or developing. This resistance to change, repeated several times throughout the poem is demonstrated through the family maintain routine described in the first stanza, giving them a sense of security, and use the metaphor of a “still too-narrow” bridge to symbolise the distance between Australian and European culture. Throughout the poem we, as the responder, are given examples of how much the family cares and looks after their house: “tended roses and camellias like adopted children” and in the fourth stanza “paint guaranteed for another ten years”. This reinforces the idea that migrant families attempted to recreate their homeland in their homes and gained a sense of security through familiarity in a country with a completely different culture. The poet uses subtle metaphors within this poem, in particular in the first stanza; “a rusty bucket”. This contrasts with the well-oiled lock two lines previous and shows how time is passing outside the house, but within the house time is frozen in that of their homeland at the time of their departure. This contrast between things that are changing and things that are not recurs in the third stanza where their little house in its “china blue coat” stands defiantly, resistant to change, frozen in...