Peter Skrzynecki In The Folk Museum Poem Meaning

Belonging Essay

An individual’s choices and experiences affect their sense of belonging whether that is through searching intently or forming an attachment through physical objects and their surroundings. Sometimes it is needed to stop searching in order to find a sense of belonging. The more that individual seeks out and looks for a sense of belonging the harder it may become to find what they are searching for. That individual becomes desperate and may settle for something less than they require. When this happens it will always leave them with a greater sense of feeling alienated and isolated as they start to question their sense of purpose and why you do not belong. This is shown through Peter Skrzynecki’s poem “In the Folk Museum” and

“Untitled” by Anna Peters through the use of various literary techniques and devices.

In order for Peter Skrzynecki to find a sense of belonging, in the poem “In the Folk Museum”, I believe it was needed for him to stop seeking out such.

He needed to make the choice to stop yearning to find that sense of belonging in physical aspects of his life such as described in this quote, ‘machinery, clothes, transport, a Victorian bedroom – hay knife, draining plough, shoulder yolk, box iron.’ Illustrated by the quote, and the use of asyndeton, Skrzynecki is listing off all these different relics as he sees them but does not find a connection with. In the line, ‘I look at words’ the short diction, word choice and line length shows us different variations of disconnection. He is looking at these relics and says they are ‘to remind me of a past that isn’t mine.’ How is one supposed to remember a past they never knew? Rather than try to uncover a past he had no connection with he ought to have sought solace in the present. Things he could connect to without his Polish heritage. In the third stanza, Skrzynecki uses the quote ‘the grey clay bottle that’s cold as water to touch.’ This simile and use of the word cold is symbolic of his uncomfortable interaction with the museum. Belonging is the feeling and sense of warmth and light. When

he refers to in the first stanza, the darkness of the rooms, he is juxtaposing that to the warmth and comfort he is meant to experience if he belonged to this museum and the items that are in it. Additionally, he says ‘I try to memorise the titles of books’ this explains the struggle he experiences trying to remember something he is not familiar with and cannot relate and belong to. When he talks about the caretaker sitting by the winnowing machine and knitting without looking up, he is explaining how he perceives her disinterest in him, which in effect makes his sense of belonging even lesser. That is also similar to when the old woman says ‘would you please sign the visitors book?’ it once again enforces this idea that he appears as a visitor and someone who is passing through. He is someone who does not belong to that museum. Towards the end of the poem we take away a feeling of discontent just as Skrzynecki did because he kept searching for something that would never be obtainable, this desire to fulfil a need for connection to his heritage.

In “Untitled” by Anna Peters she reinforces ideas of an individual’s experiences and how it affects their sense of belonging through different literary techniques and devices.

Similarly to Skrzynecki’s poem “In the Folk Museum” there are different key themes and ideas explored. In the lines ‘I am not a Sunday morning or a Friday sunset/… I am a broken window during February’ these are metaphors that are contrasted against each other. The feeling an individual gets from a ‘Sunday morning’ or a ‘Friday sunset’ are typically warm, light-hearted, comforting emotions just like those associated with that of belonging. Sunday mornings can represent getting up late, being comfortable and warm amongst those you belong to, whereas a Friday sunset can depict a calming end to the week where one can return to those close to them. On the contrary the choice of diction such as ‘broken’ and ‘February’ are linked to feelings of coldness, darkness, and a fragile detachment just like the concepts found in Skrzynecki’s poem. The quote ‘I am a Tuesday 2am, I am gunshots muffled by a few city blocks’ metaphorically displays a comparison between being physically noticed and the authors sense of invisibility. A 2am on a Tuesday is an insignificant, unremarkable time of the week which passes by without anyone noticing it. ‘Gunshots muffled’ is a similar representation in that it can be only heard but not seen, passing by undetected. “I sometime believe that I don’t belong around people, that I

belong to all the leap days that didn’t happen’ suggests that the author cannot relate to the people around her or her surroundings in a similar way to which Skrzynecki could not to relate to objects in the museum. This led to both Anna Peter’s and Peter Skrzynecki’s lack of inclusion.

In both of the author’s works they use references to their disconnection of surroundings through literary techniques, the word choice, and diction of dark and cold to reinforce their lack of belonging. Between Skrzynecki’s choice and desire to seek out a sense of belonging from his past heritage in which he never knew and Peter’s experiences and sense of ambiguity within herself, they both unveil these barriers to feeling as though they don’t belong. The texts and quotes prove the fact that an individual will feel deflated and disconnected if they keep searching for this sense of belonging in things and surroundings in which they have never been connected. Physical objects and ideations about what belonging will not provide whoever it may be with that sense of comfort they may be truly seeking out.