Many modern poems explore identity: who we are, where we belong and what we inherit. In “Migration”, a father carries “our country in a suitcase”, and the speaker wears his language “like a borrowed coat”.
Poets present identity through objects, language and place. Enjambment can carry ideas across stanzas, linking past and present, as when the final sentence runs across the last two stanzas and connects three countries.
Consider how the poem redefines a key idea. The final line, “This is the nation”, suggests a nation is something people carry within them, not only a place on a map.
Worked example
What does the simile “like a borrowed coat — it fits me in the shoulders, not the sleeves” suggest?
- A borrowed coat belongs to someone else.
- It fits partly, but not completely.
Answer:The speaker belongs to the father's language and culture only partly.
Key words
- identity
- who a person is and how they see themselves
- heritage
- traditions passed down
- enjambment
- a sentence running on across a line or stanza break
New questions every time.
Common Core-referenced: RL.11-12.4