10 Mary street by Peter Skrzynecki

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�...