The Immigrant's Song

Doshi’s “The Immigrant's Song” is a free verse poem written with no metrical pattern or rhyme scheme, although some end rhymes occur. The poem, while appearing to be divided into two stanzas, functions as a single unit with one italicized word (“disappeared,” Line 14) as a crux or pivot point partway through the poem. “The Immigrant's Song” is musical, using anaphora—the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence—to drive the poem forward (“Let us not,” Line 1, Line 4, Line 11, etc.).

Many of the lines in the poem function as commands. For instance, the speaker of the poem begins by commanding the audience (presumably an audience of fellow immigrants) not to speak of the past. This is immediately contradicted as the poem dives into vibrant sensory memories of the lost homeland (represented by coffee beans, white headscarves hung to dry on the line, singing birds, and the shape of baobab leaves). The poem opens citing nearly every sense—smell, sight, sound, and touch—painting a picture of fragrant, vibrant memories of which the speaker says must not be spoken.

In Line 11, the poem turns from pleasant, welcoming memories to the

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