The Immigrant's Song

“The Immigrant’s Song” follows a rich literary tradition of poems written by immigrants and indigenous peoples who often emigrate from their country of birth for assorted reasons—including genocide, war, turmoil, or in search of a better life—and settle in Europe or the United States. These poets often speak multiple languages, bringing with them a set of deep cultural values that are sometimes at odds with their new country of residence. Poems of this literary tradition often feature multiple languages (English and the poet’s native tongue), nods to cultural customs from other nations, and sometimes a feeling of being “othered,” left out, or needing to act a certain way in order to “fit in.”

Many of these attributes are evident in Doshi’s “Immigrant’s Song,” a poem that begins with the commanding phrase, “Let us not speak” (Line 1), in immediate reference to the silencing of immigrants. Doshi’s poem explores memories and cultural customs of the country left behind (“mothers’ headscarves,” [Line 3]) and defining geographic characteristics (“baobabs,” (Line 7); “those nameless birds,” [Line 9]). Doshi’s poem, like so many poems exploring what it means to be an immigrant in a new land, seeks to leave behind the war, turmoil, and difficult memories of the previous country (“men, / stolen from their beds at night,” [Lines 11-12]) in favor of blending into the new country in which they find themselves (“break bread / in cafés,” [Lines 18-19]). As is common with poems of this literary tradition (and a common sentiment immigrants feel), Doshi’s poem straddles two worlds. The poem moves back to the country of origin in the final lines, as though returning to a warm, welcoming home. For a second time, the speaker recalls fragrant, beautiful details of a place that no longer exists. This is a common, heartbreaking feature of immigrant poems: a homesickness for a past to which one can never return for, in many cases, the country (or town or village) quite literally no longer exists. Other poems to explore in this tradition are Richard Blanco’s “The Island Within” and Prageeta Sharma’s “On Immigration.”