Language and style

When analyzing a poem, you should always take your time analyzing the language and style. Here, we help you identify some of the stylistic features of the poem "Immigrants in Our Own Land".

Playing with the language

First of all, consider whether the poem plays with the language. Though the language is simple and straightforward, without many figures of speech, you can notice that ambiguity is the overall characteristic of the text. Readers can interpret the poem either as about life in prison or as about the life of immigrants.

Ambiguity

The author constructs the ambiguity by combining words related to prison life [“my cell” (l.42), “rehabilitation” (l.21), “the bars” (l. 47), “walls” (l.19)] with words related to immigration [“new immigrants” (l. 55), “new land” (l.8)]. 

Furthermore, the author creates images that allude to prison life: “overalls like mechanics wear” (l.5), “sticking his hands through the bars” (ll. 46-47).

However, many other images suggest that the poem compares the life of immigrants with that of prisoners: “At the gates we are given new papers” (l.3); “We came here to get away from false promises” (l. 33)

Tense of the verbs

In the poem, we can identify verbs at present tense simple, present tense perfect, past tense simple and future tense simple.

Most of the poem is, however, written in the present tense, suggesting the permanence of the immigrants’ situation: “stare” (l. 16), “pass” (l.18), “are” (l.20), “go about” (l. 27), etc. Past tense simple is used to describe their past lives and their start in the new land: “were” (l. 10), “used” (l.13), “talked” (l.21), “came” (l. 33)

Future tense simple is used in the last stanza to suggest reflec...