“We are the tenants”
With close reference to the text, discuss the poet’s use of imagery to describe the North.
The poem 'We are the tenants' by Kapha Kassabova describe the immigrant experience of arriving in New Zealand. This poet uses imagery effectively to describe the North as a disappointment place. For example, the imagery in the second stanza used a simile; 'their lives were temporary just like ours', 'We have arrived in the o just as we arrived in the South before' This technique capture a negative picture of the North as a temporary place as they are always moving around packing their things to move into other places and start a new life. As they move over a new place they're receiving old mails that were old people mails. The author also used juxtaposition and repetition in the second stanza; 'We have been nowhere forever', 'We are the ones possessed by arrival', 'We wake up with the cockroaches of the strange mornings'. The technique juxtaposition is used in the first sentence giving us the message of the tenants that they're always arriving but never stayed. The word 'cockroaches' imply the feeling of revulsion and the 'strange' connoting the feeling of uncomfortable and disappointment of their everyday life. The metaphor in the third stanza 'We are the tenants of imaginary floors' suggest the idea of imagining the life they want and having a temporary place to live in and hopelessness. Lastly, the poet finishing with the strike of a metaphor comparing their world to the 'kingdom of some Pied Piper' which compare their life to the ancient german tale and they have no control to anything.
