Immigrants in Our Own Land

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1977

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Poetic Form and Structure

“Immigrants in Our Own Land” is written in free verse, without a regular meter or a rhyme pattern. The poem utilizes ordinary language delivered in a laidback tone. Both word choice and sentence structure convey the impression that these could be the words of a poorly or modestly educated inmate. A more rigorous poetic form or more refined diction would have diminished the authenticity of the speaker’s voice.

Nevertheless, the poet uses several devices to give the speaker’s statements poetic shape and tone. For example, the 70-line poem is divided into six stanzas of irregular length, ranging from seven to 17 lines. These divisions are by no means arbitrary. Shifts between stanzas signal changes in perspective and organize the speaker’s argument about the effects of incarceration. The first stanza describes the initiation into prison life and develops the analogy between prisoners and immigrants, allowing the reader to begin making sense of the poem’s title. The second stanza elaborates on the contrast between new inmates’ hopes and the dispiriting reality that awaits them. The third stanza emphasizes similarities between brutality and injustice within and without prison walls. In the fourth stanza, the speaker’s perspective becomes more focused as he depicts a typical prison scene. In the fifth stanza, he directs his attention to new arrivals, just like he was the object of older inmates’ gaze in the second stanza. There is a sense of a completed cycle: He now understands both the hopes of new inmates, like he once was, and the hopelessness of those who have lived in prison for a while, like he now has. The sixth and last stanza, then, spells out his conclusion: The effect of incarceration on most prisoners is detrimental rather than beneficial; the experience is more likely to debilitate than to rehabilitate them.

Pronoun Shifts: We/I/Some

The shifts in perspective that the poet develops by dividing the poem into stanzas is supported and clarified by his use of pronouns. The poem opens with the pronoun “We” (Line 1) as the speaker identifies himself as one in the group of inmates. That collective perspective is maintained throughout the first three stanzas, in which the word “we” is used 12 times, accompanied by frequent repetition of the words “us” and our.” Only in Lines 10-15, the collective identity of inmates is presented as internally diverse as the speaker differentiates between “Some” (Line 10), “Others” (Line 12), and ‘most of us” (Line 15). However, the very first word of the fourth stanza breaks that pattern: “My” (Line 42). The fourth and the fifth stanzas develop the speaker’s individualized perception, so the first-person singular pronouns (I/my) dominate. The speaker is no longer just one in the group as he was at the beginning of the poem. His speech at this point reveals that he has developed a more personal point of view. As he talks about the fate of prisoners in the last stanza, the emphasis is not on collective identity but on varied outcomes, though overwhelmingly negative, of incarceration. “Some” and “they” are the prevailing pronouns while “we” or “our” is completely absent. This may suggest that prison experiences gradually weaken the bond between inmates. However, a more plausible reading, based on Baca’s own development, is that the speaker distances himself from the negative effects of incarceration and implies, though never explicitly states, that he will strive to fend off bitterness and despair in an effort to be among “so very few [who] make it out of [prison] as human / as they came in” (Lines 66-67).

Anaphora

Another poetic device in the poem is anaphora, the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive poetic lines. While there are traces of it in earlier stanzas, Baca uses anaphora most explicitly in the last stanza. The word “Some” is at the beginning of Lines 62, 63, and 65; the phrase “as they” starts Lines 67-69; the expression “so long” appears in Lines 68-70. This is by far the most structured stanza in the poem, sounding more “poetic” than the rest. The development from the more conversational nature of early stanzas to the more formal tone of the last stanza, like pronoun shifts discussed above, suggests that the poem depicts the speaker’s implicit growth and his individuation from the collective inmate identity. It reflects his more mature point of view and his determination to escape, as much as he can, the debilitating effects of prison life.