#tishanidoshi

‘Be grateful for the poet Tishani Doshi.’ —Jeet Thayil

‘An original and sensory exploration of beauty and loss in the environment and in the body.’ —Imtiaz Dharker

‘These terrific poems are a document of history, survival and the recurring need for transcendence.’—Amit Chaudhuri

‘In Egrets, While War, grief and beauty share the same open palm.’—Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Tishani Doshi (feat. DJ Jason Singh) reciting The Immigrant's Song

As a brief summary of “The Immigrants Song,” the speaker, a former immigrant addresses other immigrants in a series of “what not to do,” request. The author, Tishani Doshi provides many poetic devices like repetition, mood, and mainly imagery. The purpose for the immigrant to be speaking to other immigrants is to help them with their transition in a new country, probably America. The author also leaves it up to the reader to infer where the immigrants are from. When the speaker mentions the baobabs, and how the immigrants need not mention how men were stolen from their beds at night, I can infer that these immigrants are from some country in Africa. This is based on the fact that baobabs are distinct, native trees from Africa and that in many countries in Africa, men are forced to either fight in wars or take part in illegal selling of almost anything. However, imagery plays a huge role in readers being able to decipher what kind of immigrants these people are. The first few lines continue:

Let us not speak of those days  when coffee beans filled the morning  with hope, when our mothers' headscarves  hung like white flags on washing lines. (Lines 1-4)

Doshi, the author is able to vividly describe the setting of the immigrants. Through her use of this visual imagery, I can picture everyone being hopeful in the morning because it is a new day. Also, the lines 3-4 have double meanings. The easiest and literal meaning is the immigrants mothers’ hanging their headscarves like white flags on washing lines but the hidden meaning is that the people have submitted to whatever oppression or war they deal with, hence “like white flags,” which are symbolized as surrendering. These first lines are extremely important because they provide readers with an insight to what the immigrants feel and live like. It sets the tone for the rest of the poem. Another important example of great imagery is as followed:

Let us not name our old friends  who are unravelling like fairy tales  in the forests of the dead. (Lines 23-25)

Here the author uses another simile to help support the image of their loved ones forever gone. Instead of simply saying they are dead, the author provides depth to these lines by playing of the “fairy tale” theme in saying that they are in, “the forest of the dead.”