https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland poetry analysis en-us 2016-05-05 20:43:51 UTC 2025-08-12 15:00:35 UTC hello@padlet.com 546706765 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109523213
Beyond the red brick of Ellis Island 
 where the two Slovak children 
 who became my grandparents 
 waited the long days of quarantine, 
 after leaving the sickness, 
 the old Empires of Europe, 
 a Circle Line ship slips easily 
 on its way to the island 
 of the tall woman, green 
 as dreams of forests and meadows 
 waiting for those who’d worked 
 a thousand years 
 yet never owned their own. 

 Like millions of others, 
 I too come to this island, 
 nine decades the answerer 
 of dreams. 
 
Yet only part of my blood loves that memory. 
 Another voice speaks 
 of native lands 
 within this nation. 
 Lands invaded 
 when the earth became owned. 
 Lands of those who followed 
 the changing Moon, 
 knowledge of the seasons 
 in their veins. ]]> 2016-05-05 20:51:19 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109523213 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109523468 2016-05-05 20:53:31 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109523468 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525543
"Lands invaded when the Earth became owned" ]]> 2016-05-05 21:10:42 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525543 546706765 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525561 When Brochac describes the woman as being "tall" and "green" he is alluding to the Statue of Liberty.

]]> 2016-05-05 21:10:50 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525561 546706765 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525590 The attitude is mixed, it's hope and happiness in the first stanza of his poem, but then changes to melancholy/ sadness is the third stanza.]]> 2016-05-05 21:11:06 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525590 546706765 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525623  America's beginnings were both good and bad; taking land from Natives in order to give freedom to the rest of the world. ]]> 2016-05-05 21:11:18 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525623 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525632 The shift happens in stanza two. In stanza one his European side is happy to be in America,  but in the third stanza his voice shifts to a more sad tone because he is talking about his Native American blood and how their land is being "invaded" by the immigrants. ]]> 2016-05-05 21:11:28 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109525632 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109526256 The author describes the false hope in Europe, and how his grandparents migrated to Ellis Island for a better life. He later reveals that his European side of his family invaded the home of the Natives, the other half of his family, which makes him only love part of that memory of Ellis Island. ]]> 2016-05-05 21:16:46 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109526256 https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109527843 The Statue of Liberty which represents freedom is being described "as dreams of forests and meadows" where people have arrived through Ellis Island to have a better life. To be able to own what in a thousand years in Europe they wouldn't be able to own.]]> 2016-05-05 21:30:41 UTC https://padlet.com/546706765/P7_ellisisland/wish/109527843