Home (Warsan Shire poem) Essay Questions

Do you agree that 'Home' by Warsan Shire is a poem that is evidence of the mantra "the personal is political"?

The saying "the personal is political" originated in the feminist movement of the late 20th century, as campaigners made the case that women's rights and freedoms—such as access to abortion and contraception—were political and went beyond the individual woman to involve all of society. Considering this history, it can be argued that Shire's poem takes up this mantra. Whilst the plight of the refugee is a very personal thing, the idea of being a refugee crosses legal, political and socio-economic frameworks. For this reason, the personal journey that refugees undertake to escape zones of famine, drought, natural disaster or conflict is a political journey at the same time, seeing as it raises questions about belonging and status in the host country.

How does the form of 'Home' reflect its content?

'Home' is written in stanzas of irregular lengths; at points, sentences stretch across many lines and even stanzas. This irregularity mirrors the stark, unpredictable aspect of life as a refugee. The absence of capital letters gives us the impression that it is written by a child or in the voice of childhood. This is because children normally focus on what goes on and this poem is largely concerned with description. It also suggests a hurried approach to writing the poem, almost as if the speaker is worried that they might run out of time to tell their story and so chooses to ignore grammar rules. The speaker addresses 'you'—this 'you' could be interpreted as the individual reader of the poem or a generic address to the Western world, whose political leaders have been criticized for lack of action over the refugee crisis. The occasional use of punctuation makes the moments where it appears even more powerful and poignant. For example, the line 'i want to go home,' which ends with a comma, forces the reader to take a short pause, reminding us of the importance of having a home to return to.

Analyze the use of imagery in 'Home' by Warsan Shire.

The imagery used by Shire in "Home" is evocative and sometimes violent. In the first stanza and then throughout, home is compared to "the mouth of a shark" and "the barrel of a gun." Clearly, the reader understands that the "mouth of a shark" is a dangerous place to be, somewhere that implies you are prey being consumed by a predator. In the same way, "the barrel of a gun" is a direct reference to war and conflict, one of the most common reasons for refugee influxes. The statement that "no one crawls under fences / no one wants to be beaten / pitied // no one chooses refugee camps / or strip searches where your / body is left aching" is a direct and unvarnished depiction of what life is like as a refugee, with the dehumanizing image of "strip searches" confirming the abuses to which refugees are so frequently subject.