The Butterfly Hotel is an intensely personal collection of poetry, written by Trinidadian-British poet Roger Robinson. Each of the three sections included in this collection tells a story about a particular area of Robinson's life, informed heavily by his memories and experiences.
Robinson's poetry illuminates the experiences of Caribbean immigrants living in London during the 20th Century, based on his own experience moving to London as an adult. In the collection, he writes about his experiences living both in Trinidad and in Brixton, and how they differ.
Trinidad is a key location in the collection and is used to represent youth, happiness, and innocence. This location is a somewhat troublesome aspect of Robinson's identity, which he must reconcile with his life as an adult in London. As expected from the title of this collection, butterflies make frequent appearances in his poetry. The Monarch butterfly is known for its annual migration, which Robinson symbolically relates to his own experiences. Overall, this is a significant image in the collection which beautifully captures Robinson's life and experiences as an immigrant.
