Butterflies
The motif of the butterfly, especially the monarch butterfly, can be found throughout the collection. The monarch is known for its annual migration from one hemisphere to another and then have its young return to the birth soil of its forebears. It is a unifying element because of the cycles of metamorphosis, assimilation, and migration in its life parallels the stages of life of the author. Moreover, the butterfly is not just used to symbolize the author-poet himself but all migrants in general.
“Second-Hand Black Tweed Jacket”
In the second segment of the anthology where the author-poet talks about his life as a new migrant he makes use of an interesting metaphor, a second-hand black tweed jacket, to illustrate the process of assimilating into a new culture. He likens the act of donning an item of previously worn clothing to the migrant experience where millions of people, metaphorically, put on almost a completely new identity, adapting a language, a culture, a completely new mindset not at all their own but must be “closely worn” for them to fit in a bit better.
Sky/Flight
Mentions of the sky or the act of flight are used symbolically by the author-poet to amplify the immensity of the butterfly’s migratory journey and as a metaphor for the limbo state between a place one used to call home and a destination that one would have to get acclimated to. Through the butterflies, being symbolic of migrants—whether the author-poet or all immigrants—the reader is given a glimpse of it is like to be caught in an immense state of flux and the fear and anxiety that this state of instability brings about.
Trinidad
The nation of Trinidad is often used in the anthology as an allegory for youth, happy memories, and/or a fragment of the author’s identity. Tragically however this fragment is one that the author-poet realizes later on is one that can no longer be revisited as it only exists in his memory. Despite that Trinidad remains for him an enduring symbol of simpler, happier times for him that help to bolster his mind and emotions against the more grim realities of life.
Brixton
The author-poet eventually settles down in Brixton, a district in south London where the largest concentration of Afro-Carribean migrants stay. Robinson describes himself as a “British resident with a Trini sensibility” and as such the area of Brixton serves as an appropriate symbol-metaphor for the author-poet as the area shares many parallels with his cultural mindset being both very British and very Afro-Carribean.
