Home in Our Hearts

In the poem "Home" by Warsan Shire, she dives into the hardships of immigrants. The poem dips into several things you would see on your way out of a war torn country, like young children being apart of militia groups, having to hide inside trucks over long distances, and the painful choices you have to make along the way. In my opinion this poem means that your survival is more important than your pride. The speaker says in lines 29-34, "no one spends days and nights on the stomach of a truck / feeding on newspaper unless the miles traveled / means something more than the journey / no one crawls under fences / no one wants to be beaten / pitied..." Shire is expressing in these lines that even though this is something no one wants to do they do it because if they don't they may die or be subjected to more horrors. As you go on the road to a better life you must forget pride and accept help and shame to survive. That message is so powerful to me since I've never had to forget my pride for my survival, and this poem stresses how one may not be viable at all times with the other.

I love this poem because she uses so much imagery and tone to carry a powerful message to all readers. She emulates so many exhausting emotions that real immigration and refugees feel. Shire writes in lines 15-22, "it’s not something you ever thought of doing / until the blade burnt threats into / your neck / and even then you carried the anthem under / your breath / only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets / sobbing as each mouthful of paper / made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back." Tone and imagery are both at work there, it expresses that your country is no longer safe you have now been forced to leave and its very sad, but you still love your country. Doing the best for yourself is always hard when it's something you shouldn't be made to do. Which is why these lines, and this poem as a whole is so emotional and raw.