Immigrant Song

 

Sun Yung Shin (B 1974) is a Korean American poet, educator, writer and cultural worker, born in Seoul and raised in Chicago.  Her poetry collection 'A Skirt Full of Black' has won her Asian American Literary award for poetry.  Her poem 'Immigrant song' is not a poem with emotional challenges of immigration.  It is actually a political reflection of varied themes of migration, identity, the biology and history.  However, its fragmented structure is effectively cope with a sense of disorientation experienced by the immigrants.

The poem 'Immigrant Song' begins by saying 'All birds-even those that don't fly have wings'.  This makes us think about the immigrants and their displacement and resettlement.  The immigrants have to admit omissions and maintain a punctuated equilibrium in between past inherited experiences and the new homeland experiences.  Sometimes it may be like the death of the last individual of a species.  here the poet uses scientific references like gene flow, genetic drift, pangenesis as metaphors to describe the biological transformation process.  Gene flow is the transfer of genes from one population to another.  Genetic drifts will cause gene variants to disappear completely.  By mentioning Crick and Watson the double helix structure of DNA is mentioned here.  Thus the poet compares the biological evolution with cultural identity. 

Moreover Sun Yung Shin talks about Microcosmic soul and biology of 4.6 billion years.  By Evo-devo, evolutionary developmental biology is mentioned.  There is a correlation among genetics, development and evolution.  Biologically all the inherited identities are altered and erased.  Similarly all immigrants experience adaptation, hybridization and loss.  Thus 'Immigrant Song'  intricately weaves together themes of identity through a  blend of scientific and historical perspectives as an ongoing journey of Evo-devo.

-------Thulasidharan V