4 out of 4 stars
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The Immigrant’s Lament is a collection of poems written by Mois Benarroch. The simple definition of the term lament is to express grief or sorrow. This word serves as a general theme throughout the entire work of free-verse poetry. There is a total of 53 poems, spanning 91 pages. It was originally published in Hebrew in 1994. Since then, it has been published in other languages such as English and French.
The author, Mr. Benarroch, bears his heart and soul within this collection of poems. He shies away from no topic, covering both good and bad aspects of life. In his poems, he shines a light on immigration. He covers the experiences he and his family had as immigrants. These poems are heartwrenching commentaries about the struggle to fit in and be accepted. There are ones about love, his children, and past relationships. All these poems are packed with emotions. Some of his poems are just comments on society and himself. Reading such poems were refreshing when compared to the other, heavy topic ones. Sprinkled throughout the collection were poems covering topics like the writing process, the challenge of writing, and poems themselves. Seeing the author’s outlook and thoughts on writing was a nice addition to the collection. For me, this made the author more relatable. It is very clear that Mr. Benarroch didn’t just write these poems out of boredom or because it gave him something to do. These poems were written to heal, talk through the sadnesses, and to reflect on himself and the world around him.
I really liked the poems. A lot of them are thought-provoking and powerful. “My Poems”, “Highs and Lows”, and “The shore of the other” are a few that stood out to me. “The tea never arrived” is my favorite poem from the collection. I believe it is about how people will just sit and wait for something good to happen. Even if the good thing is never going to arrive, people will just sit and wait for it. I really like this poem because it is something I know I do a lot. Since reading it, I have noticed myself being a little more active about the good things I want to happen.
Although I really liked the poems, I didn’t like some of the words used in them. A few poems used vulgar language and topics. It was a bit shocking and left me feeling uncomfortable since I was not excepting that type of language to be used. For the most part, I think most of the points could have been made without the use of such words. However, if I read this book again, I will just skip over those parts.
I have never been big on poetry. I only read it when a class I was taking required it. This was my first book of poetry and I really enjoyed reading it. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. There were minor mistakes I noticed in the work, but nothing too big or distracting. Due to some the subject matter and language used in a few of the poems, I wouldn’t recommend this collection to an audience younger than 17 or 18 years of age. This book is best suited for adults who love poetry. I would also like to mention it does well as an introduction to the genre of poetry.
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The Immigrant's Lament
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