Things We Carry on the Sea

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Historical Context

Ping published “Things We Carry on the Sea” in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term as President of the United States. Immigration reform was a key part of Trump’s platform. Once elected, Trump enforced a number of bills and policies to limit or restrict immigration into the United States. These policies included capping the number of refugees allowed into the country from 84,995 down to 18,000, regardless of their reason for immigrating. Trump’s rhetoric surrounding these decisions played on concerns about drugs and violence, and it focused on what negative things the immigrants brought into the United States.

“Things We Carry” unravels that rhetoric by demonstrating the kinds of sacrifices required by immigrant families (See: Poem Analysis). Many of the “mother tongues” (Line 15) featured in the poem come from areas particularly targeted by Trump’s administration, including Asia, the Arab States, and South America. Ping’s selection of languages works to highlight the areas and language groups most threatened by immigration reform. Her speaker’s focus on the immigrants’ “diplomas” (Line 9) and education, meanwhile, argues against the government’s xenophobic rhetoric. The poem’s detailed articulation of reasons why people might immigrate, such as “proxy wars” (Line 4) and “industrial wastes” (Line 14), help to stress the importance of more relaxed policies.

Literary Context

Ping is one of the earlier Chinese American poets to write in English and is a major name in Asian American literature. Many of her works draw inspiration from both Chinese and American literary traditions and include Chinese characters. While “Things We Carry on the Sea” shows some Chinese influence, its form and subject matter bear similarities to the American literature Ping would have studied at university.

The poem’s free verse form and reliance on repeated first-person pronouns draws on American works like Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Whitman, considered America’s first major poet, uses the same techniques to present his American identity as an individual and part of a greater whole. The speaker of “Song of Myself” declares their identity in the same way that Ping’s collective speaker declares their burdens. The formal connection between these poems preempts the question of immigration and situates Ping’s speaker(s) as American and formed by American cultural influences. This American cultural influence is likely why the speaker includes anglicized pronunciations of the speaker’s “mother tongues” (Line 15). The immigrants, like the poem itself, are prepared for reception in English. By using Whitman’s techniques, Ping connects herself (and issues of immigration) to the American literary canon.