The major device used in
this poem is , a comparison of two unalike things where one is said
to be the other. The immigrants's past is compared to a "heavy cargo" that they
"smuggled in" to their new home in another country. The metaphor emphasizes how heavy
the significance of their past feels and how many memories they bring with them.
This metaphor is extended when the narrator says that they did not "declare"
their "nostalgia" and "memories of distant people," places, and moments in
cities they will, perhaps, never see again and are "already fading" from their
memories. The metaphor goes on, as the narrator claims that they "leave a trail / Of
unsuspected contraband" everywhere they go in this new place. Their heavy cargo of memories
seems to become scattered, dropping from their bags bit by bit, and their old memories and
values and traditions "sometimes" pollute and "sometimes" enrich their new,
adopted, home.
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