To understand the poem, we must first understand the poet. Keith Tan is a Singaporean poet whose work frequently navigates the liminal space between Eastern ancestry and Western education. Born into a multicultural, multilingual society, Tan writes from a uniquely hybrid perspective. “From Journeys” is widely believed to have been written during or shortly after his studies abroad—likely in the United Kingdom or the United States.
“From Journeys” is composed of five stanzas of irregular length, ranging from two to six lines. No fixed rhyme scheme governs the poem; instead, Tan relies on slant rhymes and internal echoes (e.g., “pulls it” / “Osaka”; “live at” / “run” / “been”). This free-verse approach mirrors the unpredictability of travel—no two journeys follow the same rhythm. from journeys poem analysis keith tan
By allowing sentences to run over line breaks, Tan creates a rhythmic "momentum" that mimics the continuous motion of a traveler. To understand the poem, we must first understand the poet