Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Son is in Secondary School by Affran Sa’at
My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something
At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem
It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays
I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts
The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another
Seven to the power of five is unreasonable
On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo
The capital of Singapore is Singapore
My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper
In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me
Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment
When my eyes were actually closedEach stanza in this poem talks about different situations and happenings in school. The stanzas were arranged in Single lined stanzas, couplets, triplets and quatrain. The poem appears to be written without a regular rhyme, rhythm or form. The poem sounds natural and resembled everyday conversation. There were two uses of alliteration in the entire poem in stanza 2 & 3. The uses of imagery in this poem were humorous. Imagery was used in stanza 5, 7 and 10-12. The poems speaks about life as a student and was brought about humorously. The single lined stanzas looked like pure randomness. His poem is fun and interesting.
1st Stanza
It was the only stanza written with the subtle rhythm and the only rhythm found in the entire poem. The use of the last sentence appeared very similar to students in our modern times where we do not really care about anything in school. We just go with the flow of each passing day.
2nd Stanza
The author writes about the interruption during the singing of the national anthem and it seems like it was part of everyday life. In our dailt lives, there are always 1 or 2 jokers who would be talking or fidgeting around till the singing of the national anthem. The black crows seems to be symbolise these people.
3rd Stanza
The author appears to enjoy Wednesday despite getting his shoes dirty. It was the only day he mentioned out of the seven days a week. The author must have had some type of fun every Wednesday so he does not mind getting his shoes dirty.
4th Stanza
Two words caught my attention in this stanza, 'must admit'. This brings about a feeling of him not liking the scouts at 1st. However, he later admits the good points of the scouts. There are hints of him being unwilling to think that scouts actually have good points.
5th Stanza
The author seems to want a chauffeur to ferry him to and from school as well. Of all the things he notices in school and writes, the chauffeurs was one of the items he wrote. This shows a want in him. This stanza also includes imagery. It allows us to imagine the people chatting and sitting at the kerb, awaiting the dismissal of the people they needed to fetch.
6th Stanza
This one lined stanza expresses his resentment and dislike for mathematics. He does not seem to understand simple things such as seven to the power of five.
7th Stanza
This stanza uses imagery as well. It brings humour when one imagines a person singing malay songs and wearing a malay costume during Chinese new Year. This incident left a deep impression on the author. This can be seen from him choosing to write about this instead of the traditions of Chinese New Year like redpackets and the traditions the Chinese have during the new year.
8th Stanza
This is simply free verse. I don't think anything can be analysed from this x.x
9th Stanza
This shows a typical student who did not study and tries to pass with simply writing the same answer as some of them are bound to be the correct answer. This situation happens often enough during exams. When one does not know what the answer should be, one tends to randomly put down an answer as that gives a chance of getting the question correct. One tends to try one's luck and hope they get it correct.
10th-12th Stanza
The final few stanzas talk about his final item in his school life - the photo taking for the annual yearbook. This represented the end of the school year for him. His picture was taken with his eyes closed and that the humorous twist and end of the poem.
