Monday, May 24, 2010

Poems: A Three-Part Trilogy

Part 1:
Poets thoughts/feelings:

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Gentle Reminder:
Well, I worked really hard on this. It took me a measurable amount of time to type this out, think and double-check. I know an easy way out would be to just copy and paste everything here, change a few words to avoid detection. Please don't. Do it the proper way. Just like I did. Whether you want to or not is up to you so just remember that. Only you know if you have broken the rules.
Enjoy!

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My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something
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Immediately we can see that the poet takes a very lax attitude towards his schooling because he does not even bother to learn his school motto!
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At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem
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I will not be taking "black crows" literally. Although it is possible that black crows refer to actual black crows, one can infer that these black crows are actually naughty or misbehaving school children. This shows the growing disgust the poet has for his fellow schoolmates.
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It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays
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The whiteness of his shoes might be a metaphor for his childish innocence. In the poets view, maybe there are many other older children who teach him wrong things and corrupt his innocence. However, what so special about Wednesday? Well, literally, it is possible that on Wednesday the poet has PE. Which would stain his shoes due to the mud and dirt on the fields. This might also be because on Wednesday, once again referring to the poet's innocence, where during the games everyone cheats or uses underhanded means to win. We can infer that the poet really does not like school because he deems it is corrupting him and teaching him the wrong things.
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The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another
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We can infer that the poet is feeling poor,lowly and ignoble. He is green with envy because his classmates are so rich that they can have their own chauffeurs!
By this stanza, we can really tell that the poet just does not want to go to school for he would have to face all of this every day!
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Seven to the power of five is unreasonable
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This highlights the growing distaste the poet has for math.
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On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo
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Now,the poet just outright mocks the so-called "cultural understanding" when Mrs.Lee ( from the name we can infer that she is Chinese.) wears a sarong kebaya and sings Bengawan Solo at a Chinese Festival! This just further justifies the point that the poet has really little regard for his school and he is just disappointed how horrible his school is.
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The capital of Singapore is Singapore
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The poet here is saddened at how he is forced to memorize these useless information. This, however, when reviewed first appears to be so, but actually may be an expression of the poet's shame and loathing for Singapore's education system where we just regurgitated information, mindlessly like a robot. Note how the author, unlike in the other stanzas, does not give any form of feelings or thoughts. Just a stone cold statement.
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My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
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The poet at this point appears to have a very messed up idea of heroism. Is shading all A's a heroic thing to do? Well, no. But then, note how the paper is a Chinese paper. It is well-known that Singaporeans are a laughing stock when it comes to Chinese. So, this may be a stab at how low the standard of Chinese is in Singaporeans, where we just randomly fill it answers and pray to pass. When one sees the deeper meaning, only then can one understand that the poet really is outraged with our Chinese standard and the school's overall nonchalance to the Chinese language.
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In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me

Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
At the exact moment

When my eyes were actually closed
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Perhaps, this may , to some people just be a closing joke. But, do they realize that this is actually a warning? The yearbook is a very important thing! It showcases the talent of the school and also its students. Many people will read it. However, because he was pushing a wheelchair, they took a picture of the poet. But alas, the poet's eyes were closed and of course this lead to the extreme embarrassment of the poet. We can infer that the message being passed is that helping others will only get yourself in trouble. Again, this may be a mockery of the overall "kiasuness" or "fear of losing out" that leads people to be more self-centered and ignorant of others I need. We can infer that the poet is just thoroughly disappointed that the school could not teach such basic morals and the said virtues of his classmates.
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Part 2:
Memories

I guess my primary school days were greatly different. My friend's Chinese were not that bad; we didn't have a year book; overall my lessons were very interesting and well-planned out. None of my friends were stinking rich, so no chauffeurs! Ha Ha... The teachers knew their stuff well, so we didn't have teachers wearing Sarongs during Chinese New Year!
So, I guess my Primary School Life differed quite far from the poets one.
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All right,
Thanks for reading and enjoy your day!

Sean

2 comments:

Sean Heng said...

Hey guys, really sorry, blogger is acting up again and the text just came out very weird. I'll try to get to the root of the problem so don't worry. It should be fixed by the 25th.

Sean Heng said...

WOOTZ! Text issues have been resolved. Enjoy. :D