The Son is in Secondary School by Affian 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 closed
This is the unseen poem which we have to analyse for our assignment.
Stanza 1: The author can briefly remember that the motto was in Latin. This shows that he was trying to withdraw old memories from within his mind.
Stanza 2: This is an example of imagery used in the poem. It creates the humorous mood which some of the other incidents point to.
Stanza 3: This is another of the examples of imagery found in this poem.
Stanza 4: The words "quite special" do not tell how they are special, but we can infer that in this case, it is funny. It also shows how the author remembers his school days.
Stanza 5: Another of the things that the author remembers about his school.
Stanza 6: This refers to Mathematics, and how the author could not do such a simple sum, thus the word "unreasonable".
Stanza 7: Bengawan Solo is an Indonesian song. On Chinese New Year, Mrs Lee, apparently a Chinese, dresses up in Malay traditional clothing. This stanza tells of Singapore's multiracial and multicultural society.
Stanza 8: This refers to Geography, and hints that he was not good at the subject, like stanza 6 does.
Stanza 9: This is another of the funny incidents which the author remembers about his school life. It is a memory which hints at the author's thoughts at the time of writing.
Stanza 10, 11,12: These three stanzas are closely linked, so the explanations will come in one go. The photograph of the author in the yearbook shows him doing charity work, yet the funny thing is that his eyes were closed when the photo was taken. This is the funny incident that sums up the poem.
By reading this poem, it can be inferred that the author was reminiscing about his school life, thinking about the happy and funny incidents which happened then. Being a free verse poem using imagery to present the mood, this poem clearly shows the author's sentiments.
The second task is to write a poem about your own sentiments about school. Here's mine:
School
I didn’t know what school was for.
But now, at the age of thirteen,
I know what a “school” really means.
School is known to be a place,
Where there is not a time to waste.
You must finish all your work,
For in the cupboard, long canes lurk.
School is where you go to see
All of your friends and enemies.
A place where friendships sprout and grow,
A place where you learn all you know.
I miss the days when we had fun,
Feeding ants with crumbs from a bun.
There was a small ant colony,
It grew large in our hearts.
When I see innocent little kids
Doing all that we once did,
I feel a pang of longing and guilt,
For deserting the friendship we built.
Now we work hard into the night,
Lest we face the discipline master’s might.
If I do not complete my work,
Out come the canes that used to lurk.
We used to have no stress at all,
We played around and had a ball.
Now we don’t stop studying,
Now schoolwork, not play, is king.
When I went in while I was four,
I didn’t know what school was for.
But now, at the age of thirteen,
I know what a “school” really means.
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