Lesson 3-Analysing a poem

This poem that I would be analysing is :The Son is in Secondary School by Affran Sa’at
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 strong 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

I feel that the poet is reminiscing his childhood memories which have not faded away from his mind.Although his child hood memories originated many years ago,time,the cruel poison,has failed to take away the memory which the author treasures the most in his mind.The poet indulged in his childhood memory by writing a poem about it which indicates that a vivid image of his poem is currently still implanted in his mind.I feel that the poet had probably thought about his childhood memories still locked away from his head to maybe reignite the happiness he had found as a normal school boy in attending school every morning. But I am sure that the poet would have wanted to relive those memories and experience the true meaning of childhood once more while writing this particular poem.
The poem above has exactly 31 lines.A lines are arranged in in quinrains mostly in the last few stanzas and the lines are arranged in a quatrain and couplet in the beginning and the middle stanzas in this poem.This poem contains 10 stanzas.There is no particular beat or rhythm to this poem,it is a free verse poem. There are occurences of illiteration in the majority of the stanzas, in stanzas 1,3,5,6,7 and 8.This poem mainly revolves around the sense sight and have little usage of imagery.The usage of exxageration can be derived from this phrase"Seven the power of five is unreasonable".No similies can be found in this poem and onomaetopia(the usage of sounds) can be foound either.There is litt;e usage of personification,it occurs in the second stanza,"At times black crows try to interrupt".No idioms can be found in this poem and the symbol portrayed in this poem that childhood is happiness.The mood in this poem is mainly positive and the poet trys to convey the message that all of us should treasure our childhood and never allow them to be erased from your memory.

Now,I will be constructing a poem on my primary school life:

Primary school life seems a walk away,
but in fact it is away forever.
Just wished that I could relive those memories,
but everybody knows no one can do such time.

Encountered welcoming friends,
the moment I stepped into school.
Slowly,bit by bit,I crept out of my shell,realising the true meaning of school and friends.
Time waits for no man.

In a flash,the exams had arrived.
I knew it was important.
I told myself no my games,no more fooling around.
It was time to get to work.

PSLE was arriving soon.
This was the ultimatium of primary school.
This would decide your fate.
I breathed in deeply as I entered the examination hall.

The invigilators distributed the papers,
only the flipping of papers could be heard.
Staring at the papers that decided my fate,
I picked up my pen and gave it my all.

In a flash,I am sitting here constructing this poem.
Now a secondary 1 student,
those memories seem a millennium away.