Emergency IT Lesson 3: Analyzing & Composing poem

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 closed


Analysis

The subject of the poem is Secondary School life.
This poem is a free verse as has no rhyme nor regular rhythm.
The title of the poem is an alliteration.

The writer reveals his secondary school life through this poem, telling the reader the good and bad times he had, the experiences that he had gone through and how he felt.


School of yesterday by Kuan Wei Heng

My old school days wasn't so bad,
It's full of twists and turn.
I could still remember some of this and that
but most of the time all I did was learn, learn, learn.

My schedule was tight, no time to spare
For I had CCA and tuition.
I had to rush my homework and projects
until I had no time for revision.

The class's always noisy
Its never easy to concentrate.
At home, after homework and stuff
I had to read up myself until it's late.

During recess, its still the same,
Doing homework alone, alas.
Sometimes I still have the time
But I would chose to stay in class.

Its never been easy during those days
but secondary school is much stressful
And so the irony unfolds
For my wish is to go back to my primary school.