IT Home Learning Lesson 3

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

***
Respond to the following threads.

Discussion threads:

1. What are the poet’s thoughts? What were his feelings as he think back on these ?
2. Think back on our days in Primary School. Do you share the same sentiments? What were your memories of those days? Write a poem of no less than 4 stanzas.

1. I think the poet is missing his old school life. He missed the lessons. This can be seen from "Seven to the power of five is unreasonable" and "The capital of Singapore is Singapore" which he learn from lessons. He also described his school life in a humorous way.

2.

Flashback starts,

As my mind travelled,

To my old primary school days.

Happiness, sorrow,

Surprise, anxiety,

Any emotions that can be named,

I went through in my primary days.

Homework, homework and more homework,

Exams were teachers’ favourite word.

Teachers’ word is law,

Whenever we disobey,

Or when results were bad,

Canes come raining down on our hands.

But looking back,

I found that I missed,

My old primary school days,

My old primary school friends,

The fun we have together.

My old primary school teachers,

Whose teachings could never be forgotten,

As they make me into what I am today.

Now,

I wished I had a time machine,

I wished I could turn back the time,

I will be more obedient to my teachers,

I will be better to my friends,

I will study harder for exams,

But it’s too late.

***

Please comment :)

IT Home Learning Lesson 2

Choose a poet by going online to a couple of the internet sites such as Poets.org ( Academy of American Poets website) or American Poetry Online. Blog on your favourite poet. Your entry should be approximately 400 words.

The most popular historical poet in 2008, James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, dramatist, and even a short story writer. He was also a black, who were discriminated in his days.

It was his poems that intrigued me a lot; they are meaningful and left me deep in thought. For instance, the poem Life is Fine leads me to ponder that life is actually good if we think it the right way. I also like the way he stood out for his fellow black American through poem like I, Too, Sing America and Let America Be America Again. Some of his poem rhymes well, such as The Weary Blues.

Langston Hughes was born on 1 February 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to James Nathaniel Hughes and Carrie Mercer Langsten. (His name is a mix of his parents'!) Both parents were mixed race, as Langston Hughes was of African American, European American and Native American descent. Parents divorced, he was raised by his grandmother in Kansas, and moved to Lincoln, Illinois. He started writing poetry there. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and another at Columbia University. All these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, seaman, etc. and moved to Washington D.C. in 1924 Langston Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

22 May 1967 was the fateful day. Langston Hughes died at the age of 65, from complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostate cancer. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

The following are some poems by Langston Hughes :

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (also Hughes's signature poem)

I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I danced in the Nile when I was old

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Life Is Fine (My favourite!)

I went down to the river,

I set down on the bank.

I tried to think but couldn't,

So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!

I came up twice and cried!

If that water hadn't a-been so cold

I might've sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator

Sixteen floors above the ground.

I thought about my baby

And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!

I stood there and I cried!

If it hadn't a-been so high

I might've jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',

I guess I will live on.

I could've died for love--

But for livin' I was born

Though you may hear me holler,

And you may see me cry--

I'll be dogged, sweet baby,

If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

Outside sources : Wikipedia - Langston Hughes Poets.org - Langston Hughes

IT Home Learning Lesson 1

Life Is Fine by Langston Hughes

I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn't a-been so high
I might've jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',
I guess I will live on.
I could've died for love--
But for livin' I was born

Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry--
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

1. How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?

Hyperbole is used in the poem, as the word "die" stressed the author's distress and tired of living. He"hollered" and "cried" which indicates that the water is extremely cold and the building is supremely high in an exaggerated manner. The metaphor in the poem is "I stood there and I hollered! I stood there and I cried!". "Fine as wine" is the simile in the poem, while the symbolism is the river and the building.

2. Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

I like Life Is Fine because it is meaningful. The author intends to commit suicide but in vain, but is it because of the coldness of the river and the height of the building? In my opinion, when someone wants to jump down, he or she would choose the highest building to do it, since the person has already decided to commit suicude, no matter what happened will change his decision. However, in this poem, the author is still aware of cold, and height which shows that there is a still a thirst for life in him. After that, he found out that life is fine. From this poem, I understand that we will encounter a lot of difficulties and setbacks in our life. We may feel distressed and give up and lost the will to live on, but it gives us power to stand up again. There has to be reason for everything that happens to us or in our life. Thus, we should think positively. As we live longer, we understand failure and success, life and death. We will found out that life is fine, sooner or later.