How do the poets convey their disapproval of the strong impact that modernization has on Singapore? In this young developing world around us, people everyday become more obsessed with perfecting the appearance and facades around them. Everything seems like they could surely take on a makeover. In the two poems, ‘ The Planners’ and ‘remembering trees’, their respective poems, Boey Kim Cheng and Joshua Yap, have expressed their disappointment that modernization that have affected countless people. Not everybody wants to perfect their country for the better and let their memories slip away. Both poets reveal their feelings of lost behind the contrasting structure and literary devices of their homeland, Singapore. Boey conveys his …show more content…
It allows readers to feel as if these illnesses such as loss of memory and being stuck in a trance state is endless. The speaker is compelled to feel as is people’s minds are being wiped clean just like how the planners are casually abolishing this city’s history. Boey is trying to let people know that the government is trying to brainwash them. Boey’s concern with the progress of Singapore is further expressed through the comparison of the planners and archaeologist. The assonance of the letters ‘ling’ behind ‘piling…drilling’ gives the speaker a sense of auditory imagery again sounds as if the ruining and compilation of Singapore is eternal. The comparison of the two contrasting verbs, ‘piling’ and ‘drilling’, conveys a strong message addressed to readers. Boey wants us to know that these ‘archaeologists’ are just like oleanders. They may seem important on the outside but are actually malicious on the inside. They are not historians that drill to recover ancient wealth but those that destroy the soul of this city. The extend of their ‘drilling’ is reinforced with the use of the noun ‘fossil’. Everything including prehistoric fossils had to be gotten rid of. The planners have wrecked too much of Singapore’s history and it is too late to stop them. Boey’s memorable childhood memories will always be with him but the physical pain he is going through watching his homeland
Beah pieces his memories together in ways he can remember the past through flashbacks; “I lay in it, swinging slowly to get my thoughts in motion. I began to think about the times when I visited my grandmother and I would sleep in the hammock on the farm”
Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.
On the 9th of February 1942, three divisions of Japanese soldiers landed in Singapore, which was at the time a major British military base and presence in the Pacific. Six days later, over 90 000 British, Australian and Indian troops were forced to surrender. It had been believed that Singapore guaranteed the security of Australia during the war, consequently, the fall of Singapore opened Australia to invasion. The fall of Singapore was significant in causing relations between Australia and the United States to increase as in lieu of Britain’s inability to provide economic and military assistance when it was required most, the United States’ capability to provide what Britain could not was instrumental in strengthening bonds.
The first eight chapters od David Grann’s The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon investigates the legend of Percy Fawcett, an English explorer and archeologist who vanished searching for an Amazonian lost city of gold in 1925. Initially the author attempts to “simply record how generations of scientists and adventurers became fatally obsessed with solving the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century” (Grann 4). However, the non-fiction narrative quickly becomes an adventurous detective story, switching perspective between Grann’s modern investigation and details about Fawcett’s ill-fated expedition. The book describes how the Amazon, one of the last true unexplored wildernesses on earth, seems to attract adventurers and create “obsession,” luring many to their deaths
Death by Theory, written by Adrian Praetzellis, is an engaging and informational book written in a novelistic way that engages the reader to think critically about archaeology. Compared to other forms of informational text about archaeology, Death by Theory teaches archaeological theory by telling a story that incorporates the different theories of archaeology in a realistic setting. While standard textbooks about the theory of archaeology can come off a bit dry, Death by Theory skips the standard definitions and applies this in a way that aids the reader in understanding how these theories and terms can be applied in an actual archaeological setting. This text illustrates the adventure of plucky archaeologist Dr. Hannah Green and her nephew Sean Doyle as they seek to explain an unusual archaeological site while dealing with real life archaeological struggles. The protagonists deal with an egotistical colleague of Dr. Green who sought her out as a consult on a particularly strange archaeological case. All the while dealing with cults, the media, and incompatible data.
Prompt: In a brief essay, identify at least two of the implications implicit in the society reflected in the poem. Support your statements by specific references to the poem.
Through the use of imagery, Beah documents the hardships he experienced, including the exposure to war, loss of innocence, and loss of family. He intricately details these events as frightening and overwhelmingly difficult to tolerate. For Beah, being exposed to combat at age 12 was traumatizing, and he portrays details of the horrifying events through imagery.“When the rebels finally came I was cooking...My heart was beating faster than it ever had. Each gunshot seemed to cling to the beat of my heart.” (Beah 23). He describes how intimidating and alarming each bullet was and how horrific each shot exploded throughout his being. War quickly developed into a regular occurrence for Beah, leaving him deprived of his childhood and innocence. He later illustrates his
Good afternoon and welcome to Poetry Week. Today I will be talking to you about the topic of urban life in Australian poetry. During this presentation, I will discuss the poem Tree in the City by Thomas Shapcott and its representation of urban life. This will then be followed by how the poetic devices of metaphor and imagery are used in the poem and finally, I will compare it to the taught poem Phasing Out the Mangroves.
(Mcarthur, 2011) The Fall Of Singapore
In World State Society, individuals believe that "Bokanovsky's Process is one of the major instruments of social stability" (8). Huxley utilizes the citizens’ appreciation of this Process to emotionally appeal to his readers. Bockanovsky Process’ strays away from the idea of family, something that continues to be an important aspect in the lives of contemporary citizens. This therefore reinforces the idea of detrimental scientific advancements. Furthermore, World State Society strives to “mak[e] people like their unescapable social destiny” through conditioning and harmful substances prior to and after birth” (13). For instance, the controllers of the government condition individuals so that they remain ignorant, yet satisfied of their low status in order to maintain stability. This additionally appeals to audiences emotionally in that in the contemporary era, we are taught that an individual can rise up from poor beginnings
Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.
Naomi Shihab Nye is a critically acclaimed writer whose poems focus on themes such as cultural differences, war, family, and change, as seen in her book, You and Yours. One poem in this collection, “Last August Hours Before the Year 2000,” is a free verse poem primarily concerned with the passage of time and how we interpret it, while also making heavy use of nature imagery. One of the major themes in “Last August Hours Before the Year 2000” is the passage of time - more specifically, the difference between how we interpret it and how it actually functions on a greater scale. Of course, the switch from 1999 and 2000 is an excellent subject to use here, since it was the turn of the new millenium.
and that he believes them. The poem also translates into how living in the city is toilsome and that the city is unrelenting. On the other hand it shows how the city can be prosperous and happy with the city’s disadvantages. in the second half of the poem it’s telling how nomatter what is wrong with the city, the people are still proud of who they are.
Has poetry of the 21st century changed drastically? Well first off poetry in this age has become more musical than flowing piece of written art we read about today. If you take the time to break down the lyrics of a song and compare it to the poems in the 1500s we would see its more of the presentation that changed.
How might the Singapore society differ were it not for these technologies – would the society be more or less heavily regulated? Lee recommends analysing politics and society by addressing how power struggles and relations were played out in the pre-Internet era, namely the maintenance of political control via public support (2005: 74). Foucault defines ‘governmentality’ as the point of contact where the technologies of power interact with the governed. This spurs Lee to postulate that, in order to retain power in the Internet era, 'governments need to be actively involved in shaping the design as well as the societal, cultural and regulatory environment in which the Internet and other new media technologies operate' (2005: 75).