In the poem “Singapore” by Mary Oliver, there is a very important lesson of social acceptance. The poet speaks of encountering a woman in an airport bathroom stall, cleaning an ashtray in the toilet, and the disgust that she first feels towards this woman and her job. The speaker does however, express that she moves past the judgment that she first feels towards the woman in the stall. She imagines parts of nature and wishes to put the woman in a beautiful place in life. In this poem, the poet uses imagery, connotation, metaphor and symbolism to describe what she is really seeing compared to what she is imagining and would like to see. Significantly, the speaker begins the poem by saying, “A darkness was ripped from my eyes” (line 2). …show more content…
The speaker seen the cleaning lady in a different light, she was accepting of her and the beautiful person that she is, her job no longer defined her. In the last stanza the speaker says, “Neither do I mean anything miraculous, but only the light that can shine out of life” (lines 34- 35). She is reminding her readers to keep an open mind. It is a lesson to learn to put aside social standards, and see the real beauty within each person, before casting judgment upon them. In the second stanza, the speaker says, “and I felt, in my pocket, for my ticket” (line 7). This is just a stopping point in the speaker’s trip, and she knows she needs to get going. This also is when the speaker is at a loss for words. “Disgust argued in my stomach” (line 6), and she is reaching for something to say, reaching for something to make sense of this encounter. However, the ticket that she is reaching for cannot be found as easily as “feeling in her pocket”, yet it lies right in front of her, in the face of the woman laboring over the toilet. The lesson the speaker learned from the encounter with the cleaning lady is something that holds such a great value. As strongly as the speaker feels that, “a poem should always have birds in it” (line 8), she also feels that we should have a broader range of social acceptance. The entirety of the encounter symbolizes what the speaker wishes to stand for, as well as what she hopes
Interpret (tell me why you think the poet wants to use such images)As such, a sense of gloom permeates the writing.
One of two ways that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by having a dash after the word “dark” in the very first line of the poem it draws attention to the word, this is shown in the following excerpt “We grow accustomed to the Dark --” this is strengthened when in the second line, when the author chose to capitalize the word “when” before the phrase “…light is put away--” therefore, strengthening the theme of darkness. Another way that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by capitalizing the words “a” and “moment” they caused a sense of hesitation,
In the first part of the poem the writer shows the difficulty he is having with taking a human life. In the second stanza he says “Making night work for us the starlight scope bringing men into killing range. This dark tone helps to emphasize the struggle the author is feeling as a soldier in war. Also he shows his emotions directly. In stanza 3 he says “The river under Vi Bridge takes the heart away”. This quote shows the feeling that the author gets
being severed by white sealers as they tried to save themselves from drowning. Figurative language and the overall tone of the poem illustrate the gloom and sadness surrounding the event: “shadows” and “darkness”. The landscape made up of “low hills”, ”the silver-grey wash of clouds” and “the steel-shining channel” reflects this dark mood. Reference to black crows, hectoring and descending, eyes being pecked, conjures images of cold-blooded, inhumane slaughter and “filaments of sinew”. Harwood’s typical use of the sonnet form is not employed here but experiments with rhyme and metre, in the form of free verse, evident in many of her later poems. Run-on lines and stanzas add to the narrative style of the poem, best read out loud. Although the
However, the poem has fluidity despite its apparent scarcity of rhyme. After examining the alteration of syllables in each line, a pattern is revealed in this poem concerning darkness. The first nine lines alternate between 8 and 6 syllables. These lines are concerned, as any narrative is, with exposition. These lines set up darkness as an internal conflict to come. The conflict intensifies in lines 10 and 11 as we are bombarded by an explosion of 8 syllables in each line. These lines present the conflict within one's own mind at its most desperate. After this climax, the syllables in the last nine lines resolve the conflict presented. In these lines, Dickinson presents us with an archetypal figure that is faced with a conflict: the “bravest” hero. These lines present the resolution in lines that alternate between 6 and 7 syllables. Just as the syllables decrease, the falling action presents us with a final insight. This insight discusses how darkness is an insurmountable entity that, like the hero, we must face to continue “straight” through “Life” (line 20).
The poem, “Singapore”, by Mary Oliver advocates for respect for all types work. It is set in a restroom at an international airport in Singapore. The poem has two characters, who are the poet and a female toilet cleaner. The poem starts with the poet visiting a restroom at the international airport. The poet finds a native woman kneeling and cleaning the toilet that has human excreta. The poet is disgusted by this scenario. On the other hand, the toilet cleaner is embarrassed that the poet has found her doing this “undignified” work. The poet uses this scene to pass a message that all types work deserve respect. She uses imagery in her lines to express this message, which is discussed below.
For instance, she says, “Each night I set my boats to sea/ and leave them to their bawdy business./ Whether they drift off/ maddened, moon-rinsed,/ or dock in the morning/ scuffed and chastened—/ is simply how it is, and I gather them in,” she simply compares her thoughts to boats which are hard to control because of the wind and weather (9-15). Symbolism is shown when she says, “…Then I sing/ to the bright-beaked bird outside, then to the manicured spider/ between window and screen”(17-20). The writer is attempting to send the message that stereotyping is unnecessary because everyone is unique in their own special
The wetness of the surrounding environment emulates the water coming out of the child’s eyes. In “Remorse,” nature is used to augment the mood of grief and anguish. The beginning of this poem is likewise set during the night, after the clouds drink “the last pale beam of even” (“Remorse” 2). The clouds blocking the light depict the feeling of the narrator, who loses his or her beloved. The narrator is in a time of darkness and despair, just as the clouds create a dark atmosphere in the poem.
Singapore and Malaysia were both similarly colonized by the British. However, their development after independence differed in many ways. In this paper, I will examine, with help from resources provided in the course and minimal research, how their colonial experiences affected their political and social development after independence. After which, investigating the depth of influence their colonizers had, and why, differing racial ideologies had the greatest impact on their development.
They should glare and glow “like meteors” and not like dim candles. In the last stanza, the speaker refers to his ailing father, on his deathbed and asks him to weep fiercely, as this serves as both a blessing and a curse for him, for his heartbreaking death, and if possible a heroic survival. The poem ends with the same two lines being repeated, thus the poet instructing his father to not submit to death but “rave” and rant and fight it every step of the way.
The poem begins with the narrator's describing the poem as a 'dream' that ''was not at all a dream'', which already causes doubt and tension within the reader. The narrator then goes on to talk about
2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Singaporean independence in 1965. Then, Singapore was just another colony to break away from the dying embers of the British Empire, many of its people destitute and impoverished. Today, in only half a century, Singapore has become one of safest nations in the world, an Asian Tiger with a booming economy. This is due to the hard work and genius of the nation’s father and first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Under his reforms, the economy flourished and the people were content. Although Lee’s government refused to relinquish control and were often aggressive, their smart legislation and benevolent rule was responsible for the growth of the nation. The key to Singapore’s development lay in the combination of
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” These words by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. perfectly describe how my travel experience in Singapore this past summer has changed my life. Traveling to Singapore has been an item on my bucket list that I never thought I would ever be able to accomplish at such a young age. Through my travel, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture by living life as a local while visiting the major tourist spots that the country had to offer. I also had firsthand experience with the Singaporean lifestyle and I was so amazed by the beauty of the country. Because of this, my travel to Singapore has given me a new perspective on countries and has broadened my horizons in terms of travelling to a new place.
Singapore is a third world country located on the southern tip of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea (Moh.gov.sg, 2015). It is a well-developed country within Southeast Asia. The territory is an island shaped like a diamond. In late 1960, the island expanded due to land retrieval. Singapore core principles are a meritocracy, multiculturalism, and secularism (Moh.gov.sg, 2015). The country is a parliamentary republic, and the officials languages are English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. The ethnic groups that makes up the country are Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, Caucasians and others. Buddhism is the religion and after Buddhism is Christianity (Moh.gov.sg, 2015). Islam, Taoism, and Hinduism are religions in Singapore.
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).