Question

Write the appreciation of the poem.

• About the poem/poet/title
• Theme
• Poetic devices, language, style
• Special features/novelties/focusing elements
• Values, message
• Your opinion about the poem.

Answer 1

Appreciation of the poem 'The Planners'

The poem, 'The Planner', is a criticism of modernisation at the cost of the country's history and heritage. The poet, Boey Kim Cheng, is an Australian poet of Chinese descent, born in Singapore. He expresses his disapproval of the unyielding building projects carried out by the planners. The poet's country, Singapore, is being turned into a concrete jungle and losing its past in the process. The poem revolves around the theme of the preservation of history and nature against the onslaught of urbanisation. Though improvement is essential for a country, it should not come at the expense of losing its roots. And this is precisely what the poet is trying to convey through the poem. The poet has used a number of poetic devices like Alliteration, Antithesis, Inversion, Irony, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Paradox, Personification, Repetition, and Tautology.

The language used by the poet is positive, but the tone is that of sarcasm. By portraying history and heritage as flawed, blemished, and useless, the poet is, in reality, mocking the planners; because it is the planners who are thoughtlessly destroying the past in their craze for a perfect future. The poet has written the poem in short lines, which show his curtness in criticising the planners and also the planners' desire to build ceaselessly. The line 'They plan. They build' is an example of this as it shows the inconsiderate action of the planners implementing their plans without factoring in the people's opinion.

The poet has used literary devices imagery and extended metaphor to clearly convey his emotions. The mathematical reference in the first stanza creates the visual image of all the structures being crammed into grids of various sizes, making them appear confined. The extended metaphor of dentistry in the second stanza conveys that the planners' treatment of the ancient structures in the city is the same as a dentist's treatment of a rotten tooth. The planners are adept at erasing blemishes and filling gaps to create a country with perfectly aligned buildings and numbing the people's senses so that they don't feel the pain of this transformation. In the last stanza, the poet says in a melancholic yet sarcastic tone that the new city does not inspire his creativity and that is why he would not stain this perfectly-structured world with his poetry.

The poet conveys the message of not losing the past in this day and age of modernisation, because without the past, a country would be nothing but a cluster of lifeless structures.

In my opinion, this poem is a fine read as it focuses on the severe consequences of rapid urbanisation on the history of a country, rather than the more commonly known effects on the environment.

Answer 2

Appreciation of the poem "Nose versus Eyes‟

William Cowper satirises the judiciary in his poem "Nose versus Eyes." The theme focuses on court proceedings when decisions are made without giving them much thought. The poem has a 'abab' rhyme system, which gives it a melodic flow. The poem's use of imagery, similes, personification, and inversion are its most noteworthy elements. Although inversion has been employed to preserve the rhyme scheme and enhance poetic value, imagery aids in giving readers a clear mental image of the court scene.

The personification of the tongue, nose, and eyes is the poem's main feature. Each of them has a character that is entirely appropriate and contributes to the poem's hilarious quality. The poem makes fun of the legal system, but its main point is to warn the reader about the dangers of selective hearing in general and to use sound judgement. The poem also exposes the legal system's shortcomings in administering justice.

The phrases "then shifting his side, as a lawyer knows how" and "what were his arguments few people know" make this very clear. The poem's irony is that the person who didn't need it—the nose—was given the benefit of the doubt. The eyeballs were subjected to injustice in a court of justice. On the surface, the poem seems humorous, yet a deeper reading reveals its depth.