A doze of poetry, food for the thinking soul

Well this is the last week of a term in the academic year, and poetry is in the air!
Today I will share with you the different literary techniques or devices which are used by singers, poets, playwrights and others who want to inject flavour into a literary piece. Of course I love it, and I hope your spine is tingling hard.

Poem, as in the word, originates from the Greek word, poema, and is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative quality with or without its ostensible meaning. Its power is derived from achieving a low word count encapsulating a deep and rich meaning. Actions, moods or feelings are widely used in expressing the subject of the poem.



Poems are defined like this by Archibald McLeish: "A poem should not mean, but be."



Poems usually have meters, rhythms and intonations. First, we will study the analysing of a poem.



1 line is a poem.

2 lines are a couplet.

3 lines are a triplet or tercet.

4 lines are a quatrain.

5 lines are a quinrain or cinquain,

6 is a sextet,

8 is an octet.



1 stanza of 4 lines make a quatrain.

From lines we go to stanza. A stanza is a group of 4, 5, 6 lines and usually used to develop an idea or a picture. They make an organised structure of a rainbow of ideas.

With that said I will go on to various techniques we commonly see, and their specialties.

Alliteration is two words with the same starting letter.
Atrocious Apples, Boisterous bear are some examples. This adds some catchiness to the poem.

Personification is adding a touch of human to a non-living item to add liveliness to the subject. Thw window panes flapping their arms- what do oyu picture in your mind?

Rhymes add catchiness and bounce. They make you wanna say the poem out loud.

Exaggeration is to emphasize a point.

Well I should not be spoonfeeding you, reader. Go find out more on your own.

Now look at the poem The Son is in Secondary School by Affian Sa'at

The poet or the student in the poem recalls his school days and specific moments in time and he feels that the little things of school life are the hardest to forget like the cleanliness of his shoes, the jokes shared among the Malay chaffeurs, him in a photograph. You can see some techniques like he shares his thoughts rather than narrate events, like when he talks of the schools Latin motto, he says, hope for the future, or the future is hope, or something." He plainly states his feelings at grappling with Latin.
We can see that he feels that he will forever be a part of the school; He will remember the teachers like Mrs Lee who sang Bengawan Solo.

Now, I also share fond memories of my primary school. Students laughing, no fear of embarrassment, progressing together, uncompetitive students who see the process more importantly then the end result, or the exam results for that matter. We laughed, groaned at hot weather during PE and I will always love and cherish the times I had in the Primary School- Rulang Primary.


I will attempt constructing a poem of my own.

The sun bathes the neighbourhood in morning light,
students come in uniforms so clean and bright,
I greet the security guard with a smile so wide,
We bear the school name with pride.

I play with my friends during break time,
About our sweaty attire our teachers gripe,
We give a cheeky smile and can only say,
Sorry teacher, we forgot today.

Teachers always give us care,
inspiring us to love and share.
Friends we are and friends we will be,
This school belongs to you and me.