Analysing Poem

The Son is in Secondary School by Affian 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



Analysis:
The poet has a great hope for his school. This shows that the poet loves his school very much. The school badge with Latin mottto indicates the poet's school is origin from Latin. The poet is very loyal to Singapore as he says that the black crow try to interrupt them to show that he is disturbed by the black crow to sing the national anthem.

For the third stanza and fourth stanza, the poet shows that he has co-curriculum activity, the uniform group scouts, on Wednesday. The poet tells the readers that he has the schoolmate who is rich as the fifth stanza in the poem shows that the poet's schoolmate has chauffeurs to drive him home, this means that his schoolmate's parents are quite rich enough to hire Malay chauffeurs. The chauffeurs are more proffesional than the drivers.

For the sixth stanza, the poem means that it is racial harmony. Mr Lee, who is a chinese, dressed in other races' traditional clothes. The poet felt very 'ridiculous' of his friend once who shaded all answers A in a multiple choice test.

The poet feels very happy as he says there is a photograph of him in his school's annual yearbook which shows that he reminisced the time he was taking the photograph with his schoolmates.

Throughout the whole poem, it clearly shows that the poet enjoys himself the life in the secondary school very much.