Reservist
By: Boey Kim Cheng
And this is by owen li
About the poet
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Boey Kim Cheng:born in 1965
he is a Singaporean
At the age of 24 he published his first poem .
He received a lot of reward and certificates in bachelor of art and master
of art degrees in English.
• He likes the world being peaceful and he also like nature. so a lot of his
poems are nature and war based.
Close analysis of the poem^.^
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The title reservist refers to those who got called up to serve in times of war. Not
necessarily regular soldiers but ordinary people who are affected by the conflict.
The fist stanza: this stanza is basically saying the war goes on and on and it never
stops. And if you refuse to go to the war . Then you will be facing a court material .
And also “ the kings command “ means that if you don’t fight then you will have
to face the penalty . So basically you have no choice but to listen and fight.
Creaking bones , battle weary means that the knights are presented as weary
which means tired, exhausted. “for our rusty armour, tuck the pot bellies” means
that the those old knights have to fight as well , they have to fit them selves into
armours that doesn't fit them . Also the helmet cuts of half of your head . I think
this means that in the battle you have to cut of your kindness and do bad things to
other competitors eg . Killing them . Which you will regret later on in life. And the
sentence “in our active cavalier days supports the idea because its kind of saying
that time have passed and the days of youth have gone and when you look back,
you will regret ETC………=.=
Close analysis of the poem =.=
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The second stanza : this stanza is saying that we will always do the same thing over
and over again until we have no energy left .this stanza also contains a lot of
criticism , suggesting that the reservists have no control and are “like children
placed on carousels.” the “expensive fantasyland” is like the expensive military fee .
And the monster in this stanza is basically talking about the people who are in
command .eg. General of the army.
The last stanza : long story short (im tired at typing ) this stanza is saying to you
that after us ( human ) realises how pointless war really is . We might just work
together and “send his lordship to sleep” and after a while we might just stop all
the war
ideas and imagery
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In this poem the main idea is that war is pointless it wont solve anything any
problems . And the day that we finally realises this our world would be a different
place.
There are a lot of imagery in this poem . At the start of the first stanza from the
line “time again for the annual joust "we would of created this image of two
knights on horses charging at each other with long swords like we always see in
movies. other imageries such as people cant fit their armour can be seen through
the lines “tuck the pot bellies with great finesse into the shrinking gear”. People
getting killed. People regret for killing others. Can all be seen through out the
poem. But for me . One of the most outstanding imagery must be when at the
start of the 2nd stanza. “We will charge up the same hills,plod,through the same
forest till we are too old.”. In my mind . I automatically create an image on people
with guns and weapons going up the mountain again and again , but they never
ended up at the top of the mountain.
My personal response
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When I read this poem , I felt very emotionless actually , and thought that what
Boey Kim Cheng’s idea for me was only 50 % true . the part which I think was
untrue is the fact that with out command and leadership . Our race couldn’t of
survived for such a long time . Back in the olden days . If there wasn’t a supreme
commander and tell other people what to do . Then people wouldn’t of worked
together in peace . And nothing could have been built. ( no buildings . No food .
Nothing ). Because we are humans we are selfish and cares about ourselves the
most by that I mean we would all want to become the king and control everyone
else. So the only way to control and command is to become stronger than them .
By this I meant mentally and physically. It has to be like this because we are
humans we always want equal power. Which will never happen because once that
happened . We would never work together and advance on our society
technology . So if we did what Boey Kim Cheng said and have no competitions and
wars then . Our race will end some how . So now thinking about it . Boey Kim
Cheng isn't right at all . He’s full of …………...
Techniques used
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Boey Kim Cheng used sarcasm a lot in this poem e.g. “expensive fantasy land
“ when he actually meant military ground fees
Boey kim cheng also used a lot repetition eg , he used the word we a lot .
There isn't much rhyming in the poem