UNSEEN POEM
Bukit Timah, Singapore
This highway I know,
the only way into the city
where the muddy canal goes.
These are the sides of coarse grasses
where the schoolboys stumble in early morning
wet-staining their white shoes.
This is the way the city is fed,
men, machines,
flushed out of their short dreams
and suburban holes
to churn down this waiting gullet.
They flow endlessly this way
from dawn, before sky opens,
to the narrow glare of noon
and evening’s slow closing.
Under the steaming morning,
ambition flashes by in a new car;
the reluctant salesman faced
with another day of selling his pride
hunches over the *lambretta, swerving
from old farmer with fruit-heavy basket.
The women back from market
remark that this monsoon will be bad
for the price of vegetables;
their loitering children, too small for school,
learn the value of five cents, ten cents,
from hunger and these market days.
All morning the tired buses whine
their monotonous route, drag
from stop to stop,
disgorge schoolchildren, pale-faced clerks,
long-suffering civil servants,
pretty office girls, to feed
the megalopolitan appetite.
This highway I know,
the only way out of the city:
the same highway under the moon,
the same people under the sea-green
of lamps newly turned on at evening.
One day there will be tall buildings
here, where the green trees reach
for the narrow canal.
The holes where the restless sleepers are
will be neat, boxed-up in ten-stories.
Life will be orderly, comfortable,
exciting, occasionally, at the new nightclubs.
I wonder what that old farmer would say,
if he lived to come this way.
(by Lee Tzu Pheng)
QUESTIONS
3(i) What do you think the poem is saying about the livelihood of the working class people? How would change affect life “on the highway” as known to the narrator?
The speaker is telling us that he is “knows” the Bukit Timah highway because he is familiar with it. It is the route to modernity for being “the only way into the city” despite its unmistakable humility where “the muddy canal” also follows.
The people living along the highway or affected by the highway or need to use the highway in order to make their living are coping with the economic and social development that is going on in the city.
The people are preoccupied with making the best of their days in tandem with the development that is taking place in the city. The people have also gotten used to co-ordinating their efforts in making their livelihoods using their “machines”.
They force themselves to wake up from their short sleep and tolerate and accept the daily routine of commuting down the “waiting gullet” by flowing “endlessly” on the highway “from dawn, before sky opens, to the narrow glare of noon and evening’s slow closing” in the buses or the other forms of vehicles heading towards the city area.
There is a juxtaposition with regard to what life is like if people like “the old farmer” and “the women” who sell vegetables in the market, who choose to stay put tilling the land alongside the highway and that of those people who choose to leave the suburban or countryside areas to work a living in the city. In general, whichever way of living one chooses, life is not destined to be easy. Ambition may “flash by in a new car” but the “reluctant salesman” has to tolerate day after day, the selling out of his pride before hordes of demanding or unreasonable customers who insist they are right.
Although the old farmer’s basket is “fruit-heavy”, the bountiful harvest aided by the monsoon season, has made the hawking of fruit and vegetables in the market difficult for the woman sellers. It seems that the only people who are tentatively spared from being affected by the new development in the city are the children who remain with the old and the womenfolk to “learn the value of five cents, ten cents, from hunger and these market days”. This seems to suggest that people must move along with the times as and when new opportunities arrive. For those who choose to stay behind to till the land, they will have to manage with what little time they are left with to face up to the challenges from their existing condition as well as the new ones which are going to unfold before them.
The highway, which is the “only way out” of the city suggests the very limited options working people who wish to better their lives have for themselves. Fortunately, when the night falls, “the same people” can come “under the sea-green of lamps newly turned on at evening” to have a well-deserved rest before they begin a new day the next morning.
The future may become brighter because there is a promising prospect that “one day there will be tall buildings here, where the green trees reach for the narrow canal”. Although the living condition, may remain as “holes” and the sleepers may continue to be “restless”, at least they would be “neat, boxed up in ten-stories”.
Even though “life will be orderly, comfortable, exciting, occasionally, at the new nightclubs”, the narrator wonders if the old framer were to live long enough, would he be happy with all the modern developments which are taking place around him.
3(ii) What do you find striking about the way the poet uses words and images to describe the activities of people in the course of a day on the highway she knows?
Highway – lifeline of the city –moment of cars / people / things / life
Mud – beginning of life
Canal – provision of water / irrigation / drinking water / usable water
Schoolboys – business of education / Children – childhood
Early morning – beginning of a life
Wet-staining – in the process of being socialized into members of society
The schoolboys’ white shoes - symbol of childhood innocence
Flushed out – awakened forcefully as if from one’s hideout
Short dreams –short sleep – not enough sleep – price people pay for modernization and opting for life in the city
Suburban holes – homes in the city / housing estates
Gullet – literally, the tube at the back of a person’s mouth through which food goes down one’s throat.
Gullet – the lifeline – something which people depends on completely
Waiting gullet - hungry feeder highway sending factors of production from all over the place to the city
To churn – to move about violently
Flow endlessly – flow nonstop
dawn…noon…evening – the whole day long with not a minute wasted – the hustle and bustle goes on the whole day long.
A new car – a status symbol for many an aspiring career-minded person.
The reluctant salesman – things develop in such a fast pace, people in the new economy have problems adjusting properly and comfortably to play their new roles. The “reluctance” has emerged as a coping mechanism to deal with the heightened expectations in the mastery of skills and the investment of effort in working hard and imagined fear of not being able to keep pace with the continual changing footsteps of life.
Selling his pride – the working men have to sell their pride because in the world of commercialism, the customer is always right. So the working class people will have to put up with the whims and fancy of others who provide for their livelihoods.
the *lambretta – the motor cycle provides an economical means of transport / symbol of economy / symbol of mobility and speed / symbol of independence
old farmer with fruit-heavy basket.- life isn’t easy even if we revert back to the old ways / even if we stay put to till the soil or farm the land / young people leave their parents for newer stations in life.
The women back from market remark that this monsoon will be bad for the price of vegetable – the vegetable sellers too depend on the land for their livelihood. It does not seem that their business is going smoothly.
their loitering children, too small for school,learn the value of five cents, ten cents,from hunger and these market days – the children who remain behind in the countryside and the farms learn the value of hard work and how to live frugally and within one’s means.
The tired buses - busy schedules / overworked bus drivers
whine – crying out in protest loudly for everybody to hear
drag from stop to stop – the buses are moving very slowly either because they are carrying excessively more passengers or the traffic is too heavy for them to move quickly or may be they are originally too old for the job of carrying passengers
to disgorge – to pour out in a large number. All kinds of passengers rely on the buses. Apart from schoolchildren,
their monotonous route – repetitious picking up and letting down of bus passengers day-in and day-out
Passengers on the bus daily include:
[a] Schoolchildren – the only almost-innocent party on the bus
[b] Pale-faced clerks – overworked / loss of sleep / underpaid
[c] Long-suffering civil servants - overworked / not permitted to complain openly about government policies
[d] Pretty office girls – poorly paid girls who do light office work but not having anything better to do elsewhere.
to feed the megalopolitan appetite - the city has its opportunities and attractions – people have every reason to be self-seeking and want to better their existing quality of life.
The day draws to an end and the evening has come on.
The sea-green of lamps newly turned on at evening – the modernization of the suburban areas – the electrification at the press of a button – uniformed timing
Tall buildings
Green trees
The holes - the results of urban renewal planning
Life will be orderly and comfortable and exciting – promise of jobs / security in building lives for the individuals and their families, step by step with a lot of interesting developments along the way
The promise of better things to come with further economic development in the country.
If the old farmer were to live long enough, would he be happy with all the modern developments which are taking place around him?
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