POEM ANALYSIS
MY FUTURE
By Zarith Sofea
Outside the window,
There is only grief and hollow,
As the minds turned shallow,
Stands the capital we blindly follow.
Looking up to the sky,
The roof is black as the dye,
Senses numb feeling high,
The night tastes like apple pie
Books and papers have long gone,
Disappear forever no more are born,
Technology advancement has finally won,
The world moving fast no time to mourn.
What a shame we are today,
Cannot be free cannot be gay,
The people below have no say,
If it is done in the wrong way.
What a sorrow story to picture,
Something has gone wrong at one juncture,
Sadly this, is what I call the future
What we get for didn’t nurture
STANZA BREAKDOWN
(play 'My Future' video)
STANZA 1
The persona is in her house, looking at the view through her window. The only thing she can decipher to describe the current surrounding is it is full of dullness, rays of happy sunlight are impossible by then, no greenery or any animal is on sight. She thinks that this is the outcome from the society before who was too oblivious and just let them be controlled by the more powerful.
STANZA 2
It is night time, the persona now is outside, looking at the sky outside her house. Everything is dark, no stars to have gazed, and the sky is bare cloudless. The persona is used by the ambiance by now, trying her best to dwell herself in the feelings. Though everything about it seems so sad, the night still tastes as sweet as ever.
STANZA 3
The persona here mentioned that any form of works of art that had been written on paper is now no longer exist. They are not made any more since the new era of advanced technology has finally come. Steel and machine here and there, bright light emitted from the device screen everywhere. However, no one seems to care about it anymore and just go through with the flow as they feel a lot more significant things that need to be done.
STANZA 4
The persona utters her disappointment for what is happening around. Seeing as the people are controlled and cannot be happy and do whatever they like. They cannot even have the right to voice their opinion out even if anything wrong happens. The only viewpoint that matters is from the superior above.
STANZA 5
It is such a sad picture in a frame, what could have gone wrong then for the outcome to be like this? Something that we did back then was the only reason as to why the world now is collapsing. This is what we deserve though, for being selfish, too self-centered, and irresponsible to the nature that has been given to us.
ANALYSIS
THEME
Dystopian future
The darkness of the future that holds upon us if we do not appreciate what we have now
The lack of responsibility that governments/authorities have towards the people
Prioritising technology improvements to the extend legacy is being forgotten
EMOTION
Dark
Sorrow
Gloomy
Melancholy
SOUND
Alliteration -
The world moving fast no time to mourn.
Assonance -
Books and papers have long gone,
Sadly this, is what I call the future
RHYME SCHEME
AAAA
STANZA
Contains 5 stanzas with four lines in each stanza
MOVEMENT
The pace of this poem is slow. It gives the effect of how sorrow the situation is, suitable for what the poem is all about.
IMAGERY
Symbol
The night tastes like apple pie - The apple pie symbolised that the night is sweet
Simile
The roof is black as the dye, - The darkness of the night sky is compared to how dark a black hair dye is
Personification
Disappear forever no more are born, - The word born here is referred to the books and papers
MORAL VALUES
We should give more care towards our surrounding and appreciate every single thing in our life before it vanishes
We must stand up for our rights and not easily shows defeat to the people above us
We must realize that the actions of us today will affect what happens in the future. Therefore, we must start to take the first step to make sure the best for our future.
SUMMARY
This poem is how I picture our future will look like, taken by my observation in today’s world that we are currently living. As time passes, we humans keep moving forward, changes always happen that at one point it scares me. I am scared of seeing how much different our world now compared to then, how the people seem to not care about their surrounding, being selfish. The poem is dark, yes, but this is the reality that we have to accept, our world will eventually turn out like this if we don’t start to be better.