The Reservist by Boey Kim Cheng, who is a Singaporean poet who migrated to Australia, is a ballad that has the characteristics of a free verse in terms of its form, structure, rhyme scheme, and rhythm. War is the theme of the poem as indicated by certain war-related phrases, such as “report for service”; “We will keep charging”; “long years of braving the same horrors”, especially “As clarion notes” which directly connotes is a war trumpet. Other war-themed words (semantic field)used in the poem are “battle-weary”, “command” “joust”, and “weapons”.
From the opening stanza, a mix of martial language and physical reality of the irregular soldiers is exhibited. The martial language includes “court-martial fanfare”, “call to arms”, while physical reality of the irregular soldiers includes “grunts”, “pot bellies”, and “creaking bones”, indicate age of the soldiers. Aside from the soldiers who are not sound fit to fight, “rusty armour” implies that they have been doing this for some time, which also refers to the repetitiveness and monotony of war. Along with the comic contrast given by the “sleek weapons” are the ironies from “battle-weary knights”, “the annual joust”, and “the tilting ‘at the old windmills”.
In the second stanza, a figure of speech used connects closely to the poem’s intention and feeling. Through the alliteration of “m” and repetition of “same” in lines 14, 15 and 30 and “again” in lines 11 and 17, monotony is shown. The alliteration of the letter “m” is contained in the quote “masked threats and monsters armed with the same roar” of lines 21 to 22. The monotony of war is shown by lines that feel monotonous, such as “We will keep charging up the same hills, plod through the same forests”. This reference to the situation’s monotony strengthens the intention of the poet to portray war.
More serious in mood, the second stanza suggests that the reservists have no control and are ‘like children placed/ on carousels’, the fairground simile expanded with military exercises described as an “expensive fantasyland”. The reference to “tedious rituals” and those in command as “monsters” clearly shows the impatience of the narrator.
It is up to the reader to decide whether the narrator’s appearance in the final stanza as one of the medaled “unlikely heroes” and discovering “daybreak” and “open sea”. There is also a good effect of the connection of the poem with ancient Greek myth. In lines 30 and 31 which say “We will march the same paths until they break onto new trails, our lives stumbling”, the feeling of fear is evident along with the monotonous and tiresome lives of soldiers.
Assuming the voice and persona of a part-time soldier, the poet has the objective of showing the repetitive nature of war. In the entire poem, there is a self-deprecating and amused tone of the narrator, the army, and the routines. However, the poem ended with a tinge of optimistic tone, indicating that something worthwhile will be achieved ultimately, although it could also be interpreted as a final joke. Generally, the poem successfully created a feeling of fear, monotony, and age that prevailed in the tone
How to revise:
Revision Activities
There are three key things that you should bear in mind during revision:
Revision should be an active process, simply reading and re-reading old notes is not the best way to get the information into your head.
The best way to remember something is to make it your own. It may be hard to remember whether or not your best friend likes, for example, cheese but it is easy to remember whether or not you do. In fact, you don’t need to remember at all: it’s just obvious. No one stands in front of a block of cheese thinking: ‘Hmm … now do I like cheese or not? I can never remember. Oh well, here goes.’ You don’t need to ask that question because you just know. It’s the same with English, if you have your own view about a poem, play or novel then you will remember it because it’s yours but if you are trying to remember my view then that will be very much harder.
The best resource you have for revision is each other: work together, test each other, challenge each other, mark each other’s work. Collaborating in this way will help both of you do better
Bearing these three things in mind, here are some activities to help you revise: On your own: 1. Re-write and re-order your notes rather than just reading over them. 2. Convert written notes into pictures, diagrams, brainstorms, character webs, etc 3. Brainstorm key moments / motifs / themes from a text 4. Re-read poems or important scenes from the play or novel and devise your own Organising Principles for them. 5. Get blank copies of the texts and track them again to see if you notice any different now that you are at the end of your course. 6. Practise writing timed plans for different questions on each text. Give yourself 10 minutes per question and come up with a series of main points and quotations you will use as evidence. 7. Write director’s notes for a scene from a play, novel or poem. How would you use setting, lighting, action, movement to convey the message of the poem?
In groups: 1. Pair up with a friend and write an essay about the same question and then mark each other’s work using the Essay Checklist posted below. 2. Divide a text up into sections within a group and set each other quizzes on each section. The quiz writers will get to know their section of the text really well and their questions will help draw the attention of everyone else to important points in their section 3. Similarly devise quotation quizzes for each other so that you can practise identifying, locating and remembering key quotations from the texts which will save you having to look them up in the exam. 4. In pairs devise 5 or 6 essay questions for each other and get your partner to produce quick 10 minute plans for each question. The plans should outline 5 or 6 main points that could be made and the quotations that might be used as evidence to support them. Discuss these as a pair – did the answerer make the same points as the question setter? 5. In pairs jointly write introductions or main body paragraphs in response to essay questions. Then write paragraphs separately and swap and mark them.
Consider how the writer has used all of the literary features at their disposal to create a certain effect. Make sure that you consider the text on a number of different levels.
Links:
Make links and comparisons between different parts of the poem/novel/play and show how a range of different of features from throughout the poem/novel/play are working together to create a given effect. You should look out for contrasts, shifts, changes and developments that appear as the poem/novel/play progresses.
Quote:
Use short and precise quotations that pick out the words or other features that are really ‘doing the work’ i.e. really responsible for creating the effect that you are talking about. Embed these quotations smoothly into your sentences and make sure that you know the technical terms for the literary features you are talking about
Explain in detail:
Develop your explanations as much as possible: these should be the longest parts of your paragraphs. Try and develop ideas in detail and depth and come up with original interpretations of the effect of something or make unexpected connections. Remember, however, not to be too off the wall. The effect must always be sensibly related to the overall theme or Organising Principle of the text (ie. does it answer the question?).
Write clearly and coherently:
Make sure that your arguments and explanations are clear and that your paragraphs follow on from each other logically. This doesn’t mean that there can be no breaks where you suddenly switch to a new subject; it just means that, when you do this, you have to use a clear linking phrase that signals this break from the previous paragraph e.g. ‘An alternative interpretation of …’
Give a personal response:
This does not mean that you have to fill your essay with phrases like ‘I’ or ‘In my opinion’. If you write passionately and excitedly about something then it will be clear that your response is personal. A good trick, however, for writing personally is to comment on what you find most effective or successful in a poem – judgments like this are necessarily personal because they talk about how much you have been affected by something.
Be careful with your language: Make sure you get crucial spellings such as the name of the poet or poem correct. Avoid using slang because it suggests that you don’t know that exams are a situation where you should be writing formally. Equally avoid clichés because they suggest that you are not capable of coming up with your own inventive or original thoughts.
Here´s a useful way of organising revision for Macbeth.
Act 5, Scene 5 Soliloquy Things to consider for those bonus points:
Why do you think Shakespeare chose to end the line with an unstressed syllable? (A “feminine ending?”) What does that tell us about how Macbeth feels about “tomorrow?”
Shakespeare also ends the first line of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech from Act 3, Scene 1 with a feminine ending. How are these two speeches similar?
How would the meaning be different if the “ands” were not stressed?
What has happened the moment before Macbeth begins this speech, and how might that influence how it is spoken?
Why does Shakespeare have Macbeth repeat the word “tomorrow” three times?
If iambic pentameter represents a normal heartbeat, how do you think Shakespeare’s language changes when a character is terrified, excited, depressed, angry, etc. (Helpful hint: imagine what happens to your heartbeat when you experience these emotions.)