Classroom Jealousy
At the far corner of the class,
a quiet creature sits. Shhh!
Always, a book on his desk.
And with quiet, confident eyes,
He translates all into his mind.
The factory in his mind is working
day and night,
taking in knowledge and knowledge.
He mugs and mugs,
He makes me sick.
He mugs too much;
He’ll do better than me,
Leaving me at the bottom.
“P”-ones, “A”-ones and the “keep it up’s”.
How could he do this –
This unmerciful genius,
not caring for me
As long as he lives,
creatures like him…
My life is at the bottom.
This poem creates the tension between the top-scorer of the class and himself by setting a tone as he portrays the “quiet creature”. In this case, tone would have been taught to students in Secondary two express and they should be able to identify words or phrases as well as punctuations and other devices found in the poem that contributes to their knowledge of it. These questions aim to explore students’ understanding of the poem, give evidences and to give their own personal responses. With this, they are able to get in touch with the tone of the poem, derive their own responses, and come out with personal opinions of the poem after recognizing the tone in the poem. Hence, developing their understanding of this literary device.
1. Do you sympathize with the speaker? Why?
2. What do you think is the speaker’s attitude towards the “quiet creature”? What makes you think so?
3. How do you think the title relates to the poem? Do you think it is an apt title?
4. What do you think the poet is trying to do by composing this poem?
I think this is a poem that students can definitely relate to. Who wrote this poem, by the way? Good selection of questions. You might want to ask students why the word "creature" is used so often.
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