Report To Wordsworth By Boey Kim Cheng Done by: Dylan and Rebecca

The poem You should be here, Nature has need of you. She has been laid waste. Smothered by the smog, the flowers are mute, and the birds are few in a sky slowing like a dying clock. All hopes of Proteus rising from the sea have sunk; he is entombed in the waste we dump. Triton’s notes struggle to be free, his famous horns are choked, his eyes are dazed, and Neptune lies helpless as a beached whale, while insatiate man moves in for the kill. Poetry and piety have begun to fail, As Nature’s mighty heart is lying still. O see the wound widening in the sky, God is labouring to utter his last cry.

Boey Kim Cheng’s background He was born in Singapore in He now lives and works in Australia with his wife. He was inspired by Wordsworth T.S. Elliot, Keats

Summary The poet Kim Boey Cheng is trying to tell us that Nature is in need of help. he gives examples by using the environment as prove what is happening to earth. Like pollution, smog, flowers that cannot bloom and birds that are dying. He also tells us that poetry has failed to make us realize our wrong doing. He uses Greek and Roman mythology and goes to the extend of telling us that even the gods are trapped in the waste we dump.

Literary devices Boey Kim Cheng uses literary devices to bring tone to the poem Personification Simile Alliteration Metaphor Imagery

Personification In line three, “the flowers are mute” he uses flowers to to convey a pitiful sense, like they do not have a voice and is suffering in silence. There is irony here as well as flowers are suppose to bloom which creates a sense of joy and happiness but here he describes them as gloomy and dull.

Personification In line seven, “Triton’s notes struggle to be free” he emphasizes on the amount of waste that we dump, even a god is useless and helpless due to mankind’s action. It is beyond his control. This makes us realize our responsibility on Earth. In the next line, “his famous horns are choked” Boey uses Greek and Roman gods as allusions to nature.

Simile In line four, “slow like a dying clock” here Boey uses a clock as time is very precious and he wants us to remind us about Nature and not take her for granted. In line nine, “Neptune lies helpless as a beached whale” a beached whale gives us a imagery of death, as if nature is dying but it is a slow process. This increases the effect of sympathy.

Alliteration In line two, “Smothered by the smog”, the alliteration has an effect that our air is smothering us, which gives us a sense of suffocation. In line thirteen, “wound widening”, the alliteration has a wailing effect which tells readers the suffering the earth is facing.

Metaphor In line thirteen, “O see the wound widening in the sky” refers to the hole in the ozone layer. It is also an image that the world is hurt and in pain because of the pollution we cause which gives a feeling of guilt and regret.

Imagery In line four, Boey Kim Cheng uses an image of a “dying clock” to express the idea of slow death and also to show that time is running out for people unless they change the way they live. In line six, “he is entombed in the waste” this image shows that destruction and waste is everywhere around us. The word “entombed” gives us a image of suffocation, this emphasizes and reminds us of our responsibility to nature. The image also lets readers sympathize the state that nature is in.

Comparison to lament Both poems deal with the theme of co-existence of man and nature, and how human kind destroys the environment. In Lament, the poet Clarke is using the images of dying, suffering animals to create empathy from the reader. As animals are innocent and more pure compared to us. In Report to Wordsworth Boey uses the old, Greek gods being helpless, looking at Earth with no hope.

Comparison to lament Like in Lament “For the cormorant in his funeral silk” and “For the ocean’s lap with it’s mortal stain” where she is creating a dark image for both lines. In Report to Wordsworth Boey is referring to global warming in line thirteen “O see the wound widening in the sky” where he describe the destruction of the ozone layer. Here both poems are similar as they both have a dramatic and mysterious ending.

Comparison to lament The fact that Boey refers to Greek and Roman gods, and Clarke refers to the gulf war, brings out the fact that both the West and the East are causing damage, by fighting internally and with each other. Yet both poems manage to leave some impression on the reader, as the reality is not going to change, no matter how one portrays it.

Comparison to Flower-Fed Buffalos Both poets of “ Report to Wordsworth” and “The Flower-Fed Buffaloes” portray nature in their poems. But both poems consist of the change of Earth. Vachel Lindsay talks about the approaching of modernization and its wreckage to the buffaloes. Boey Kim Cheng is raising awareness about the destruction of nature by man. The tone in “The Flower-Fed Buffaloes” is sadness and nostalgic and in “ Report to Wordsworth” it is devastation.

Comparison to Flower-Fed Buffalos In Flower-Fed Buffaloes writes “Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by” to show that humans have brought the trains and disrupted the peace. This also gives an image that nature is being trampled over and over again. Similarly, Boey Kim Cheng writes about the after effects of humans disturbing nature. “She has been laid waste” shows that humans have destroyed the Mother nature.