A FIGHTER'S LINES : ELEMENTS OF THE POEM

SETTING

In this poem, there are two settings arranged. First is in an independent country. This is obviously shown by the line, ‘and the history of the fight for independence have forced sacrifices that know no name or life.’ The word ‘history’ connotes that the persona is reflecting the past he had. The second setting is an old man sitting on a wheelchair inside his abode. This can be proven from the Stanza 2 (Line 1), ‘from the wheelchair of the rest of my days’.

THEME

Theme of this poem. The important theme in this poem is patriotism. The persona’s experience of being a soldier and fought with the enemies and gone through hardships turned him to deeply love his country. But now he is old and disable and cannot do much to free his country from nowadays challenges. Even so because of his patriotism and he cannot bear to see the country sinks in the sea of lies, he urges the young to fight for it. He urges the younger generation to unite in spite of their differences and speak out the inequalities and dishonesties in the community so much so that the freedom retains.

TONE/MOOD

The persona voices out his hopes through various tones. In the Stanzas 1 and 2, the persona enhances the tone of frustration as he shares his disabilities and weariness of not being able to fight for the country anymore. They are proven by the line, ‘I am old and worn’. Not only that, the line ‘from the wheelchair of the rest of my days ‘, also symbolizes his disability which leads him to feel frustrated. He is worry of the deceits that spread everywhere nowadays as what he says in the line, ‘the net of deceit spread everywhere disturbs me’. His tone changes dramatically as in Stanzas 3 and 4, he goes from frustration to a fighting spirit where he eagerly urges the new generation to stand up and eradicate their fear of voicing out their opinions as stated in the line, ‘In the name of justice wake up and form ranks sons of our ancestor’ and ‘Be brave’. Besides that, he also stresses on the needs for the younger generation to be united and seek for their freedom as he clearly states in his lines, ‘And erect a wall of people’ and ‘Stand up heirs of our freedom’. In Stanza 4,, again he empathetically urges the younger generation to speak after him as now he is no longer strong to do so hence hopes for their voices to be heard as he stresses, ‘It is you now who should speak!’.

SYMBOL

There are few symbols being highlighted in the poem. First is the ‘wheelchair’ that connotes the disability. Through this symbol, one manages to imagine the persona’s condition, the hardships he went through before for the sake of achieving the country’s independence. Even though he is now wheelchair bound, he still has the will and determination to trigger the younger generation from their long asleep on how essential it is to retain the independence achieved from the sacrifices paid by the old generation like him. Besides that, another symbol represents in the poem is‘a wall of people’ which connotes people uniting. In this poem, it refers to a need for the younger generation to unite themselves regardless any races, skin colors or backgrounds to speak for themselves, prohibit from being influenced by the deceits being spread nowadays. It is also essential for the younger generation to erect a wall of people to maintain the independence achieved by the persona’s generation efforts.

ALLITERATION

It applies in the Stanza 1 (Line 6), ‘that know no name’. It is also includes in the Stanza 4 (Line 1), ‘I have no more voice!’ The initial alliteration also occurs within words as in the Stanza 2,

for the remnants of my crippled years

the net of deceit spread everywhere

Besides that, there is also an assonance uses in this poem. The assonance occurs internally as in the Stanza 3,

And erect a wall of people

Stand up heirs of our freedom

METAPHOR

 In this poem, one can see there are two examples of metaphor use. In the Stanza 2 (Line 6), the persona uses ‘the net of deceit’ where he voices out what kind of problem encounters by the younger generation nowadays. He means how the modern generation deceives each other and how the deceit being spread day by day and it obviously bothers him. The next metaphor applies is in the Stanza 3 (Line 4), ‘a wall of people’ where the persona feels that the people need to be united and concrete as a wall to encounter any problems interfered. Only through this way, the eternity of independence the persona’s generation fought for may be preserved for the upcoming generations.

MORAL VALUES/LESSONS LEARNT

1. We must be brave to uphold justice. The persona urges the Younger generation to stand up against the wide spread lies which are rampant in society today. This  net of deceit ‟worries him as it can destroy the solidarity of the people. Therefore, he urges them to stand united and uphold justice to preserve the freedom and safety of the country.

 2. We must be willing to make sacrifices to preserve our independence. In the fight for independence, the persona and other soldiers sacrificed and risked their lives when they fought for independence. Now, he is wheel chair-bound because he was either crippled in the war or is now old and sick. Now, he wants the younger generation to make sacrifices too to preserve their freedom.

3. We must be united to preserve our freedom. The persona wants the younger generation to stand united regardless of their differences to ensure their freedom.

4. We must stop corruption. The young generation must stop the wide spread corruption or bribery in our country today. Hence, our country will prosper.

5. We must fight injustices. The young generation must be united and willing to preserve our country independence.