Cheng's poem "Reservist": An analysis

Authors Avatar

Reservist: An analysis

What would we do if we were stuck doing the same things years on end with no respite? What if what we did was futile and showed no signs of bringing any changes? Cheng presents a similar picture in his poem. Although the poem is metaphoric, has many layers and can meaning anything from war to life itself, the title of the poem makes many things clear for us: firstly that the persona is one of the reservists, the military reserves. Secondly that the enforced labor is that of the yearly training that is forced upon them and which results in nothing.

The poem begins with Cheng comparing the Singaporean government with a feudalistic system. Cheng works this theme into an extended metaphor, with the entire first verse containing reference to feudalism. The "annual joust" referred to in the first line of the poem is the annual training for the reservists. We also know that this training is mandatory or enforced as it is "upon the pain of court martial" to "tilt at the old windmills", a reference to the story of Don Quixote and an example of the foolishness of it all.

Join now!

Cheng uses asyndeton to effect throughout the poem. As the poem is about a person or people stuck in a rut and getting nowhere, the series of events in which the weariness clearly show. Along with these, there are words that, in more direct words present the weariness, like "battle-weary knights" and verbs such as "creep" in place of verbs such as "jump" or "snap" to attention. The repetition of the word "same" fills a similar purpose. The inclusion of phrases such as "children placed on carousels they cannot get off from" and "borne along through somebody's expensive fantasyland" suggests ...

This is a preview of the whole essay