I have written a poem about poems. It follows no rhyme scheme, its lines are haphazard with no fixed number per stanza nor fixed length of lines. it is covulated to the extent it almost looks like prose in an unconventional structure, but please be accepting with its Modern touch. The poem is as follows below:
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Shaw once asked if we could cross refer across poets for the exam to come.
This is how *I* would do it (and double dare people to try it)
Background and Friezes – is a pun on Robert Frost’s name and it has an anti-war sentiment prevalent in Wilfred Owen’s poems. The use of religious imagery in Background and Friezes is also seen in Owen’s Apologia Pro Poemato Meo.
If you could integrate Lear, 12 night and CB in, you win.
***** (take note of the asterisks, there is a literary feature behind it!)
Once again, I’m in this mood to criticise the study of literature again and its absurdity. I mean something like “the B sounds in the alliteration brings out the brutality of war” sounds so tenuous! Or the poem has “a rigid/haphazard structure and rhyme scheme to reflect on some deeper theme.” Sure, the poet had to pick SOME FORM of structure right? (Or I just used alliteration and sibilance in “sure” “some” and “structure” with the purpose of showing um… I don’t know, Stupidity?)
And for a specific example in Background and Friezes, I keep hearing from people that “Virgins bled” refers to Mary because the V is capitalised. No….. the V is capitalised BECAUSE ITS AFTER A FULL STOP -__- and…. if it were to have been refering to Mary, it wouldn’t be in plural!
What if the poem describing a walk in the park was really JUST about a walk in the park?
What if, as someone said, the poet picked the word just so it will rhyme. And looking at Shaw poems, that certainly seems to be the case!
What if the poet picked the first name that came to his mind and it didn’t really have a purpose
What if the, what if the, what if the,
What if the john kumar seaweed horseshoes and other random words,
What if the what-
What if I renamed this poem What If
What ifffffffff…. What?
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July 25, 2010 at 6:50 am
Eu
I guess it must be unusual for you to receive comments, much less comments on posts ONE YEAR AGO. But I can’t help it >.<
I found this when I was googling "poems like Background and Friezes" and I believe I got more than I ask for.
I'm a junior, currently Year 6 in acs (indep). -hoorah- And I must say, i respect you for updating your blog so regularly despite the CRAZY (that's an understatement of the century) IB schedule.
July 25, 2010 at 7:04 am
King of Siam
That crazy meh, you must be like some science student with a heavy combi.
Besides, i have like freaking two years of free time to kill!
can’t let my brain atrophy in the mean time.
August 20, 2010 at 8:35 am
Cecille
Hahaha…I also “found this when I was googling “poems like Background and Friezes” and I believe I got more than I ask for.”
This time because my IB friend reccommended the poem to me ^^
hillarious. lol
this made my day
August 22, 2010 at 2:29 pm
King of Siam
It’s damn LOLTF since ib students keep ending up here when they desperately search for Background and Friezes online, which has nothing — only to find this random nonsense that does nothing more than point out how interpretation taught in school can be quite random and nonsense as well.
August 8, 2011 at 8:24 am
michaelliauw
ohmy, now i am the y6 acs(i) ib student here, class of 2011 (haha hi senior)
and yup, i found this cos i googled “background and friezes”
seems that the poem has kind of vanished from this world huh? cant find it anywhere :O SCARY!! (and my ioc is like hm in less than 100 hours time)
August 11, 2012 at 6:21 am
ZACHARY DEVARAJ
I’m year 6, I’m from ACS(i) and I should be studying for my IOC instead of commenting on POEMS ABOUT POEMS?????
August 12, 2012 at 1:01 am
King of Siam
wa, every single year around this period there’ll be a year six student who reaches this post by googling friezes and realise there’s freaking nothing on the internet for it. Here are my old notes for it:
Background and Friezes – Soyinka
Subject matter:
Significance of the title: Friezes are sculptural decorative bands added to architecture. 1. Pun on the word freeze Show how death and suffering from the civil war is frozen into history. 2. By using an architectural element from the Classical Ages, Soyinka emphasises the timelessness of war – the violence will not change even as generations come and go and viciousness will always be a background for wars. 3. The friezes are a decoration to disguise and cover up the atrocities of the civil war in the background
About the poet: written in fragments when Soyinka was imprisoned as a political prisoner for appealing for a cease fire during the civil war in Nigeria.
Purpose: express frustration at unjust imprisonment.
Structure: fragmented, short sentences cut off at odd points – 1. adds to the intensity of the poem 2. starting to have mental breakdown while imprisoned. Yet there is a consistent structure in the number of lines per stanza. The consistent structure brings to mind the unchanging timelessness
The poem can be interpreted from two points of view. One is the General’s POV, the other is soyinka’s.
1.Examines the theme of death and its prevalence
2.Portrayal of the authorities to be power hungry and violent
3.Religious imagery to convey a futility and sense of universality
Stanza 1
A recollection of war. Solemn tone
personifying death to show the extreme cruelty – 1. capitalizes to focus on the theme. 2. Death is not just a mere experience, it is a historic event.
Thousand ways from sudden to slow like eating a meal piece by piece. Death was so common to the extent there were even different types of death. Shows graphic details of suffering.
Piece is a pun on the word peace – which brings out an irony as there is nothing peaceful about war, death is the only means of attaining peace in chaos.
Sadism of humans in devising new ways of torturous slow deaths.
the description of “virgins bled at lepers’ orgies” is crude and shocking to evoke emotions of disgust in the reader. 1. It represents a loss of innocence, chastity and how even the innocent have to suffer 2. It juxtaposes the purity of virgins to the filth and disease of lepers. orgies 3. It could refer to the literal large scale rape much like an orgy to further highlight the cruelty. Orgy also compares the killing to a wild and festive party 4. The Virgin could refer to Mother Mary. It mocks religion as a form of hope in this period of chaos. Overall, it shows the sickening brutality of the treatment of women and the war in nigeria.
Streets were cobbled with unnumbered dead: 1. large scale loss of lives such that bodies covered the street like stones. 2. The dead are reduced to a statistic with their identity removed 3. Further dehumanization as they are compared to stones 4. Corruption in statistics and death count
Stanza 2
Wise Angel – 1. A warning to political prisoners who try to stop the war 2. refer to Jacques d’Odan or General Yakubu to bring out a sense of irony as he is neither angelic nor wise in the war
1. Their calls would be as useless as whispering – stop! It has no real effect in the loud volume of killings
2. Tokenistic gesture by the General to ask them to stop by whispering, with no intention of help
There is a hyphen between whispers and stop to show a hesitance. (like in Massacre, October ’66)
Choice of words: “Spree”. Out of hand – out of control. And heads, 1) creates the image of decapitations 2) out of their mind – the killings and the war is absurd.
A pause to emphasise the heads and make it appear more prominent. Might also refer to the deleterious effect confinement has on his mental capacity.
Stanza 3
Juxtaposes clean fingers with a bowl of blood. Sarcasm. No need to rinse clean fingers. The act of washing in blood shows tainting and contamination
The General is so twisted he tries to wash away cleanliness in blood
Perhaps also an accusation that the General is trying to absolve himself of blame but clearly still has blood on his hands
Killing adds to the generals ranks (as represented by the pips and crowns)
Humbly – irony.
Stanza 4
Speaker assumes the role of the general
My word is bond reflects on the power which the general has. Violence is the word which empowers him. Also shows how nobody can go against the will of the general.
Guaranteed death as a one way street? Irreversible.
One way street, reference to the street in the first stanza cobbled with unnumbered dead
One way street could also refer to an autocratic leadership with a one-way communication
Reference to the one way street in every ready bank accounts to show irreversibility. Charity is a one way street.
Stanza 5
Proud attitude of the General who assumes he is God’s chosen instrument
Street singers chant – 1. his propoganda and indoctrination. 2. Praises for the General.
Fat unholy fingers a reference to the bloodied fingers earlier. Fat is a sign off greed – General who gets fat on corruption and embezzlement.
Soyinka: A chosen instrument of God like Moses to lead the people of Nigeria out of political bondage
Yet god to him has fat unholy fingers – futility of religion. The real god in power is the one who is in control of the prison and in turn control over soyinka’s life.
Stanza 6
Boots and Rifle Butts used for torture. Not a mild approach. It is ironic to clal it a mild approach, and by doing so, it indicates how the soldiers are capable of worse forms of torture.
The heavy sounds of the alliteration in Boots Butts highlights the brutality of treatment
Mud reptilian – cold blooded and filth, reference to unholy fingers. Reptile could be a biblical reference to the serpent which represents satan. Irony once again.
Drive into the sea at my approach. Soyinka wants to get rid of the General. Or the general is leading the country into chaos
Stanza 7
Code of conduct in war is not humane – irony
Good intentions – sarcasm. Causes death
juxtaposes humane with gun-mate. The two ideas contradict.
General refers to Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England – underlying irony, regicidal dictator. Witty when juxtaposed against how he is “humane” and “of good intentions”
Soldiers illiterate and uncultured/uncivilised – too stupid to realise that what they are doing is wrong and evil
Another interpretation is that this stanza refers to soyinka and how he has the good intentions of leading the people to freedom but unable to do it because of the gun-mate and cromwellian style.
Someday indicates a slight sense of distant hope.
Stanza 8
Mood more sombre
Hands off! My affairs internal – does not want intervention in the affairs of his country
Soyinka’s experience in prison – tells his captors not to physically assault him. Might refer to the anguish in his mind.
Conscience over what he has done– “me to burn”
Last lines
the poem does not end in this extract. Last lines speak of hope and end on an optimistic tone as it talks about the rains have fallen and the earth is deep. Showing an abundance which has the potential for a new life and a new beginning
Also indicates soyinka standing firm as the “earth is deep”
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If you still haven’t gotten the meaning behind my post, i still think, after three years, that lit is Full of Shit. Anything can be plucked from anywhere – it’s just how you justify it.
Have fun taking notes, This is still going to better than anything you’ll ever get from English class.