DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SCIENCES

HSE0324

READING AND ANALYSING POETRY

POETRY WRITE-UP

SEMESTER 3, 2022,2023

MADAM ANIS IZZATI BINTI ISMAIL

SECTION 736

NUR EISYA FATIHAH BINTI ZAINUDIN

223759
THIS IS MY LIFE 2

THIS IS MY LIFE

This is my LIFE,

Ummi and Abah gave it to me when I was eight,

The moment I saw it,

I fell in love with it,

I cherished it,

With love,

With daisies,

With rainbows,

All of the good things in the world!

Everywhere I go,

I can see people bringing their lives too,

Every time I make a friend,

We made a pledge to stay together,

By saving each other’s Number.

The Number is your identity,

If you don’t have one,

Then people won’t know that you exist.

I love it so much,
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That I have to be careful with it,

It’s quite fragile, you see,

If it falls and hits the floor,

The face might shatter into millions of pieces.

I love it so much,

That I bought lots of clothes for it,

We can wear matching outfits daily,

OMG! We look like besties!

You are my LIFE,

When you’re about to die,

I’m dying as well-

Oh no! Your vitals are low!

3%, 2%, 1%-

Stay in there! Don’t lose hope! Please!

I make my way for a long journey,

Until I reach the RiverBank,

Legend said that its water holds great Power,

So, I took a full chalice of it,

And brought it home,

To keep the Grim Reaper at bay.

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That’s odd-

Why is it so silent?

Ummi? Abah? Are you there?

In my eyes, I cannot see any human beings,

The only thing that I can see,

I can touch,

I can hear,

Is just- you.

I look in the mirror,

Even my reflection didn’t come to greet me,

The world has changed blurry,

What’s going on?

I’m sinking into a dark, black hole,

It’s quite cold and scary.

Slowly, you suck my soul from my body,

Like a Dementor,

You change my personality,

THIS IS MY LIFE 5

my character,

my nature,

my identity,

into someone that’s not really- Me.

I look at you with great incredulity,

the LIFE that I love so much,

Is it really- worthy?
THIS IS MY LIFE 6

Themes

According to Kirszner and Mandell (2017), a theme is a poem’s main idea or point. A

poem can include a single or more than one theme that depends on the story of the poem that

the poet wants to convey (Pandurang, 2022). There are two themes in this poem. Firstly, it

highlights that a smartphone has become a substantial need for the persona. The second theme

is the addiction of the persona to her phone. It emphasizes the reality of today’s society among

teenagers that seems to have no control over a merely small but deceiving device that could

take its toll on one’s life. This poem is written with two themes because I want to describe the

experience of the persona who has a smartphone as a gift in her life but ends up in a miserable

state due to her ‘gift’.

The first theme of the poem depicts the cruciality of a smartphone in the persona’s life.

She was really happy with her smartphone in the first place since a smartphone is a

commonness in the community. It is not used merely to call and message, but it has been

equipped with software and technology to allow users to access the Internet and all social media

platforms (Olofinniyi et al., 2012). Since everyone in society owns a smartphone, she wants to

be a member of the social group as well as she does not want to feel left out. However, the

second theme portrays that the persona has no self-control over her smartphone since this

addiction creates a strong desire to use this gadget in order to be constantly occupied without

doing other beneficial things (Abd. Rashid et al., 2020). She starts to realize that she is not her

old self that she used to be.

The narrative of the poem starts when the persona remembered how joyful she was

when she received the precious gift from her parents at a very young age. Schuz (2005) agreed

that children nowadays have started to use smartphones at an early age. The persona sees that

everyone in society carries their phones around as well. She uses this device as a medium to
THIS IS MY LIFE 7

make new friends and stays connected with them. She even takes good care of it knowing that

it is fragile via giving it a lot of attention to make sure that it is always within her side.

The poem continued with the persona slowly noticing the adversity that she has entered

due to her excessive dependency on this gadget. The addiction to the smartphone is highly due

to social needs, social influences, and the convenience of the phone (Mohd Suki & Mohd Suki,

2013). She starts to feel heavily anxious when it is not in good condition. She also perceives

the fact that she has a substantial change in character and that she seems lost in not recognizing

herself anymore. At the end of the poem, the persona questions whether having a phone is

really worth it or not.

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Voice

The voice of this poem is a Malay teenage girl who owns a smartphone but ended up being a

phone addict.

Justification:

The voice refers to the speaker of the poem (Kirzner &Mandell, 2017). The voice of

this poem is chosen to relate the situation of the persona with teenagers nowadays since it is a

general commonness that is widely occurring in society, not only in Malaysia but all around

the world. I choose the voice of a Malay girl to relate this poem to me since I am a Malay

myself. That is the reason for the presence of Malay dialect for “Mom” and “Dad”, which are

“Ummi” and “Abah”. Ricoy et al. (2022) stated that teenagers’ use of technology is alarming.

Misuse of gadgets would lead to a variety of social implications that includes sexting,

nomophobia, and vibranxiety (Parent et al., 2021). This situation indicates the vulnerability of

teenagers to gadget usage. This is also a contributing factor to why teenagers have a lack of

respect towards adults, leading them to not be careful with their words hence the reason I use

informal and plain choices of words in this poem. Throughout the poem, the persona cannot

sense the presence of her parents which emphasizes the social distance that she has created

between them because of her phone addiction. Family dysfunction and phone addiction are

highly correlated (Kim et al., 2018). She is too invested in her phone which causes her to have

a deficiency in her senses. She cannot see the world properly, nor feel the warmness around

her. The persona pictures herself as not being in a good mental and physical state. Phone

addiction could lead to a sedentary lifestyle which causes psychological problems in society

(WHO, 2015).
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Tone

The tone of this poem is jovial initially. However, it then develops into a depressed, regretful,

and sorrowful tone as the persona starts to lose herself at the end of the poem.

Justification:

The purpose of the tone chosen is to reflect on the experience that has been gone through

by the persona throughout this poem. According to Cambridge Dictionary, the tone is the

speaker’s attitude toward the audience. The jovial tone can be spotted in the first three stanzas

of the poem. It pictures how happy the persona is when she gets the smartphone that she really

desired. She cherished the phone and take good care to ensure the good condition of it. It is

also stated that she even buys lots of “outfits” (phone cases) for the phone, treating it like a best

friend of hers. Thanks to this special device, she managed to make new friends and saves their

phone number to make sure she can get in touch with them. As the persona has the desire to be

a part of society, having a phone is a prominent way to avoid being an outsider. The feeling of

connectedness that the persona managed to achieve gives a sense of happiness towards her.

As the poem continues, there is a depressed tone when the speaker cannot feel the

presence of her parents anymore. Interpersonal issues are typically present in depression,

especially in close relationships (Downey & Coyne, 1990). The world around her has become

dark and scary which goes along with the aforementioned tone. She is all alone which causes

her to feel sorrow. The enthusiasm that she felt earlier faded away and she no longer can

perceive anything around her except for the phone that she used to cherish so much. Knowing

this, the speaker feels regretful for what she had done by questioning her past actions for

exceeding the limits of having no control when spending time with her phone.
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Imagery

Visual Imagery

“Until I reach the RiverBank”

Imageries are words that evoke the physical sensation of one or more of the five senses.

This line is visualizing where the persona reaches a riverbank after a long journey. A riverbank

is land along a river’s edge (Collins Dictionary, 2022). It appeals to the reader’s sense of sight

as the readers will picture an image of a riverbank in their minds.

As we divide the word into two parts, river, and bank, they can be defined into

completely distinct meanings. A river is a natural torrent of water that is typically rather large

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2023) while a bank is a financial place that swaps currencies,

uses customer deposits for investments, pays them back when needed, and offers interest-

bearing loans (Oxford Dictionary, 2023). There are two fundamental things that we need to

take into consideration: water, and money. Water is a basic need (Gleick,1996) while money is

perceived as something valuable in life by people (Tang, 1992). People need both of these to

survive in today’s world. It relates to the context of the poem as the persona thinks of her phone

as a valuable and basic need in her life. In this poem, the persona arrives at the riverbank as it

is considered a place that holds substantial power. It relates to the theme of her phone addiction

as the persona will do anything to make sure that her “life” does not die. Hence, she takes the

water from the river believing to gain immortality for her “life”.
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Visual Imagery

“I’m sinking in a dark, black hole,”

This line was specifically written to let readers visualize the persona falling deep into a

hole where it is in complete darkness and there is no spark of light could be found. Dark can

be defined as without much or any light (Cambridge Dictionary, 2023). Black means the entire

or total absorption of light, giving rise to the darkest possible shade; the reverse of white while

a hole is a hollow area within a surface or solid body (Oxford Dictionary, 2023).

The literal meanings of the words convey the persona’s feelings, which are depressed

and sorrowful. She cannot see, hear, or touch anything. Her world changes into a completely

dreary state. The reason is that she gets so attached to her device that she loses touch with

humanity. Now, she feels that no one could help her escape from that “hole” that she is in.
THIS IS MY LIFE 12

Auditory imagery

“Why is it so silent- “

This line appeals to the reader’s sense of hearing as they would hear nothing because

of the stillness. Silence can be defined as free of noise or sound (Merriam-Webster Dictionary,

2023). Since the persona loses connection with human contact, she cannot hear any sound or

noises. She thinks her smartphone is the only thing that brings happiness to her. This shows

the loneliness that surrounds her even though she has a family. This relates to the tone of the

poem which is sorrowful. The ambiance that she feels leads her to feel sorrow. Due to the

silence, the persona starts to discern that there is something wrong in her life. This leads to the

persona feeling regretful as she realizes that she is the real problem that causes her own life to

collapse.
THIS IS MY LIFE 13

Tactile Imagery

“It’s quite cold and scary.”

This line illustrates the coldness that appeals to readers’ sense of touch. Coldness is the

quality or condition of low temperature compared to the human body (Oxford Dictionary,

2023). In this poem, the persona is feeling the coldness because there is no warmth in that black

hole. At the same time, coldness in this context also depicts a lack of affection for any feelings.

The persona suffers from the numbness of that miserable place leading her to feel depressed.

The absence of her parents makes the situation even worse. There is no one that she could hold

on to. Even with the existence of the phone that could help her to do anything with her daily

life affairs, it will never be the same with the benevolence of a human being. At this moment,

the phone is helpless for her since it cannot help her to escape from the “cold” place that she is

in.
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Figure of Speech

Personification

“Even my reflection didn’t come to greet me,”

Delbaere et al. (2011) stated that personification is the action of giving inanimate

objects human attributes, making the object seem and feel like a person. This line depicted the

personification where “reflection” is to be put together with human attributes, such as “come”

and “greet”. Despite that, a reflection does not have the mind of itself to come to a person and

greet him.

This line conveys the persona’s loneliness and desperation for a companion. She cannot

even see her image in the mirror which denotes the extreme loneliness of the persona. Her

phone addiction causes her to change her personality as well. From a happy and cheerful

person, she swaps her nature into a completely different person, being anti-social and arrogant.

Although she has a lot of online friends with whom she could chat every time, she loses her

real friends and her loved ones as well.

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Metaphor

“This is my LIFE,”

Metaphor is the use of language to refer to something than what ‘literally means, or

what it originally applies to, in order to make a connection or resemblance between the two

things (Knowles & Moon, 2006). The line written above expresses the metaphoric element as

the persona compares “This” which refers to a smartphone used by the persona and her “life”.

Collins Dictionary (2022) defined life as the attribute that objects and substances do not have

but that living things like humans, animals, and plants possess. Thus, it is considered a valuable

thing that could never be replaced.

In this line, the persona considers her smartphone a precious item as she equates it with

her own life. The capitalization that is used shows just how crucial her device is. This is because

the gadget helps her a lot in her daily routine, and she thinks that it would be impossible to live

without it.
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Metaphor

“The Number is your identity,”

This line indicates that the persona is comparing “Number”, which is a phone number

with an identity. According to Cambridge Dictionary (2023), an identity is a person’s name and

other identifying information.

There is a manipulation of capitalization for the word “Number” to emphasize the great

significance of the meaning it conveys. In this modern world, an identity is an obligation for

everyone to have as other people can refer to themselves as the name they are given. In the

context of the poem, everyone needs to have their own phone number so that other people could

reach them through calls or messages. It would be totally odd for someone not to have a phone

number. If a person does not own a phone number, then people would not know the existence

of that particular person because he is unreachable.

THIS IS MY LIFE 17

Simile

“Like a Dementor,”

The American Heritage College Dictionary stated that a simile is a figure of speech in

which two explicitly dissimilar items are compared, typically with the words "like" or "as". A

Dementor is one of the characters in the Harry Potter series. Rowling (2014) describes

Dementors as the foulest creatures on Earth. They suck out every happy memory from a person

and he will be left with nothing but the worst experience of his life. She also portrays a

‘Dementor’s kiss’ as the death penalty which is worse than death as they suck souls from

people’s bodies and there is no cure for it.

This line compares the persona’s smartphone with a Dementor. It shows how powerful

the small device is in ‘sucking souls from people’s bodies’. The persona who is addicted to her

phone slowly turns into a lifeless person that does not have any human values. She is too

invested in her phone that she does not care for the people around her anymore.
THIS IS MY LIFE 18

Hyperbole

“I cherished it,

With love,

With daisies,

With rainbows,

All of the good things in the world!”

According to Oxford Dictionary, hyperboles are exaggerated assertions or thoughts that

shouldn't be taken literally. In the context of the poem, hyperbole could be sensed in this line

as it conveys the persona’s excitement about getting a new phone that she cherished it with

everything delightful that she can think of. The last line shows exaggeration as if the persona

could really protect the phone with everything nice in the whole world which is actually

impossible. This line portrays the unconditional love of the persona towards her phone that she

assumes it as her ‘life’.

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Rhyme

1. Perfect rhyme, End rhyme, Masculine rhyme

“The moment I saw it,

I fell in love with it,

I cherished it,”

Perfect rhyme is matching sounds in words. For a rhyme to be perfect, the sound of the final

vowel and consonant must also be the same. End rhyme is when the rhyming syllables is

occurring at the end of a line. Masculine rhyme occurs when single syllables correspond

(Kirszner & Mandell, 2016). As we can see, three matching syllables in the three lines convey

the same sound, which is [ɪt].

2. Perfect rhyme, Beginning rhyme, Masculine rhyme

“I can see,

I can touch,

I can hear,”

According to Kirszner and Mandell (2016), Beginning rhyme occurs at the beginning of a line.

The beginning of the three lines has the same sound, that is [aɪ].
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3. Imperfect rhyme, End rhyme

“We made a pledge to stay together,

By saving each other’s Number,”

Kirszner and Mandell (2016) agreed that Imperfect rhyme (also known as slant rhyme, near

rhyme, consonance, or approximate rhyme) occurs when the preceding vowels sound different

but the final consonants sound the same. In these two lines, we could see that both of the

syllables end with the [ər] sound. However, one line ends with [ber] while the other line ends

with [ðər] respectively, which is the reason it is considered an Imperfect rhyme.

4. Imperfect rhyme, Internal rhyme, Feminine rhyme

“Is it really- worthy?”

Internal rhyme occurs within a line while Feminine rhyme occurs when two syllables

correspond (Kirszner &Mandell, 2016). In this line, both words end with the [i:] sound. Despite

that, one word ends with [li:] and another word ends with [ði:].
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Sound Devices

Assonance

“Even my reflection didn’t come to greet me”

Assonance can be defined as the repetition of the same vowel sound, especially in stressed

syllables (Kirszner & Mandell, 2017). In this line, there is a repetition in the [i:] sound.

Consonance

“Why is it so silent- “

Kirszner and Mandell (2017) stated that consonance is the repetition of the same consonant

sound. In this line, there is a repetition of the [s] sound.

Euphony

“Slowly, you suck my soul from my body”

Euphony is a sound that brings an effect that is pleasing to the ear (Kirszner & Mandell, 2017).

In this line, the euphonic sound that can be detected is the [s] sound. Despite that, it also

contributes an irony as the literal meaning of this line is not as pleasing as the sound it conveys.

Cacophony

I’m sinking into a dark, black hole,

It’s quite cold and scary.”

Cacophony is a sound that has a discordant or jarring effect due to clashing consonants

(Kirszner & Mandell, 2017). The cacophonic sound that could be spotted is the [k] sound. This

aligns with the meaning that both of the lines convey which brings a negative impact towards

the persona.
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