Storm

The day was fine and sunlit, Decorated by several clouds drifting aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky. Chorused by gentle puffs of the morning breeze, Sending leaves on the streets twirling like ballerinas in a dazzling and mesmerising dance. and the trees too, waving their twigs like hands saluting people walking past, Then the emergency siren suddenly shrieked, Threatening of a descending storm, Send us scurrying to safety, As dark clouds stretched across the horizon and its shadow slowly devours the daylight, People around the village stormed like a colony of ants panicking from the incoming storm, Busy sand-bagging their houses and boarding up their windows with plywood To keep them from falling apart. I was inside my study room, Huddled beneath the mountain of textbooks piling around me, Terrified that I may not survive from whatever’s happening outside, From the storm clouds swarming over the school, Unleashing sudden, violent bolts of lightning slashing across the skyline As the deafening roar of thunder echoed through the village, And then it came. Cruel and merciless rain beating down upon us, An untamed ocean of terror and destruction thrown from the unusually blackened sky accompanied by the howling of immense hurricane-like wind, Red blood-like sap spurted from the trees moaning and groaning in agony As their limbs were brutally ripped away by the monstrous downpour. The winds were savage animals screaming at the children While gnawing and clawing at our houses like a pack of hungry wolves searching for their frightened prey. Iced daggers stabbed at my feet As the waterfall gushed through our roof And knocked me to the floor. Slowing the pressure eased, as the rain gradually lessoned, until finally fading into a charming melody, Resembling the graceful chimes of bells. The molten-gold rays peaked out over the mountain-tops Emerging from behind a peaceful sheet of mist, Casting slanted beams of light shining across the village. Fluttering of wings could be heard as birds erupted from their shelters followed by an explosion of elegant song. They sailed majestically over the schoolyard in unison, Chirping and cheeping through the village’s moat of vast forest as happy as a newborn penguin. When I stared toward the golden coin glistening in the brilliant sky, It appeared to me that the day was fine and sunlit, Decorated by several clouds drifting aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky. WRITER STATEMENT My poem Storm is an extended metaphor for the emotions around school exams. It is written in three parts: before, during and after the exam. The intended audience is teachers, and the purpose is to elicit sympathy towards students, especially ones who underperform in exams. This poem has a scary mood, featuring the themes of destruction and terror up to the climax when ‘Iced daggers stabbed at my feet/As the waterfall gushed through our roof’. The third stanza used ‘birds’ to metaphorically represent the joyful group of students after the examination. Sibilance was used when ‘the emergency siren suddenly shrieked’, with the sharp ‘s’ sound being uncomfortable and shocking to the reader. Sibilance was also used in the previous quote ‘Iced daggers stabbed at my feet’ allowing the reader to picture and feel the uncomfortable and painful scenario of rain ‘gushing’ through the roof like daggers made of ice. The mood intensified at critical points, with similes such as ‘leaves on the streets twirling like ballerinas’. Personification was used in the simile ‘gnawing and clawing at our houses like a pack of hungry wolves’, which exaggerated the wind’s animalistic brutality. An example of vivid auditory imagery is the personification and assonance of the trees that ‘moaned’ and ‘groaned’, which is an unpleasant and painful human sound, strongly appealing to the reader’s empathy. Furthermore, enjambment was used during the second stanza to create an interrupted rhythm. This changed the tone to a more panicked one, engaging the reader in the suspense of the storm. Anthropomorphism was used throughout the second stanza, where the storm clouds were accompanied by ‘the deafening roar of thunder’ and throws down upon the village ‘an untamed ocean of terror and destruction’. The use of lending a human element to a non-human subject (eg. Storm) allows the reader to emphasise with the feelings of the ‘villagers’, increases the relativity between the storm and the villagers, and also granting character to the subject (ie. Storm). Structurally, the shape of the text varied dramatically (not shown on the site, due to space availability) during the second stanza to represent the calamity and disorder brought by the storm, contrasted with the peace before and after the storm. The poem was also framed by repeating the same three lines at the beginning and end. This engages the reader in the message that no storm lasts forever just like exams. 06/01/17