SPEAKING TASK
(BY MINH VU DANG)
“I am alone” I’m sure that is what will come up in everyone’s head when they get a problem in their life that no one can help. Being in this situation you will feel like this place is not the place I meant to be and you would try to run away don’t you? Different from most of us Melanie J thinks in a different way. One of her poem “Where I am” reflects her idea of hoping and belonging in spite of what has happened to her life, she still believe in hoping. This opinion is emphasized by the use of a series of language techniques.
“Where I am” consists of four stanzas. In the first three stanzas the idea about not belonging is clearly explored. In these three stanzas, the composer uses repetition and rhetorical questions to support her view. Her feeling of being alone is increasing with the time, thus the poem is written in first person which gives her the opportunity to show her feelings effectively. The repetition: “It's cold where I am, It's damp where I am and I'm alone where I am. ” are being used in order to express her loneliness. They are put in the first sentence and then repeated in the third sentence with the point to highlight her feeling. As you can see that her feeling is like a wave through this use of repetition, first she just feels “cold” but then the repetition in the second reflexes her as a different person when she scream out:“ It's damp where I am” but. Then she turns back as a poor and lonely and has to admit: “I'm alone where I am”. By using repetition Melaniej is successful in changing the tone of the poem as well as highlighting her feeling about isolation.
The rhetorical questions at the end of each stanza are also important in expressing her idea about loneliness. In the first stanza: “Is this what they call weary?” just lightly tells the readers that she is weary, the second one “How does one, vanquish fears?” increase a bit about feeling from weary to fears, finally in the third one “What's the word, 'belonging,' really mean?” shows her sadness has become a big problem. These rhetorical questions combine with the repetition to help the readers understand clearly about the persona’s isolation in the poem without the visual techniques.
Another aspect is the attitude of belonging has changed over time is also explored in this text in the last stanza. In this stanza she does not feel disappointed, sadness and loneliness anymore. Instead of that the final stanza is the inspirational stanza with many encouragement about what she has gone in the past (last three stanzas). “Weary is a time of mind.
Fear can be one to slowly unwind.” clearly explains her new idea about the problem that we usually have in life, they are contemporary and could be healed. Through these sentences the new hopeful opinion has been explored, the opinion of the beautiful life behind the pain. In the last two sentences the composer explains about the theme of belonging: “Yet belonging is putting effort in love. Belonging, is what we call home up above.” Love is the best way to understand the world belonging throughout the journey, when you love you will find out you are belonging