Some Poems for Malaysian Schools

By Tony Finch

This is a collection of poems in English for Malaysian schoolchildren. The intention is to present in a humorous way some help in pronunciation (through the rhymes) and intonation (through the meters of the poems) while also providing, in most cases, a moral value.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jul 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781482879506

Tony Finch

Tony Finch has a BSc in mathematics and psychology and an MA in linguistics. He came to Malaysia in 1979 to teach English in rural schools, transferring to SM Dato’ Abdul Razak in Seremban in 1984 for four years. He then returned to mathematics, which he taught at the International Garden School before joining Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar in 1990, where he was director of studies, head of mathematics, and examinations officer and taught mathematics and further mathematics in the sixth form. He is now retired and has written two books about his travels in Africa. He has travelled on every continent except Antarctica. He makes marquetry pictures and plays the classical guitar. He has made his home in Seremban, which is peaceful and pleasantly warm.

Book preview

Some Poems for

Malaysian Schools

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Tony Finch

With illustrations by the author

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Copyright © 2016 by Tony Finch.

ISBN:      Softcover       978-1-4828-7949-0

                 eBook           978-1-4828-7950-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

Contents

Ali, Mahmoud and the ghost

Ali and Mahmoud go fishing

The sad story of Vijay

The case of Wen Li

The crimes of Lieng Sheng

The quick reactions of Wei Ping

Selvi’s pet

A surprise!

A well-deserved lesson

Ali’s goldfish

Rosli’s kite

The yacht

Maths

Kumar’s plan

The coconut

The turtle

Sibling love (for younger readers!)

Ten silly limericks

Ten even sillier limericks

Music

Mixed Emotions

Sadness

The Operation

The Camping Trip

Saiful Adli’s badminton

The computer addict

The dream

A risky game

Whose fault was it?

Metamorphosis

What are we doing about this?

Art in geometry (with apologies to Longfellow)

Things you shouldn’t do

Help and you will be helped

The Ring

A lack of motivation

The road to success

Be careful!!

Choose your friends wisely!

Sivan’s parrot

Sonnet No. 1 – Consequences

Sonnet No. 2 — Stop this pollution!

Sonnet No. 3 — Astrology is not a science.

Introduction

Unlike Malay, English is not a phonetic language and the spelling of a word is not a certain guide to its pronunciation. We only have to look at ‘rough’, ‘cough’, ‘through’, ‘though’ and ‘bough’ which all look similar but are pronounced quite differently.

Again, unlike Malay, there is no safe rule for the emphasis on the syllables in a word – compare ‘sentence’ with ‘pretence’ or ‘curtains’ with ‘obtains’.

It is hoped that the rhymes at the end of the lines will help with the former and students are recommended to look for words with the same rhyme. The metre of a line should help to achieve the correct emphasis and thus develop the flow and intonation of the language.

Limericks are the easiest to write and students are encouraged to write their own. Sonnets (three are provided at the end) present a much greater challenge!

Most of these poems also make a moral point and could be the subject of class discussions. But it is hoped that that students will find them humorous and simply enjoy