" FIGHTER'S LINES " POEM - FORM 3

A FIGHTER'S LINES - POEM

Written by Marzuki Ali, this poem talks about the feeling of a retired soldier who had fought for the country independence. This poem is looking from the first person point of view whom is a retired soldier as the poem uses the pronoun I , as lies in the stanza:


I am old and wornand have loss all my strengthsufferingsand the history of the fight for independencehave forced sacrificesthat know no nameor life


From this Stanza, we know that the persona once had become a soldier and he had suffered a lot to free the country from invaders. During that time, they fought with all of their will and as the consequences now he is wheelchair bound due to the loss of energy and he is now old enough to only be able to sit on the wheelchair while monologues. This can be proven in the Stanza 2:


from the wheelchair of the rest of my daysI, body and energy crushed


After years of independence, the persona sees that the people are trying to destroy themselves by engulfing into the world full of lies. He says that there is nothing much he can do as he cannot control people’s mind as how he once did holding guns to destroy invaders. This is shown in the Stanza 2,


see and cannot do muchthese times are too big a challengefor the remnants of my crippled yearsthe net of deceit spread everywheredisturb me


Due to the spreading of lies, he now urges new generation to speak out their opinions and fight for their freedom. He tells us in order to fight for our freedom, first we have to be united, ‘erect a wall of people’ regardless of our races or religions and fight for the sake of our nation’s harmony. As lies in the Stanzas 3 and 4,


In the name of justiceWake up and form ranks sons of our ancestorsBe braveAnd erect a wall of peopleStand up heirs of our freedomI have no more voiceIt is you now who should speak!


Why does he write this poem? As most of countries nowadays are aiming to reach the highest level of developments, our country, Malaysia also do not want to miss it out. But, without we realize, we slowly losing our morality and our country slowly engulfing in a sea of lies. He stresses here that if we, as the younger generation cannot find the way to prohibit the dishonesty and lies, we are putting our country fate in a danger as this dishonesty can shake the stability of our country and the peace it possesses. That is why in the Stanza 4, he urges the younger generation to be united disregard of the races and religions to speak out their opinions. This is important as these lies able to distract the peace and harmony of our country and finally lead to fight.