Please help me with this poem... What does this poem trying to express?

Our teacher is going to test us on this poem and I don't have a clue on it!! the words are beautiful, though... pity I don't know the meaning behind the poem.. TT


It is a part of "How the Hills are Distant:" by Wong Pui Nam.





Here it goes:





The mist drifting across the field


edges up the compound of my house,


along the foot of the hibiscus hedge


moving vaguely like fear among the cane.





I sit up to watch, as I have on many nights


from my darkness at the window,


my heart precise within these walls,


my room with its table and rumpled bed.





It is imminent; in the sudden smell


of wet grass and stir among the frangipani,


in the straight tensed fence-posts in half-light





against the margin of encroaching sleep


where I anticipate only, a waking


to vague remembrance of a harrowing in my dream.

Please help me with this poem... What does this poem trying to express?
Poetry and imagination are two inseparable things. Definitely, the words are beautiful, ask yourself what is the "atmosphere" they brought you, try to "sunk" into the meaning..Give a try!





Let me try to help you. First make an attempt to catch up the atmosphere. I think it is slightly melancholic, yet the signs of pure nature, like "hibiscus hedge", "frangipani" create a subtle taste of clarity, peacefulness and calmness. I don't think that the author's idea is to run or feel afraid of something that may afflict that perfect harmony..it is mostly a lament, a sketch that has seized him, might be a memory that reverberated in verses.


I would not tell with certitude that this poem is about nightmares, but the poem sets an inner conflict between "the peace of nature" and "the human stirring of mind"..





Hope that helps!
Reply:well,i think its a beautiful piece.what i see here is the simple expression of the beauty in that time of the night,i mean this person is lookin out from the window of his/her room,nothin extraordinary but starts to appreciate the life in the night;the creepin mist,the smell of the wet grass,the stir in the frangi,%26amp; finally her own position in bed,ready to sleep with the walls of her house seperating her from the activities of the nuctornal world outside.she knows she'l be sleepin soon %26amp; will only wake up with the memories of a dream but as she sleeps,theres a world of activity in the night.
Reply:It could be about nightmares, or she hears noises out side that scares her so that she can't sleep. It could mean that someone comes to her and she is scared of that person. But, what I get from it is that she is awaken from a noise outside from someone or something and when the person comes to her she can smell the outdoors on them.
Reply:i think its saying that you need not be afriad of the world around and of the kind of world you visit in your dreams... that don't sit and wait for things to happen but to go out side the bix and make them happen... and you are right it is a beautiful poem.
Reply:Have you ever been beside the ocean and watch the fog roll in towards shore? On land you can see it moving towards you slowly covering the trees and moving along the road ways over the lawn and up to the house. The same way sleep comes on and the writer anticipates that when she wakes, she will only have a memory of a bad dream.
Reply:I think she is afraid to go to sleep because of nightmares that she may have. As I read it I got the impression that she has seen tragic events and is afraid to go to sleep as she will dream of them again. The setting of the poem with it's references to nature, smell, sight, feel would give you a feeling of peace yet there is an undercurrent of evil or fear.





Edit: I looked on the Wong Phui Nam and realized that he is male. I read several other poems contained the "How the Hills are Distant" collection and I get an overwhelming feeling of terror and violence from his poetry.