MAIN TOPIC 6

INDONESIA
 Objectives
Explain the meaning of a quote through paraphrasing.
Relate the creative process of poetry writing to painting.
Interpret the message conveyed in the poem, Only in Poetry by Ajip Rosidi.
 Pre-reading Activity

Examine the given quote carefully. Rearrange the jumble words below to
paraphrase the given quote and answer the questions that follow.
existence from ideal reality slowly moves to

Guide Question
1. What quote do you form out of the jumbled words? What does it mean?
Examine the pictures below and answer the questions that follow
Guide Questions
1. How does a poet compare to a painter?
2. From which do these artists derive their inspirations
in crafting their masterpieces?
 While-reading Activity
Read the poem Only in Poetry by Ajip Rosidi and identify a song matching
your feeling upon reading this poem. Make a second and third reading of
the poem while playing the song of your choice. What do you feel upon
reading this poem with a background music of your choice?
 Only in Poetry
by Ajip Rosidi
In the train
I read poetry: Rendra and
Mayakovsky
Yet the words I hear are yours
Above the rhythm of the wheels,
I look outside:
Rice-fields and mountains
And a poem rises
From every bead of sweat
On the brow of the farmer
Throughout his long and lonely
day.
 I know you know
That life drifts between heaven
and earth
Adam was expelled from
Paradise
Then searched for Eve.

The poet’s fate

Is to knock on door after door
And never find: Restlessly
Refusing
To surrender to his situation.
 In the valley I see your calm face,
From the valley your hand
stretches forth.

In the train
I read poetry: submission to
emotion
Which through the iron fingers of
Time
Determines the path of Fate:
stretching out
Into the realm of dreams which I shape
to no avail.
I know,
You know,
In poetry
Everything is clear and definite.
 Post Reading Activity
Theme and Genre
1. The first stanza suggests that a poem is created out of a challenging
experience as the speaker relates this creative process of poem-making to
a long and lonely day of a typical farmer on a rice-field. What can a
reader benefit from this craft created from a challenging experience?
What kind of connection can he or she make to benefit and better
appreciate poetry?
2. The speaker describes the unveiling of hidden meaning of a poem as a
continuously slow movement from heaven and earth? What do heaven
and earth symbolize in this stanza? How do these symbols relate to the
process of interpreting a poem? How is the allusion of Adam searching
for Eve recounted this process of interpretation?
3. The third stanza narrates a poet’s struggle in conveying his or her message
to the readers. Characterize this struggle. How should a poet approach
this struggle to overcome it? How does the image in the fourth stanza
communicate the outcome of overcoming this struggle?
4. To which do the “iron fingers of Time” in the fifth stanza pertain? What
effects can it bring to the lives of the readers?
5. What does the concluding stanza suggest on the nature of poetry?
6. What is metapoetry? How does this literary piece serve as a metapoem?
Literary Approach: Reader-response Criticism
3. Which emotion have you experienced often drive you to write a poem?
What happens to this emotion after writing poetry?
4. Which subject or idea do you find meaningful whenever you read poetry?
How does this subject or idea relate to your experience?
5. Is there a poem which you had read before that changed your perspective
in life? What changes have occurred to you as a person upon reading this
poem?
 Creating with Them
Accomplish any of the following tasks.
4. Assume yourself as a poet who is attending a press conference for the
launching of your poetry anthology. What advice can you give to those
would-be writers on crafting poetry?
5. Using a desktop publishing software, create a self-help pamphlet on
writing poetry.
6. Make a vlog on the nature of metapoetry.