Eat Your Words
I am a
veggie table
A table made of veg,
There’s so much fruit upon me
All living on the edge,
Life is hard
But so are plates
And tea can be quite hot,
And vegetarian poets
Make me nervous quite a lot.
A table made of veg,
There’s so much fruit upon me
All living on the edge,
Life is hard
But so are plates
And tea can be quite hot,
And vegetarian poets
Make me nervous quite a lot.
By: Benjamin
Zephaniah
An Analysis of
Poetry “Eat your Words”
Poetry
“Eat Your Words” by Benjamin Zephaniah consist of one stanza and nine lines. Generally, this poetry
tells about the real
meaning of our life. We have to be sensitif about something
around us, listen to what happen
and also learn something around us. Someone that can compete in his/her life is
someone that wants to listen or pay attention about anything around them. We
may not ignore anything that someone else say to us because maybe that things
are important.
The speaker tells us that we
have to be careful about anything that we want to say. Thinking is the most
important one to do before going to act or say. This poetry uses connotation
meaning because every word shows another meaning. The speaker analogizes the
veggie table, fruits, plates and tea. Speaker describes these word very clearly in every single
sentence in this poetry.
The speaker in this poetry
is someone who has mature mind. She/he knows how to think well. The speaker
draws “Table” as our “Mind” and “Fruit and Veg” as our “Word”. As we know the
function of the table is to put anything. We can put vegetable, fruits and so
on upon it, and so in our mind. We can think/put any words in our mind. We can
see in line 2:
A table made of veg,
There’s so much fruit upon me
It means that our mind made
of our word. So everything that we speak will create something in our mind.
Then there are so many words in our mind. The speaker analogizes on fruit
because fruit can be sweet, sour and bitter and so as word. Every word that we
speak is not good at all. Sometimes we speak something that we think it’s good
but someone else may not think like we are. All that word is a part of our
live. They can create the character of us, they can show our personality by the
way we are speaking, and they also can create of how we are thinking about
something.
Life is never flat.
Everybody must find difficulties in their life because it will make our life
colorful. In this poetry, the speaker supposes life is like “plate”. As we
know, plate is not flat, but there is a hollow in it. So life is not always
going on well. Actually there is a challenge on it. Then, if we see, plate is
something hard, but actually it’s not hard at all, it is brittle. And it also
happened in our life. If we are brittle like a plate, we will break. It means
that we have to consistent about all of our word, if it’s not, word that will
eat you.
But the entire problem and
difficulties that we have, we will find happiness in the end if we want to try.
Let see in line 7:
And tea can be quite hot
As we know, if we drink a tea, we will feel warm,
peace and healthy. Then it also happened in our life. Beside all the problems
that we have, we will fine the solution and the happiness in the end of our
life because God never give a difficulty outside our power.
Then
in this poetry the speaker also said if a poet wants to make a masterpiece,
she/he must someone that understands well about the meaning of life, not only
in the world but also in the eternity. So if we want to speak with a poet, we
have to pay attention about every single word that we speak. Because every
single word that we speak will show our personality.
The
tones of this poetry are invitation and optimisme. We can
see that in line 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9:
Life
is hard
But
so are plates
And
tea can be quite hot
And
vegetarian poets
Make
me nervous quite a lot
The
speaker show that how hard the life is by give analogy on a plate, but behind that
there is still a happiness that waiting for you.
From this poetry we can get some
moral value. We have to be care about something around us. If we are careless
we will never know about the real meaning of our life. Then we have to be
careful about something that we are speaking because our word will create our
mind. Then we have to conscious that life is never flat.
An
Analysis of Poetry
“Eat Your Words” by Benjamin
Zhepaniah
By:
MILA
MULTIN
18260
NK2-10
English Department
The faculty of Language and
Art
State University of Padang
2012
