Poetry in Singapore

Singaporean literature is the collection of literary works by the people of Singapore. Four languages prevail in Singapore and these are Malay, Chinese, English and Tamil. Singaporean literary works are the true features of Singaporean culture and heritage. Some of the Singaporean writers such as Kuo Pao Kun and Tan Swie Hian have written in different i.e. more than one languages. The poetry of Singapore is also very famous. In Singapore writing in English literature started in the colonial era. Nobody knows about the first published literature in English in Singapore. Evidences are there which reveals that it started in 1830s or before. In Singapore the first prominent poetry work in English is most probably F.M.S.R. This was a pastiche of T. S. Eliot published in London in the year of 1935. This came just before Wang Gungwu’s Pulse in 1950.

New wave in writing has emerged in 1965. This incident was led by Arthur Yap, Edwin Thumboo, Goh Poh Seng, Robert Yeo, Chandran Nair and Chandran Nair. Poetry is the chief mode of expression. The words of each line express a lot which you can never utter by words. In Singapore you can find most of the English works are poetry. In the year 1990 poetry in Singapore saw a new era. Several talented poets were born in that tenure, who are in active writing and also popular internationally. In late 1990s, some local small presses such as Ethos Books and Firstfruits started promoting the works of this new wave of poets. Yong Shu Hoong, Boey Kim Cheng, Cyril Wong, Alfian bin Sa’at, Alvin Pang, Felix Cheong are some of them. All of their works were rich with political, cosmopolitan and transnational thoughts. Extremely focused individualized and self questioning, these were some of the other criteria. You can get a clear picture of Singaporean society, life and culture after reading all these poems. Sometimes the poems also dealt with some sensational issues such as relationship between man and woman.