By Muhammad Haji Salleh

Name Muhammad Haji Salleh

Date of Birth 26 March 1942

Place of Birth Taiping, Perak

Education Obtained Ph. D. in Comparative

Literature in 1973 at universities

of Singapore, Malaya and

Michigan, USA,

Current Post Professor of Literature at the

Science University of Malaysia

Name Muhammad Haji Salleh

Awards ASEAN Literary Award (1977),

Malaysian National Literary Award

(1991),

S.E.A. Write Award (1997),

MASTERA Award (2002)

Published

works

more than 10 collections of

poetry:

Time and its People (1978),

Beyond the Archipelago (1994),

Rowing Down Two Rivers (2000)

suddenly they came, the mid-year padi rains,

falling slanted among the dried lalang

and into the branch-drains of the brown canals;

the big regular drops falling at their own rhythm

became the overwhelming sound of an insistent tempo.

it woke up the child in the sarong cradle

and the old resting father.

water has come. he looked out into the sheet of rain

descending along the atap eaves.

the rivulets carried the flattened straw

and the dust of the drought,

in their dark grey flowing threads

slithering to the depressions in the ground.

Poem: Rain (stanza 2)

Poem: Rain (stanza 3)

thin dry ducks quacked

splashed by the strange rain

and chickens ran from under the trees.

Poem: Rain (stanza 4)

it was the beginning of an answer,

pak usin’s dark skinned muscles quivered.

rain slapped the leaves and bent the young coconuts,

shook the drought of its death-dust

and swept the remains of harvest rubbish.

for this season they collected hopes again,

carried them under cover from the heat to this day,the rain fell and wetted their praying throats.

1. Nature-dependence of man on nature for survival.-highlight the importance of nature to human beings, thus, it indicate the power of nature as source of living.

Theme2. Hope

-rain is the hope of the people who needs water for their crops during drought. The people are desperate and pray for rain to fall.

Compare and contrast two poems on similar themes using i-think maps.

Write a short paragraph to express relevance of poem to environment/ lives/ world