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Edwin Nadason Thumboo is born on 22 November 1933. He is an award-winning Singaporean poet and he is regarded as one of the pioneers of English Literature in Singapore. Edwin Thumboo graduated in English from the University of Malaya in 1956. He received a Ph.D from the University of Singapore in 1970.

He then held the position of a full professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, heading the department from 1977 to 1993. After the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University in 1980 to form the National University of Singapore (NUS), he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 1980 to 1991.

Edwin Thumboo's poetry is inspired by myth and history. In the 1950s, Thumboo wrote mostly lyrical poetry based on personal experiences. By the mid-1970s, he had shifted his focus to the public sphere, believing that poets of post-independence Singapore should work towards creating a national literature. History also features strongly in his poetry. Even though Thumboo’s poems are filled with great and incredible words, his poems are interesting. It is hard to understand at first but after some research of the words, the poems will be understandable.

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Edwin Thumboo made this poem to inform us that there are boys who are very young has taken up smoking. The word ‘boy’ in the first line tells us that he is underage and by putting the word ‘little’ in front of the word ‘boy’ tells us that Edwin Thumboo wants to emphasise his young tender age.

Smoking is bad for our health and in this poem he did mention that the boy health is at stake. From the poem it said ‘burning his body away’ this shows by smoking he is damaging his health. Edwin Thumboo describes how the boy enjoys smoking and how his father could not do anything to help.  From the poem ‘he puff lustily, ignorant, burning his body away.’ This means that the boy does not care about how smoking affects his health. From the poem it says ‘old man cries over fragment bowl’. The old man refers to the father and the fact that he is crying over a bowl that has broken means that he is helpless against his son ruining his health away.

From the poem ‘his son can only have the symptoms
of a man’ means that physically he looks like a man but mentally he is not because smoking cause the person to age older that what he really is so this phrase is what Edwin Thumboo is trying to imply. By using the word picture, he is trying to make us see that how bad the boy is by smoking because a picture paints a thousand words. The father is angry with his son because he knows how bad smoking is for his son and he is having a headache trying to make his son realise smoking is bad for his health as said in the poem ‘bits of anger, evil smelling curses, the father clouts his head.’ Therefore this poem is written to tell us that nowadays boys who are underage are picking up smoking and even the father could not stop him and that is why Edwin Thumboo write this poem.

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The title of this poem is Temasek. When we hear ‘Temasek’, we will think that this poem may be talking about Singapore as ‘Temasek’ is Singapore’s old name. So the title of the poem may be a hint as to subject matter. But as we read the poem, it tells us that maybe the intended audience is not for Singaporeans but is referring to only one person and that may be the loved one of the poet. From the first line it says “deprived of you”. This is also repeated in the last line of the poem. With reference to the poem, this poem could be referring to a certain someone the poet loves.

When we read this poem, we can sense a heavy mood given out through the words used in it. The poet uses words like ‘diminish’, ‘derides’, ‘deprive’ and ‘grief’. This shows that the poet is feeling upset hence he uses these words.

There are a few types of literary devices that can be found in the poem. Firstly, the poet uses rhyme. Every last word of the first and third line, second and fourth line of each stanza rhymes with each other. The poet may have used this device to give some momentum to the poem. It also gives some pleasant sounds to the poem so that the poem would not sound too serious. He also uses alliteration in the second stanza, third and fourth line. He uses phrases like ‘faded flower’ and ‘fashioned Fate’. In the last line, after the word ‘silences’, the poet uses ‘…’ which is known as ellipsis. The poet has intended to emphasize on the word ‘silences’ or to enact the word out.

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Little boy smoking cigarette

come blow up your horn

little boy jabbering
old man's langauge.
He puffs lustily,
ignorant,
burning his body away.

Here is a picture you can paint:
little boy smoking
mixing images from gutter-clay.

Bits of anger, evil smelling curses,
the father clouts his head.

Old man cries over
fragment bowl:
His son can only have
the symptoms of a man.

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Deprived of you, history and sense Turn quicksilver. In my grieving side Grammars of living break their tense, Diminish tact, impatience, pride,

Other contraries of soft power That override or humble fact, debate, The sea's recession or the faded flower. I wonder if, again, old fashioned Fate,

Jealously ruminates in secret, ride Us creatures who celebrate or rue. I am bare. Unknowing, the world derides
My acts, my silences...deprived of you.