AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
Ask LitCharts AI:
The answer to your questions
Get instant explanations to your questions about anything we cover.
Powered by LitCharts content and AI.
Learn More
Powered by LitCharts content and AI.
Ask LitCharts AI:
The answer to your questions
Ask LitCharts AI:
The answer to your questions
Learn More
Question about this poem?
Have a question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Ask us
Ask us
Ask a question
Ask a question
Ask a question
"An Afternoon Nap," by the Singaporean poet Arthur Yap, illustrates how intense parental pressure can alienate children. The poem describes a mother who berates her son for what she perceives as his laziness and lack of ambition. The son, for his part, resents his mother's high expectations and chafes at her harsh discipline. Yap published "An Afternoon Nap" in the 1970s, during an era of heavy investment in Singapore's public education system, which ranks among the best in the world. The poem suggests that, though often well-intentioned, parental ambition and punishment can make children miserable rather than motivate them to succeed.
Get
|
Get
LitCharts
|
|
-
“an afternoon nap” Summary
-
The determined, demanding mother who lives across the street once again gives her son a beating, all the while declaring that doing so makes her a good mother. She yells at her son for his various perceived inadequacies, starting with his subpar academic performance.
The mother pounds harsh chords during her son's piano lesson that afternoon. She shrilly mimics his second language (in Singapore, students are required to study Chinese, Malay, or Tamil as a second, "Mother Tongue" language) as she threateningly paces in circles around her recoiling son. Her intimidating movements require a level of physical exertion comparable to exercise.
The mother's physical movements are fast and aggressive; she twists her body as she scolds her son, mimicking him in a variety of ways for his shortcomings. There are no gentle expressions of support or guidance. Instead, she trudges around him like a screaming monster, smacking him for playing incorrect notes on the piano.
The son cries precious tears because, three days a week, his language and piano teachers come to give him lessons, taking $90 from the piggy bank and leaving him with homework and less spending money.
The resentful boy who lives across the street is once again declaring that he cannot understand why his mother is so mad at him. He yells at her for all her faults, the foremost being her willingness to pay a high price to provide him with an excellent education.
-
-
“an afternoon nap” Themes
-
The High Cost of Parental Pressure to Succeed
"An Afternoon Nap" illustrates what can happen when parents push their children too hard. The poem describes an "ambitious" mother who viciously berates her son for his poor academic performance, believing all the while that she's doing the right thing. Rather than motivating her son, however, the mother's high expectations and harsh discipline just make her son bitter, distant, and miserable. The mother's ambitions for her son may be well-intentioned (in her mind, at least), but the poem suggests that they've also prevented her from giving him the kind of love and support he actually wants and needs. Overall, the poem suggests that intense parental pressure and punishment are not simply unhelpful but downright harmful. It further subtly critiques the society that encourages the mother's narrow, competitive vision of success in the first place.
The mother clearly wants her son to achieve a certain level, and type, of success—and he's definitely not living up to her expectations. Her "expensive taste for education" includes frequent piano lessons and second language tutoring, and she routinely scolds and "beats" her son for not working as hard as she thinks he should.
The speaker describes the mother's physicality and rage in almost monstrous terms. She aggressively "strikes" piano chords and her movements are "swift" and "contorted." She circles her "cowering" son like an animal closing in on its prey, and she even mimics him in a variety of ways—"an ape for every need"—adding humiliation to physical brutality. She expresses none of the traditional qualities associated with motherhood and nurturing; she is not "soft," kind, or gently encouraging but insulting and cruel.
Instead of motivating her son, the mother's beatings just leave him "embittered" and "bewildered." He does not quietly accept his beating, but "shouts out her wrongs," beginning with "her expensive taste for education." Her vision of what his life should look like has disregarded his own desires; he laments, for example, that his lessons leave him "little / pocket-money." He cries when she disciplines him, and the speaker states the son's "tears are dear." This suggests that his mother's "expensive taste for education" is not only materially costly but also emotionally costly for her son.
Worth noting is that her expectations for good grades, a second language, and musical prowess nod to the educational system of Yap's homeland of Singapore, known for being one of the best, and most demanding, in the world. The poem is not just critical of the tough love but also of a broader society that pressures parents into placing these demands on their children in the first place.
Indeed, in this intergenerational conflict, the mother believes her ambitiousness and harsh discipline to be evidence of her "goodness." She may even be offering opportunities to her son that she herself did not have. Yet her efforts clearly backfire, as her son is resentful, confused, and emotionally scarred by her behavior. What he needs, the poem suggests, is understanding and gentleness, not endless scolding. Rather than help her child, the mother's discipline and pressure to fit into a rigid model of success have pushed him away.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-21
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “an afternoon nap”
-
Lines 1-4
the ambitious mother ...
... mediocre report-book grades.The unnamed speaker of "An Afternoon Nap" begins the poem by describing a scene that they've apparently witnessed before: a woman who lives across the street is beating her son and scolding him for various wrongdoings, starting with his poor grades in school.
The speaker calls this mother "ambitious," a word that, in many contexts, has positive connotations. Here, though, it suggests that the mother is living vicariously through her child—that she wants him to succeed for her own gratification.
The enjambment of the poem's opening also creates anticipation: readers are propelled across the first line as they wait to discover what, exactly, this "ambitious mother" is doing. The phrase "at it again" conveys that whatever she's doing is a regular occurrence in this household. The full-stop caesura in the middle of the line then creates a moment of suspense before the reveal that she's beating her child:
is at it again. proclaiming her goodness
she beats the boy. [...]Placing the phrase "proclaiming her goodness" front and center emphasizes the irony of the situation: there's a clear disconnect between what the mother perceives herself to be doing, which is demonstrating that she's a good mother, and what she's actually doing, which is beating her child. (The irony here is also situational because, as readers learn later in the poem, the mother’s punitive discipline does not, in fact, produce the effects she intends on her son's behavior.)
The mother loudly scolds her son, "shouting out his wrongs" while she "raps," or smacks, him. She reproaches him by detailing a list of his perceived inadequacies, beginning with his "mediocre report-book grades," or the average grades he's received on his school report card. His academic performance, apparently, is below her expectations.
Alliteration brings the mother's anger to vivid life on the page. Listen to the booming /b/ sounds of "beats the boy" and the growling /r/ sounds of "wrongs"/"raps," for example. Consonance adds to the effect as well. In addition to those /b/ and /r/ sounds, listen to the sharp /p/ and guttural /g/ sounds that fill this passage:
[...] proclaiming her goodness
she beats the boy. shouting out his wrongs, with raps
she begins with his mediocre report-book grades.The assonance/consonance of "shouting out" turns up the volume on that phrase in particular, calling readers' attention to the ferocity of the mother's scolding.
-
Lines 5-8
she strikes chords ...
... strenuous p.e. ploy.
Unlock all 531 words of this analysis of Lines 5-8 of “an afternoon nap,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Lines 9-10
swift are all ...
... for every need; -
Lines 10-12
no soft gradient ...
... 2 notes missed. -
Lines 13-17
his tears are ...
... pocket-money -
Lines 18-20
the embittered boy ...
... wrongs, with tears -
Line 21
he begins with ... taste for education.
-
-
“an afternoon nap” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Consonance
Unlock all 249 words of this analysis of Consonance in “an afternoon nap,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Metaphor
-
Imagery
-
Irony
-
Parallelism
-
-
“an afternoon nap” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Raps
- Mediocre report-book grades
- 2nd. lang.
- Cowering
- Strenuous p.e. ploy
- Contorted movements
- Lumbers & shrieks
- Kitty
- Adagio
- Clause analysis
- Embittered
- Bewildered
Raps-
(Location in poem: Line 3: “shouting out his wrongs, with raps”)
Blows or strikes issued in rebuke or reprimand. Within the poem, the speaker uses "raps" to describe how the mother hits her son to punish him.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “an afternoon nap”
-
Form
"an afternoon nap" is a free verse poem. There's no regular pattern of meter or rhyme here, and the speaker uses casual abbreviations and numerals throughout (such as "2nd. lang.," "2 notes," and "$90"). As a result, the poem sounds and looks conversational and modern.
The poem doesn't lack organization, however. Its 21 lines are broken into five stanzas. Most of these are more specifically quatrains, meaning they contain four lines. Stanza 4, however, is a quintain, meaning it has five lines:
his tears are dear. each monday,
wednesday, friday, miss low & madam lim
appear & take away $90 from the kitty
leaving him an adagio, clause analysis, little
pocket-moneyPlacing "pocket-money" alone on its own line emphasizes a major part of what's driving a wedge between this mother and son: money. The mother is angry about paying a lot for lessons that the son, in her estimation, is not taking seriously enough. The son, meanwhile, resents the fact that these lessons eat into his spending money.
-
Meter
"an afternoon nap" is a free verse poem, meaning it doesn't contain a regular meter. Instead, the poem's language sounds conversational. Harsh consonance and frequent asyndeton also lend the poem a choppy rhythm that helps to convey the sharpness of the mother's anger and the disconnect between her and her son.
Although the poem has no metrical consistency from line to line or stanza to stanza, the strategic use of meter at certain moments enhances the poem's thematic ideas. For instance, line 3 contains the phrase "she beats the boy." This phrase consists of two metrical feet known as iambs, in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable:
she beats the boy [...]
This use of meter highlights the alliterative /b/ sounds in "beats" and "boy," and it also emphasizes the mother's action (giving a beating) and its object (her son). The phrase "his tears are dear" at the start of line 13 uses the same pattern, making this internal rhyme stand out all the more clearly to the reader's ear.
The poem plays with stressed beats elsewhere as well. Take the double phrase "strikes chords" in line 5, where having two stressed beats in a row evokes the sound of the mother pounding on the piano keys.
-
Rhyme Scheme
As a free verse poem, "an afternoon nap” contains no formal rhyme scheme. The lack of a regular pattern of rhyme keeps things sounding conversational and contemporary. Instead of rhyme, the poem relies on sharp consonance, alliteration, and assonance to create its striking music.
-
-
“an afternoon nap” Speaker
-
The speaker of "an afternoon nap" is someone who lives "across the road" from the mother and son that the poem describes. This speaker regularly overhears (and, perhaps, can even see) the mother and son fighting, implying that their homes are quite close together.
As an onlooker, the speaker is a stand-in for the reader (and perhaps represents the poet himself). The poem focuses on what the speaker observes rather than the speaker themselves, but those observations nevertheless suggest where the speaker's loyalties lie. The poem's first three stanzas are devoted to the speaker's extremely critical assessment of the mother's severe discipline. The speaker's unflattering description of the mother's rage implies the speaker is sympathetic to the "cowering" son (and might even feel protective of him).
-
-
“an afternoon nap” Setting
-
The poem takes place in contemporary Singapore, presumably in the "afternoon." Because Singapore is an urbanized island city-state with limited land for housing, an overwhelming majority of Singaporean citizens, of all class backgrounds, live in flats, or apartments. These flats are typically in high-rise buildings clustered in close proximity. As such, an observant neighbor could easily develop the kind of familiarity the speaker has with this mother and son.
The Singaporean setting illuminates some of the poem's details. For example, Singapore has a bilingual education system—hence the reference to "2nd. lang. tuition" in the second stanza. The fact that the mother and son's home contains a piano suggests that this family is middle class. Keeping money in a "kitty," meanwhile, implies they're not particularly wealthy; they must set aside specific funds for the son's lessons.
Note, too, that the speaker says that both the mother and son are "at it again." The scene the poem describes is not unique; the speaker has overheard these two fighting many times, revealing that this is a home marked by frequent conflict.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “an afternoon nap”
Literary Context
Singaporean poet Arthur Yap published "an afternoon nap" in his 1977 collection Commonplace. Scholars of Yap's work note his tendency to write about ordinary, everyday experiences, and "an afternoon nap" exemplifies this by focusing on the significance of a squabble between a mother and her son. Yap's poetry also often moves between colloquial Singapore English, or "Singlish," and more formal "standard English," a legacy of the British colonial era.
Before his death in 2006, Yap published four major collections: Only Lines (1971), Commonplace (1977), down the line (1980), and man snake apple & other poems (1986). His work has been translated widely in Asia and anthologized in England, the U.S., Canada, and Australia. He was also a painter and fiction writer.
Historical Context
Singapore is an island city-state with a multiethnic population comprised of people primarily of Chinese, Malay, and Indian descent. Singapore's diverse population is a result of its centuries-long history as a port for regional and international trade, as well as colonial-era labor policies. A former British and Japanese colony, Singapore's formal decolonization occurred when Singapore became an independent republic on August 9, 1965.
Singapore's population typically speaks at least two languages: a "mother tongue" language that is ethnically specific (Mandarin, Tamil, or Malay) and English. Colloquial Singapore English, or "Singlish," is the island's lingua franca and is spoken in everyday, rather than formal, contexts. "Standard English" is more formal than Singlish and is used on official occasions and for commerce.
The nation's government has long promoted bilingual education policies: English is the medium of instruction in public schools, and students are required to study one of the "mother tongues" as a second language. In Yap's poem, the "2nd. lang." might refer to the son's "mother tongue" language studies or extracurricular lessons to help him with his "Standard English."
-
More “an afternoon nap” Resources
-
External Resources
-
Singapore and Bilingual Education — Read about the history of Singapore's bilingual education policy, alluded to in Yap's poem.
-
An Introduction to Arthur Yap — Read a biography of Yap, selected works, and scholarly analysis of Yap's writing on a popular website for Singaporean poets and poetry.
-
A Brief History of Singapore — Learn more about the poet's home.
-
The Poet's Voice — Listen to Yap read three poems, with artsy video footage of Singapore.
-
-
