Want to revise your skills in evaluating themes in 'Singh Song!'? 

(Hint: yes you do! And you've come to the right place to do it!)

In this activity, you'll practise your evaluating skills concerning key themes in 'Singh Song!'. This activity will help you detect how the writer develops key themes and presents them effectively.

This is a mixed activity, and some of your answers will need to be manually marked. But don't worry ... it will be easier than you might think! The template evaluation below will include the basic steps of a well-considered evaluation. As you read it, notice how it:

1. Identifies the theme

2. Provides an example to prove that the theme IS a theme

3. Defines the effect

4. Links the theme to the poem as a whole

Now let's look at how our sample student handled these steps! 

Identifying the theme:

In 'Singh Song!', Nagra presents the theme of love.

Example: 

The repetition of the quote 'my bride' shows this theme.

Effect: 

This repetition emphasises the speaker's pride over being married to his wife. The possessive pronoun 'my' indicates that the speaker is quite happy to be married to his wife; she is his. Likewise the noun 'bride' signifies new marriage, suggesting the marriage is new and exciting.

Linking the theme to the poem as a whole: 

The fact that this theme is quite prevalent throughout the poem illustrates the idea of love as something universal and relatable. The fact that the speaker can't wait to be with his wife makes him quite fun and likeable, especially with the similes he uses to indicate his passion for making love with his wife!

Don't worry about making your evaluations super complex, and don't get too intimidated by the example up there. It's deliberately sophisticated so that you'll have a good model to work towards!

Hopefully (fingers crossed), this will make evaluating themes easier to understand. If it's still tricky, no worries. This activity will be filled with helpful hints and explanations that you can jot down as you progress. 

Remember ... take your time. It's not a race!

You should always refer to your own text when working through these examples.  These quotations are for reference only.