‘The Highwayman’ is a romantic ballad and narrative poem written by Alfred Noyes, first published in August 1906. The setting is 18th century England in the time of King George III. This poem portrays one such highwayman in a romantic light. He is the gentleman robber (a la Robin Hood), a hero of the people, a criminal yet somehow loved because he flouts authority and lives on his wits and bravery. The themes of the poem are: love and betrayal, sacrifice and innocence, morality and duty. It was performed by the Secondary 1 to Secondary 3 classes during the English Language, Literature, and Humanities Week celebration (19-23 September, 2022).

‘An Essay on Man’, on the other hand, is a moral piece of poetry published by Alexander Pope in 1773-1774. It talks about the order of the universe in terms of a hierarchy, chain, or being. By virtue of man’s ability to reason, humans are placed above animals and plants in this hierarchy. The poem also explores several themes all related to one another, such as mankind, enlightenment, nature, universe, society, and happiness.

Below are the reflective thoughts of some students from all levels with regard to their significant experiences in the Speech Choir competition as well as their thoughts on the real essence of Literature.

What I experienced during the Speech Choir competition and preparation on Term 1 Week 9 was to believe in myself at that time and work with friends and classmates with cohesiveness, so that we could win.  Now, I really miss those days. Even though we didn’t win, at least we did our best. Indeed, literature is a product of creative minds and it teaches us a lot of values. -Keyzia Elicia Chang, Secondary 1 Courage

I have learned to be more courageous and to speak more confidently since in the speech choir, we had to do it in front of a big audience. I had fear of talking to people and performing in front of a crowd but the opportunity the speech choir gave me has helped me take that fear away.  – Roderick Rickie Tang, Secondary 1 Courage

I believe that the most significant experience I had was witnessing the cooperation of the entire class, including the leadership skills shown by the choreographers. Despite the team’s efforts, there were occasions when many of the members remained reluctant in participating in the speech choir but at the end, we managed to present a very good performance. Indeed, Literature has the power to convey the sublime technique of painting vivid imagery with the help of words, alongside enlightening us with certain morals. – Aditya Dhramawerndra Barki, Secondary 2 Passion

I would admit, the speech choir preparation was one of the most stressful periods of Term 1, yet it also gave me and my class joy. During the practices, most of the students would fool around and pay no attention to me and my fellow leaders. Due to this, my level had a rough start, but in the end, we did learn how to make it enjoyable for both sides: We, leaders have learnt that we had to make the members become willing to practice and not forced, so we made some arrangements. We made time to practice individually with those who were lacking in terms of performance especially the actors. For the rest, we assigned them to have a peaceful time preparing our props. By doing this, we were able to let the actors practice without all the unnecessary noise while still letting the other students have fun. 

Literature may not be the most interesting subject for some, but it still plays an important role in our lives. It allows us to learn about the past using stories and poems, or through speech choir presentations. It also allows us to enjoy masterpieces written by those before us. – Hillary Hardjanto, Secondary 2 Passion

‘The Highwayman’, was the poem assigned to the Secondary classes for our speech choir performance, which happened on Week 9 of Term 1. Both classes had to figure out a way of expressing and showing the story of their interpretation of the poem through both, actions and words.

I felt that after all the hard work perfecting the speech choir, we all learned numerous lessons together. We improved by cooperating and working together as a team, and even in sharing our own ideas, which helped the class performance to turn out even better than our original idea. Other than teamwork, this experience has also taught us the significance of Literature in the modern era. Literature allows us to view [and understand] everything, from stories to poem, from different perspectives. It made us think and reflect, “What happened or what was it like in the past?” -Victoria Aiko Saputra, Secondary 2 Zeal

The performance, itself, was an intense and heart-pounding experience. I was trying so hard to not mess up the presentation as we have been practicing for weeks and we still had mistakes during the final practice. We struggled to synchronise our moves and lines as well as land the timing. The Secondary 1 class was also a very good contender. They have great costumes and a well-choreographed performance. At the end of the day, this experience has made me realise the impact classical literature has on our modern society. It helps develop students’ vocabulary skills and strengthen our deeper understanding of life and values. -Sean Dylan Herlyanto, Secondary 3 Peace

The speech choir was an experience I will surely not forget for a very long time. The most significant experience in the entire process was probably seeing how our hard work as a class was rewarded by our victory. It was also equally significant being able to watch the final product of the class. Coordinating the actions of 30 people in the class was obviously not easy and I think that the choreographers really did a great job on this. Getting everyone motivated and willing to memorise the script and movements was also challenging.

Classical literature delves into the lives, worldviews, and ways of thinking of people we have never met; It lets us visit places we have never been to, and understand times we have never lived and seen firsthand. I think that this is the relevance of classical literature in the present society. – Christopher Nathan Mulyadi, Secondary 3 Integrity

As the speech choir competitions have ended, the students have faced their own individual experiences. Personally, the most significant experience that I have gone through was watching my classmates perform weeks-worth of their practice up close from backstage– watching everything come together and lace up into a phenomenal performance was my most significant experience.

Although I never got to join them in the practice due to unexpected circumstances, I got to watch all my friends and classmates come together to perform a spectacular speech choir. The main characters have done an extraordinary work in portraying and interpreting their characters, and I even got the chance to work with them to get their actions done. My classmate who portrayed the role of the ‘highwayman’ managed to bring his character of mere words into a live person. The poem had come to life and it truly strengthened the bond of relevance of classical literature in our modern generation.

In literature, the emotions the authors and poets felt when they wrote their iconic pieces are lifted from the dead every time we read or perform their work, and every time we think of their masterpieces, their work becomes more meaningful. – Josephine Chloe Confido, Secondary 3 Peace

In my experience during the speech choir presentation, I didn’t think I would be chosen as the God but I didn’t refuse the offer. From the start, I didn’t expect our class to win because I felt our practice was lacking and there were some students who often skipped practices but in the last week before the competition started, we all worked hard to perfect our moves. Overall, I was very happy that our level won, and because all our hard work was not put in vain. -Warner Shandira Tanto, Secondary 4 Truth

This year’s speech choir was very memorable for me. Even though I had also done this in Secondary 1, the experience was completely different with new leadership and classmates. As expected, our class/level did face a lot of difficulties, mainly on time management. We borrowed a number of periods from some subjects but could not make use of them effectively. However, both Sec 4 classes eventually coordinated with each other and we used whatever little time left for us. Everyone in the class put in the effort and that ended up leading to our victory. I hope that next academic year, we will still be able to recreate this unique experience and share it to even more BBS students.
-Venancius Farrel Lesmana, Secondary 4 Faith

The speech choir was a long process, which required the cooperation of the whole class. I think the most significant experience I had was watching it all come together. Some challenges I experienced were getting the whole class to listen and cooperate, and planning the choreography. Such experience has brought us the beauty of literature and of the English language. Literature has the power to open the eyes of young people towards classical literature, rich with life-lessons. – Lu Yanxin, Junior College 1 Logic

As the person-in-charge of the backgrounds: music, ppt, and sound effects, I learnt two main things: firstly, the importance of coordination- I needed to know the exact timing of when the next song should start, because if I were too early/ late, the rest of the class would be affected too; secondly, I have learnt that taking risks is important. Our class was well-prepared; although it could’ve been further polished, everything went smoothly during the actual presentation. However, our competitor (Sec 4) had bigger and bolder movements, giving them a stronger, longer lasting impact. With those, the possibility of messing up could be higher, however, the possibility of winning may also significantly rise. 

Our class struggled at memorising the script at first, and then during the week before our presentation, we had to take online school so we did not have as much practice.

‘Classical literature is timeless.’— I couldn’t agree more. I believe it can be a fun, more interesting way to broaden our vocabulary and open up our perspectives, as the writers of the past made use of high-quality words in stanzas, rich with literary devices, which we may need to analyze deeper and further. This may also lead to different interpretations and analyses. -Michelle Gunawan, Junior College 1 Teamwork

I applaud those who managed to help the class in terms of the choreography, music, and digital background. Even though we have encountered countless of obstacles while practicing, it did not stop us from dreaming that we could perform spectacularly. For us, it was not about the trophies that mattered but the memories that we shared and how we have done our best as a class. That was the most precious moment that no one could take away from us. Also, the different lessons in life learned will surely help us in our daily lives. – Sidney Sutanto, Junior College 1 Teamwork

I wasn’t able to join the actual speech choir presentation but I still got to learn about planning and organizing a performance. I have realised that being able to convey our interpretations and ideas was pretty complicated. The process was very thought out and was really creative. lt was frustrating to see my classmates not cooperating with the leaders at times because the time we had to prepare was very limited. A whole week was taken off for us because of a COVID case forcing us to self-isolated at home. 

However, when watching my class perform, I couldn’t help but be at the edge of my seat. I was so glad that everything went smoothly despite all the challenges faced. It’s kind of sad that I couldn’t join since it’ll be the last year my class would compete but I was still happy for my classmates.

I think that it’s important to go back to our roots and learn about classical literature. It has shaped our world on ways we don’t immediately notice. This speech choir activity is a great way to learn more about this as in the process, we actively ‘dissect’ and interpret literary pieces.                                           -Mandy, Junior College 1 Teamwork