A Book and a Pen

The poem ‘A Book and a Pen’ is written by Vaine Rasmussen, who was born in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in 1961. He is educated in the Cook Islands, he has published a collection of poems and short stories, and he is now an economist in New Caledonia.

The plot of the poem is about, what we can assume is, a pacific man getting a western education. It expresses how he feels about the education, and if it’s relevant to his life. He implies that his own culture and identity is threatened by the western education he received and that the degrees he got doesn’t mean anything to him. The poem is written with a sarcastic voice, in the first paragraph when he talks about receiving school supplies, “a book and a pen”, and his high school degree which he describes as “a piece of paper”. In the second paragraph he uses the same sarcastic sentences when describing his equipment and his university degree. In this part he also refers to some famous revolutionists, Marx and Solzhenitsyn, he learned about at the university. It could be because he agrees with their theories, which is implied in the poem when he states about their literature: “to debate, discuss and agree over”. Marx was against social oppression of the working class and Solzhenitsyn was a critic against the gulag and forced labor camps in communist Russia. Rasmussen may relate to this because of the colonists oppression of the indigenous people in the Cook Islands.

In the third paragraph he states that he got a job, and he repeats the phrase about a book and a pen. This recurring quote could be a metaphor for western education and society, and how it doesn’t reflect his roots from the Cook Islands. He always had to use a book and pen, both during his education and in his work life. That’s maybe not what he wanted to do in life and it doesn’t represent his true culture and identity. The last sentence in the third paragraph he mentions a dance from the Cook Islands called Tamure, and a Tumunu which is where local men gather to drink their home brew in a ceremonial ritual. This suggests that he misses the traditions from the Cook Islands, and that he would like to take part in them.

The last paragraph is written in a hurt and mourning voice. It’s about him growing old and realising that he lost some of his original culture. He refers to a pe’e, which is a song from the Cook Islands. He talks about the language he don’t speak, and the culture he doesn’t know well. It expresses his feelings about not being familiar with the culture of his ancestors. One can also argue that he found his identity at last, maybe too late, in his heritage from the Cook Islands. This fills him with regret because he spent most of his life taking a western education and working in a “western” job. The writer supports this claim when he writes in the last sentence “and I grew up at last, realising I missed a lot”.