Edwin Thumboo
Thumboo's poetry is inspired by myth and history, and he is often dubbed Singapore's unofficial poet laureate because of his poems with nationalistic themes.
[1] Edwin Thumboo, born in colonial Singapore, Straits Settlements on 22 November 1933, was the eldest[citation needed] of eight children of a Tamil Indian schoolteacher and a Teochew-Peranakan Chinese housewife from a Singaporean merchant family.
[2] It was at the latter place that he began writing poetry at the age of 17 years, encouraged by the senior English master Shamus Frazer.
Thumboo considers Frazer his spiritual father, and later dedicated Rib of Earth (1956), his first collection of poetry published while an undergraduate, to him.
As a freshman, he was a member of the editorial board of Fajar (Dawn in Malay), a radical leftist journal published by the University Socialist Club.
The seventh issue of Fajar, which appeared in May 1954 contained an editorial entitled "Aggression in Asia" which advocated independence from the United Kingdom.
Hoping to teach and pursue a further degree, he applied for a position at the university but was rejected as few locals held academic posts at that time.
[3] As an academic, he taught Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, the Romantic poets, Malaysian and Singaporean literatures, and creative writing, among other subjects.
[8] Thumboo was appointed a Professorial Fellow by NUS in 1995[2] and continues to be associated with the university as an emeritus professor, a position he has held since he retired from full-time teaching in September 1997.
[4][8] In 1991, Thumboo worked with the Ministry of Education to help establish the Creative Arts Programme for secondary school and junior college students in Singapore.
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.
Ulysses, which references an iconic statue of a beast with the upper body of a lion and the tail of a fish called the Merlion that faces Marina Bay, was inspired by the use of Irish mythology and history by W. B. Yeats.
He describes himself as a myth-inspired poet, and sees myths as ancient narratives and structures which provide a stable point of reference for a multicultural society.
[6] Ulysses has prompted other Singaporean poets such as Alfian Sa'at, Vernon Chan, David Leo,[citation needed] Felix Cheong, Gwee Li Sui, Koh Buck Song, Lee Tzu Pheng, Alvin Pang and Daren Shiau to write their own Merlion-themed verses; it is often joked that one cannot be regarded as a true Singapore poet until one has written a "Merlion poem".
[8]In 2015, Gods Can Die was selected by The Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965–2015, alongside titles by Goh Poh Seng and Daren Shiau.
[4] In October 2002, he presented the keynote address at the biennial meeting of the International Association of World Englishes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Some of Thumboo's poems have biblical themes, reflecting the fact that he was born into a Protestant Christian family and baptized as an adult.
Thumboo and his wife Yeo Swee Ching live in Bukit Panjang, a suburban area in the central northwestern part of Singapore.
They have a son Julian who was the head of research at the Singapore General Hospital; a daughter Claire, who is a physician; and seven grandchildren to whom he dedicated Still Travelling (2008).
