Task 2-- Children in the Darkness

Task 2:Steps in Analysis—Children in the Darkness

Point of View

• A person who knows and has witnessed the horrors of war one way or another
• Realistic
• Gives the poem more emotion due to poet’s background

Evidence

• “war consume them
  Their body and their soul
  Will their life and blood be poured
  Down some endless thirsty hole”
• “could we….”

· “Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight”

Elaboration

• We can see from this statement that he knows that children are too young to fight the war. He indirectly means that the horrors of war will corrupt their minds and consume their soul. Also, he knows that war is no playground because the children have not received much training because he states thay their life and blood will be poured down the endless bloodthirsty cavity of war.
• Knows that educating the child in a small way would not make way for hope that children will not be corrupted by the horrors of war

· Knows that children cannot escape from the blanket of black fear of war

Situation and Setting

• Indochina wars
• Cambodian-Vietnamese war
• Shrouded with fear and uncertainty—or certainty of death
• Situation of helplessness—no choice

· Poet pities the children of Vietnam who are forced onto the battlefield

Evidence

• “…..darkness”
• “Back into the darkness
  From which there is no flight”
• “Back to the darkness from which there shines no light”

· “Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance”

Elaboration

• The poet mentions darkness in almost every stanza of the poem, which is indirectly saying that these wars are full of uncertainty—or from another point of view, certainty of death
• Due to the lack of experience, training and physical maturity
• Children have no choice but to get onto the battlefield in face of certain death with—from the poet’s point of view—hope for survival

· Thinks that the children should be given the chance at education and childhood

Language/Diction

• Rhyming of words at the end of each line in ABAB form emphasize their individual messages
• Comparing the standard of English between his own website and this poem, this poem is specially written, thus the language can be understood easily

· Probably wants to promote awareness about the plight of the children

Evidence

• Stanza 1

Light, fight

• Stanza 2

Key, flee, free

• Stanza 3

Chance, dance

• Stanza 4

Soul, hole

• Stanza 5

No flight, no light

Elaboration

Emphasizes:

· that the children are sent blindly into the horrors of war

• that the children cannot escape the battlefield
• that the children do not have a chance at childhood(dance)
• that children will be desensitized and their life will be wasted

· the helplessness of the situation

Personal Response

Poet does not use any bombastic language, however the theme of fear and pity for the children, and helplessness can be felt through the tone of the poet, even without any punctuation

Evidence

• “Could we simply light a candle (?)
  Could we give them half a chance (?)
  Could we teach them how to read (?)
  Could we teach them how to dance (?)”
• “Or will a war consume them (,)
  Their body and their soul (!)
  Will their life and blood be poured
  Down some endless thirsty hole (?)”
• “Back into the darkness

From which there is no flight

Back into the darkness

Into which there shines no light”

Elaboration

• These indirect rhetorical questions show how the poet pities the children because they do not even know how to hold a pen, or recognise a letter in a book, or even a chance at simple childhood
• Poet evidently thinks that sending children to the battlefield would an atrocious deed because he is outraged that the children will have the horrors of war as a burden, and most likely die

· Poet ends on a tone of helplessness because he watches the children go “back into the darkness”, and he on the other hand cannot help them