Monday, May 24, 2010'♥
With love ♥
Task 2
*Teachers,read this,friends,ignore this*
Poem analysed:Children in the drakness
Point of View
The speaker is speaking in the point of view of a person who wishes to free the child soldiers.The poem continuously state "could we",this shows that the speaker is trying to offer suggestions and think up ways to free the child soldiers,"could we" is also repeated to enhance the impact on the reader.
Situation and Setting
The poem is set in a social and psychological setting,with the presence of a internal conflict over the morality of using children as soldiers.The poem states "There are children in the darkness,who have not seen the light",this shows that the children are not liberated as darkness is usually associated with negative things while light is usually associated with positive things,in this case,the darkness is them being forced to fight as soldiers and the light is them being liberated from this fate.The poem also states "Or will a war consume them,their body and their soul,will their life and blood be poured down some endless thirsty hole",this shows the effects war has on the children."their body and their soul" shows that the war not only hurts the children physically,but mentally scars them as well,"life and blood be poured down some endless thirsty hole" refers to how the war is taking the lives of the children,here the "hole" is the blood lust of humans,because of this blood lust,the children are dying.
Language and Diction
The poem is written in a very sad and pessimistic tone.It makes constant reference about how the child soldiers lives will never be the same again,shown through the line "To this door there is no key" as well as "From this life they can not flee" and as a result,they are not free.It also makes reference to how hard it is to change the child soldier's lives,shown through the third stanza,where the speaker gives suggestions about how they could end the suffering which they children go through,nonetheless,it is all futile and useless.The poem also shows how the children will always just descend back into the darkness,with no chance of liberation whatsoever.
Personal response
After reading through this poem and going through research,I have witnessed how hard life is for these children and have come to pity them.Compared to us,who live in comfort and who take love for granted,these children know what it's like to feel no love,to be forcefully taken away from those they called family,those lucky to survive the war,their families would not accept them.They carry gruesome memories of their past and the nightmares continue to haunt them.
