Tuesday, May 25, 2010
E-Learning 25-26 May =D
Children in the DarknessThere are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight
Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free
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
Henry M Bechtold
Task 1:
Nice poem, isn't it?
This poem came about when Henry M Bechtold was in his hotel room in Saigon just before Christmas 2009. At that time, he was trying to write about young girls working in the park and how they were mistreated by men. Asexpected, he is experiencing a writer's block, and is very vexed that he was unable to write anything substancial. Just as he was about to give up, his television screen showed a very chilling sight - a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle.
Inspiration came.
Adapted from : http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html
From this poem, we can see that the children are being forced to go to war at a very young age. At the start, it is already very clear that the children were taught how to fight instead of a proper education involving the OH-SO-WONDERFUL mathematics and english, etc. "has not seen the light" could be inferred as the children are still quite young and has not seen much of the world, and these children are already taught how to fight. This is a conflict, since fighting should not be taught to those who are still immature, and that the cruel nature of fighting would be instilled in the pure and innocent minds of the children.
Task 2:
(1) Point of View
This is in the third person point of view, as the poet refers to the children as "them" and "their". The poet uses this point of view to make his stand as part of those who opposes to making children fight wars.
(2) Situation and Setting
This is set in times of war. The children are taiught how to fight, and many of them are young and innocent, and they "have not seen hte light".
(3) Language/Diction
1st stanza: The children are described as in "darkness", which means that they are still ignorant and naieve. They "have not seen the light", which further emphasises that the children have no future, as well as them being naieve and ignorant.The rhyme of "light" and "fight" could mean that the children will not learn anything but fight, that fighting would be the first thing they learn.
In the second stanza, "chalk" and "blackboard" could be intepreted as education, which there is "no key" to. This implies that the children will not have a chance at education at all,and that they are not masters of their own fate, as they "can not flee" and "are not free".
Moving on to the third stanza, the poet implores the readers to give the children "half a chance" to do the things that ordinary children do, like dancing and reading. The poet also plays on "darkness" as mentioned earlier, using "light a candle". If darkness above symbolises that the children has no future, then the candle represents that the children has a small glimmer of hope. The poet wants us to help the children, to emphatise with them.
In the 4th stanza, war is depicted as an endless hole, where everyone is dumped in and they are wasted. The poet is condamning war here, saying that it is a waste of people and time, claiming that it is an "endless thirsty hole".
Finally in the 5th stanza, the poet shows us that it is too late, as the darkness is not of ignorance anymore, it is when they are in the hole of war, and they are unable to escape that reality.
(4) Personal Response
It shocked me when this poem is written in 2009. This clearly shows that even in the advanced world we live in now, children are still being recruited as soldiers in wars. It really made me appreciate my life, that i am living a very luxurious life as compared to the childen in the story.
6:36 PM By Eugene
