Term 2 Week 10 Home-learning Task 1: War poetry analysis

1st poem - Children in the darkness by Henry M Bechtold
There 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

The poet wrote this poem after seeing a program on television that showed a small boy in military gear. The poem talks about children being sent to fight a war, children being taught how to fight. I have identified one area of conflict and that would be that these children are at the "beginning of their lives", just introduced into the world and have a bright future ahead. However, by giving them weapons and military gear, as well as some training and then sending them to the battlefield to fight against grown men who have spent a considerable time training in the army, it is like sending these children to their deaths. In a war, you also need to have intelligence and wisdom to think of plans to outwit the enemy as well as to predict the moves of the enemy. As children, their minds have not yet fully matured and they do not have enough experience and intelligence. Ultimately, they will definitely fall to the enemy. Hence, this is a conflict as these children, at the beginning of their lives, are instead at the end of their lives.

2nd poem - Rainbow death by Hubert Wilson
America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

The poet wrote this poem based on the Vietnamese war and talks of how the victims of "Agent Orange" went through untold suffering. Rainbow death talks about the various "agents" that the US military created to use during the Vietnam war, of which Agent Orange was used the most. Agent Orange caused deaths and disabilities and the children born to these victims were affected with birth defects too. The poet served in the USAF and participated in the Vietnam war, hence getting a first-hand experience of the horrors of these "agents".
One area of conflict would be that rainbow and death were used together. In the story of Noah's ark, the rainbow was a symbol of life, a promise that the earth would not be flooded again, or in simple terms, not cause mass deaths and destruction. Hence it is a conflict as the rainbow is used to describe death.
Another area of conflict would be that America, the country responsible for these "agents" believes in human rights, freedom and more. However, by using these "agents" on the citizens of Vietnam, they also affect the innocent children of these victims, forcing them to have a hard life ahead due to birth defects caused by Agent Orange and co. They have no freedom to choose their path of life and hence this is an area of conflict.