1. Point of View:

The poet wants to tell the readers how the cruel some countries treated the children and felt that the society should do something about the situation.

2. Situation and Setting:

The situation is that the children are being forced to participate in the war for the country. This is evident from the phrase “Or will a war consume them". This states that the war have sort of like taken the children into the war and cannot escape.

3. Language/Dictation

In the poem, the poet used the word “darkness” three times suggesting that he think the children are surrounded by darkness, it is forever with them and they cannot escape from them. He also uses a very negative tone in the poem like “not seen the light”, “cannot flee” and “are not free”. He also used repetition in the poem “could we …..” stating what the children do not have and wants to give this chances to them.

4. Personal Response

I feel that the society is very cruel to the children; they put them in a harsh situation and could not live a normal live like normal children. And even if the children survive the war, they could suffer a mental breakdown after the war. We should do something about this and free the children from the war.

Poem of choice
Children in the Darkness

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
Henry M Bechtold

Task one
Background
This war poetry is written by Henry M Bechtold before Christmas 2009. He was in his hotel room in Saigon and was trying to write a poem about some girls who work in the park and how badly men treat them. Then he switches on the television and saw the news. He did not understand what the reporter was saying but he saw in the background a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. This is how he came out with this poem.

I think that children are innocent and harmless. In this modern age, they should be very lucky to live in a developed country. They can go through the system of education without any problem. They can live in luxury with good food, water and living environment. Their lives are very peaceful.

But in the poem, the children seem to be living in a desperate and dangerous situation. They cannot have peace, cannot have a proper education. Their living conditions are very bad. And the irony is that we think they are innocent and harmless, but for their lives, they are taught to hold a gun to kill. This contradicts the impression we have about a children, not that innocent and harmless any more.