E-Learning May 26, 2010

Poem I have Chosen:

Difficulty Rating: **
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 was led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Task 1.

Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.

Be sure to include your references and credit your sources.

Report:

The conflict represented here is that the poet criticizes the American government that they did not bother about the next generations of people. This small poem speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering – not only to its intended victims, the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”.

Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War.4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. Hence, this explains "Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead." and "Generations untold WILL pay -", "Execrable effects of agent orange spray!"

Hence, the Agent Orange conflict suggest that the poet is referring to war as Agent Orange, and criticizing the government at the same times, hence we can see that he is telling every one the harsh realities of war, and the harsh effects war equipments have.

Sources:http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Task 2
Complete the template provided in Annex A, focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.

(1) Point of View

This is the point of view of the poet, Hubert Wilson. His meaning intended when writing this poem is to critize the American government for their lack of concern for the following generations as the use of Agent Orange creates many disadvantages to the victims of it. For example, from the second stanza, we can see that the victims of Agent Orange had lots of illness, and they were prematurely dead. Their off springs had a lot of birth defects.

Toll on the innocent and unborn can refer to the innocent victims who had nothing to do with the war were affected, and their innocent yet to be babies which were not born yet also were affected.

(2)Situation and Setting

The setting is in the Vietnam War, as America used a lot of Agent Oranges during the Vietnam war. The situation is that many people who are innocent are getting affected by the use of toxins, etc. The setting may also refer to families whose members have died due to the war as the poem says that the government disregards who were mourning. This poem's situation can also be linked with the bombings in Hiroshima, Nagasaki during World War 2 as the effects of the nuclear bomb affected generations and generations of people in that area.

(3)Language/Diction

There are many descriptions used in this poem. For example "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" Refers to different kinds of poisons mixed together and causing many people to die, explaining "death" here. "Expecting others to pay a high price" suggest that those who were victims of the toxics had to suffer for the rest of their lives and live with their illnesses of defects. "Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn" refers to the American government being all mighty and do not care about those people who died in the war, much less their family who are mourning for them. "All the deceit continues to spread" may refer to the government still lying that war is good as you can die for your country, etc. Lastly "generations untold will pay" refers to those poor future generations who are not even born yet having to suffer by the effects of the Agent Orange poison.

(4)Personal Response

I chose this poem as I empathize with those victims of Agent Orange as there were innocent, yet they had to suffer the evil ways of the American government. This poem is also very interesting as it describes the happenings and effects of use of toxins during war. After reading this poem, I felt that war is very, very ruthless as it makes innocent people suffer just because of the interests of one country's government hence, we should prevent war from happening.

In conclusion, this poem relays the drastic effects of war time equipments, and we should prevent future generations from suffering by preventing war.