There aren't many websites analyzing this poem and i only found slight background information about this poem from the website on top. However, since this is a one-star difficulty poem, I shall analyze it myself instead.
This poem is written by Henry M Bechtold in 2010, a very recent poem. Just before christmas, he was in Saigon, a place in Vietnam and was trying to write poems there. He often goes back to Vietnam because his "soul lives in Vietnam." This could imply that he himself was one of the soldiers fighting in the war then and as with many war veterans, they find it difficult to adapt back to their own homeland after the suffering they had seen. This poem was written after Henry watched the television and saw the picture of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle.
This poem shows conflicting images of the author's mindset of what should actually be the life of a child in contrast with how the children suffering in war really are. The first stanza shows the ignorance of a child, in the sentence, "have not seen the light." This probably means that they are young and still in a state of darkness and ignorance, and thus, this stanza evokes sympathy in the reader as in their unknowing state, they will have to be "teach to fight." Soldiers usually fight out of a sense of patriotism or loyalty, but this children, completely unaware of anything are being taught to fight, the only thing they are learning.
The first line of the next stanza states that "chalk and blackboards will not be" contrasting the reader's view of school with the way these children are taught. The next three stanzas are extremely strong as they are written by an American. Americans are known to be pursuers of "Freedom", something that they sincerely believe is their right to upkeep. But this fighting is the complete opposite. The children fighting have no ability to be free, taught to fight, this is their only way of life, to be involved in war and probably die.
The next stanza asks rhetorical questions, whether the children can be taught what 'normal' students are taught.
The next stanza shows their true fate and why they cannot be taught what normal students are taught, in other words, it answers all the rhetorical questions. They could never be taught all that, because they will be consumed in war, 'their body and soul' will be given up to war and their blood and life will be 'poured down some endless thirsty hole.' Satire is used here to a small extent, with words like blood,poured and endless, making it seem like blood is being constantly poured and bloodshed is rampant.
The last stanza more or less concludes the whole poem, by saying that these children could not possibly be like normal children, they have no hope , which is symbolized by light, to live a normal life as it has been destroyed by the circumstances of war.
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