Task two: Template analysis

Poem 1: Children in the Darkness
This analysis aims to go deeper into the poem, children in the darkness.

It is in the point of view of someone who is aware of how 'normal' children are supposed to behave and what they are meant to be doing. This can be seen by how the persona draws comparisons between the children in the darkness and normal children. This way of writing puts both the persona and the readers in the same shoes, as they see how the other children are suffering while they can still live a blissful life as a normal child.

It is in the situation of war, and this poem reflects the feelings of the usage of young children in war when their youth was meant to be enjoyed. This can be seen in line 13,"Or will a war consume them" and also in other parts of the poem, where the constant bloodshed is shown, as in line 15-16. War is a hopeless affair and one where both sides, the victor or the defeated, will suffer execrable losses. Thus, this situation can evoke sympathy in the readers, as children, who are stereotypically young and innocent, are not only exposed to the extreme depravity of war, but also made to join in this bloodshed.

Language and diction is used to great extent here. Firstly, in its repetition of the word darkness. Light is usually a symbolism for hope. Light is used once in the whole poem at the start whereas darkness was repeated four times throughout the whole poem. This word positioning shows that darkness, in this case, war, will overwhelm hope in the end. Satire is also used in this poem, with words like 'blood', made more gory by its emphasis with the words 'endless' and 'thirsty' which shows the unquenchable thirst for blood that war has.

Personally, I feel that this poem connects me to the reality of other children. While 'rich' kids like us get to lounge around in a safe city like ours, there are other children who deserve the same fate as us, but instead, due to a miserable twist of fate, end up fighting neck to neck with an enemy that they don't even know about. True, some of us may not have the luxuries others have, like television and handphones, but still, our life is still a haven as compared to the tiredness and weariness of the lives of those poor suffering children.