Home Learning Task 2- Children in the Darkness

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


Point of view
The point of view in this poem is that of an adult who understands the plight of these children and the horrors of war. He also desperately want to free the children of these their lives engulfed in war and gives them hope and happiness. This could be seen from stanza 4, which describes the horrors of war. The repeated use of 'could we' in stanza 3 seems to be convey the message that there is a need for us to help these children.

Situation and Setting
The setting of poem is in Vietnam, where children were taught how to fight and then harshly sent to war and more often than not, to their deaths. It would also be hard for them to escape this sort of life. Stanza 1 line 4 - 'who someone will teach to fight' tells us that the children were given basic training. It could be inferred from Stanza 2 ' there is no key' and 'are not free' that the children were unable to escape the horrors of war and that they have no freedom. 'their life and blood be poured down some endless thirsty hole' shows that the children usually died through the course of war and lives would continue to be lost in the 'endless thirsty hole'.

Language/Diction
The rhyme in this poem mostly follows the ABAB form.
Stanza 1:Darkness/Darkness, light/fight
Stanza 2:be/flee, key/free
Stanza 3:chance/dance
Stanza 4:soul/hole
Stanza 5:flight/light

Personal Response
After reading the poem, I feel children are innocent and that they should not be dragged into wars. It is not worth throwing away their lives away just for their country. War is harmful to the society and should be avoided.

Home Learning Task 1- Children in the Darkness

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

This poem was written by Henry M Bechtold in 2009, when he was in Vietnam. He had always enjoyed his trips to Vietnam, so much that he even describes it as his mistress. He first visited Vietnam in 1967 and again in 1969, 2003,2006 and 2009.However, there were times when what he saw in Vietnam breaks his heart. Initially, he was planning to write on the treatment suffered by the girls working in the park. However, he then saw a picture of a young boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle while watching the news in his hotel room. Thus, he got the inspiration for this poem, letting his emotions flow.