What Were They Like? Flashcards
The poem starts by using asking questions about Vietnam with the same word starting them
“1) Did the people of Viet Nam / use lanterns of stone? / 2) Did they hold ceremonies / to reverence the opening of buds?” (1-4)
Many questions are asked in quick succession showing initially about the Vietnamese people
“3) Were they inclined to quiet laughter? / 4) Did they use bone and ivory, / jade and silver, for ornament? / 5) Had they an epic poem? / 6) Did they distinguish between speech and singing?” (5-9)
The first of the answers shows the devastation of war, and suggests some formal relationship between the speakers
“1) Sir, their light hearts turned to stone. / It is not remembered whether in gardens / stone lanterns illuminated pleasant ways.” (10 - 12)
Are brutal shocking statement about children dying shows the horrors of war directly in Vietnam
“2) Perhaps they gathered once to delight in blossom, / but after their children were killed / there were no more buds.” (13 - 15)
A simple, direct statement links to napalm bombing and implies horrific effects
“3) Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.” (16)
The second speaker implies no joy is left in Vietnam and reinterprets the meaning of a word to relate it to the people, indicating war’s horror in the process
“4) A dream ago, perhaps. Ornament is for joy. / All the bones were charred.” (17 - 18)
The second speaker describes the tranquil lives the people of Vietnam had before the war
“5) It is not remembered. Remember, / most were peasants; their life / was in rice and bamboo. / When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies / and the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces, / maybe fathers told their sons old tales.” (19 - 24)
The peaceful imagery in the second speaker’s answer is contrasted with the sudden description of bombs falling and destruction
“When bombs smashed those mirrors / there was time only to scream.” (25 - 26)
The second speaker’s final answer begins with suggesting the beauty of the Vietnamese people was destroyed long ago
“6) There is an echo yet / of their speech which was like a song.” (27 - 28)
The poem ends with the final speaker conveying how Vietnam has been destroyed and its people’s culture erased
“It was reported that their singing resembled / the flight of moths in moonlight. / Who can say? It is silent now.”(29 - 31)
