After Our War (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Balaban
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: 1960’s, 1970’s, Asia or Asians, Vietnam War, War, Death or dying, Soldiers, Armies
The Poem
“After Our War” is a twenty-five-line poem in free verse. John Balaban uses the first-person plural point of view, thereby including and implicating the reader in the horror of the Vietnam War. Although the poem appears to be one stanza, internal divisions marked by structure, sense, and tense divide the poem into three eight-line sections, followed by a one-line concluding question. The first and last lines begin with the phrase “After our war.” This phrase therefore frames the poem, returning the reader at the end of the poem to its beginning. This device...
[The entire page is 1465 words long]
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