Song of Napalm (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Bruce Weigl
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Violence, Vietnam War, War, Soldiers, Bombs, Southeast Asia
The Poem
“Song of Napalm” is a free-verse poem of forty-five lines divided into five stanzas. The title is ironic: “Song” suggests something lovely and lyric, while napalm, on the other hand, is a deadly, incendiary jelly that the United States military dropped on villages during the Vietnam War. When dropped as a bomb, napalm ignites, and the burning jelly sticks to its victims and burns them to death. Because of the title, the reader knows that Bruce Weigl will once again be exploring the Vietnam War, a subject he treats frequently.
The opening stanza presents...
[The entire page is 1569 words long]
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