What Were They Like? (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Denise Levertov
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, War poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Politics, Vietnam War, War, Bombs, Fire, Vietnam or Vietnamese people, Genocide
“What Were They Like?” illustrates Levertov's political concerns; here, her interests lie in questioning, quite literally, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The poem itself is little more than a list of six questions and answers. The questions come forth from a voice almost childlike in design and naïveté, while the answers solicited are dismissive and irritated in their tone and content.
The questions show concern for the loss of knowledge about the Vietnamese people, but they are by no means of an outwardly political or journalistic nature. Rather, the persona, which...
[The entire page is 560 words long]
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