Commentary_On_What_They_Were_Like

Commentary On What They Were Like A commentary of the poem “What Were They Like'” The poem, “What Were They Like'” by Denise Levertov was written to shed light on the forgotten culture of the Vietnamese, a culture that had been developing for centuries. The people of the Vietnam had their lives destroyed through a tragic 15-year civil war that started in 1954. The war dividing North and South Vietnam was over political conflict and clash of cultures. This poems format is six questions followed by six answers. Speaker One asks the questions, while Speaker Two answers them. The relationship between Speaker One and Speaker Two is at first difficult to understand. They create a conflict by discussing a subject Speaker One, the journalist, is oblivious to, and Speaker Two is testy about answering. The journalist seems to be very innocent, like a child, who is ignorant of what happened during the tragedy of war. Speaker Two, however, takes on a persona of an elder, someone who was somehow emotionally attached to the Vietnamese. He saw it happen. He was there. The journalist seems to be the same age or maybe younger than Speaker Two. However, Speaker what, they, were, like, speaker, poem, war, two, one, vietnamese, culture, about, answers, way, stone, questions, people, over, new, never, metaphor, light, joy, journalist, hearts, after, vietnam, very, turned, surely, stepped, seems, just, forgotten, during, children, buds, bombs