What were they like? Denise Levertov

What Were They Like?

When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies...

and the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces soldiers march there now

maybe fathers told their sons old tales

When bombs smashed those mirrors…

…there was time only to scream. To the mouth of the burnt child

after the children were killed there were no more buds

Sir, their light hearts turned to stone.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, the USA funded anti- communist leaders in South Vietnam During the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union funded communist leaders in North Vietnam As ever, in war, the civilians were caught in the middle

The peaceful clouds were smashed by helicopters and bombs.

Over a 25 year period, over 2.5 million people on both sides were killed.

The poet, Denise Levertov, ( ) was active in the protest movement against America’s involvement in the war in the 1960s and 1970s.

Levertov wrote the poem, What Were They Like? in the early 1970s. She imagined what would happen if the Vietnam war was allowed to completely destroy Vietnamese society for ever.

There is an echo yet of their speech which was like a song.

It was reported that their singing resembled the flight of moths in moonlight.

Who can say? It is silent now.