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Imagine a museum in which there are objects surviving from a

disappeared civilisation/culture. Which of the following would tell you most

about the way people had lived?

clothes

weapons

tools

cooking pots

jewelry

drawings, writings or music

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Denise Levertov wrote poems that opposed America fighting in Vietnam in the 1960s.This poem is an attack on the typical American ignorance of the horrors of the Vietnam War.Vietnam is in Southeast Asia.The country was badly damaged by a war between North and South Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.America sent a half million soldiers who fought with South Vietnam against the North of the country whichwas supported by China. This horrible war was caused by the so-called Cold War of the Super-Powers.The war was bloody. American forces were brutal towards their enemy and towards the women andchildren of North Vietnam.

In 1966, Denise Levertov published this poem to show her feelings at what the American Army had done tothe people and way of life of Vietnam.

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What were they like?

Denise Levertov

The poem is written as though Vietnamese

culture is a thing of the past and someoneis trying to find out about it.

The poem begins by asking 6 questionsabout Vietnamese culture.

The poem then gives the answers to thequestions. The answers reveal thedevastation caused by the war in Vietnam.

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1) Did the people of Viet Namuse lanterns of stone?

2) Did they hold ceremoniesto reverence the opening of buds?

3) Were they inclined to quiet laughter?4) Did they use bone and ivory,

jade and silver, for ornament?5) Had they an epic poem?6) Did they distinguish between speech and singing?

The poem starts by asking six questions aboutVietnamese culture.Why are the questions in the past tense?What does this suggest about Vietnamese

culture?

What are the questions about?

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Highlight/underline all the positive words in one colour

Highlight/underline all the negative words in another

Now label them: Before the war and after the war.

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The next section of the poem answers the questions one by one. We are toldthat the Vietnamese way of life was changed by the war. Their history is lost

and their culture is destroyed.

1) Sir, their light hearts turned to stone.It is not remembered whether in gardensstone lanterns illumined pleasant ways.

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2) Perhaps they gathered once to delight in blossom,but after the children were killedthere were no more buds)

3) Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.

What does the word perhaps suggest?How would you describe the image of the childrens death?

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4) A dream ago, perhaps. Ornament is for joy.

All the bones were charred.

Why does thepoet use this

word? What doesit say about thememory of the

past?

The charred bones could refer to the burnt

bodies from the bombings.The war and its destruction is shown againhere.

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5) It is not remembered. Remember,most were peasants; their life

was in rice and 'bamboo.When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddiesand the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces,maybe fathers told their sons old tales.When bombs smashed those mirrors

there was time only to scream.

How does this wordcontrast with the other

ideas in the poem?

What kind of lives did the peoplelive?

How do these lines compare withthe ones above?

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6) There is an echoyetof 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.

What does

this say aboutVietnameseculture?

There is a faintmemory of the

Vietnamese language it is like an echo.

Why does the poem end with aquestion? How does it make the

reader feel?