What Were They Like?(Quotes / context)

form / structure question and answer

two stanzas: one question, one answer

volta in between

sets up two imaginary characters: one ignorant (Westerner) one informed (Vietnamese).

Written in English - as if both fluent English speakers - perhaps lack of recognition for the culture and also the culture having been destroyed

the answerer is being respectful by answering the questions

“sir” suggests the power difference.

Levertov context

political poet

nurse in ww2

was anti war

Born in ESSEX

moved to the united states post ww2

poem context

1967 published

during the height of the conflict over the Vietnam war which was controversial.

Rolling Thunder - the American’s name for the mission in Vietnam the poem is about. Suggests ignorance and arrogance

Structure

• title is a rhetorical question

• volta between stanzas

• lots of monosyllabic language