Poem: Rainbow Death


America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!
Hubert Wilson


Task 1: Background Knowledge

The event is set back during the Vietnam War, where America used huge amounts of "Agent Orange" spray which affected the Vietnamese people even until today.From 1962 to 1971, Agent Orange was by far the most widely used of the so-called "Rainbow Herbicides" employed in the herbicidal warfare program. During the production of Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, and Green) dioxins were produced as a contaminant, which have caused numerous health problems for the millions of people who have been exposed. Agents Blue and White were part of the same program but did not contain dioxins.”


Analysis of Rainbow Death
This poem is seen from a third person's point of view.From this point of view, we can see the horrors and pain the Americans had caused even on the innocent Vietnamese citizens (from background knowledge).This emphasises that what they are doing is wrong as it is unacceptable to harm the innocent.They need to stop such herbicide warfare to prevent any more agony to occur.The use of the different colour herbicides gives the title the name:"Rainbow Death", due to the code names of the different dangerous chemicals used by America.

From the first stanza,we see that America wanted to make "others pay a high price"the "others" here probably refer to Vietnam as this event was set in the Vietnam War. Because they wanted them to "pay",America used herbicides to destroy Vietnam's ecosystem which is full of plants as it is a tropical country. The poet also uses words like 'potpourri', which is defined as: a collection of miscellaneous or diverse items.In this case, it refers the people who died during the war. The poet also mentioned "green, pink, purple and other colours", which gives the title of the poem the word "rainbow". America's Government is blamed in the first and third lines of the first stanza for "not foresee(ing)" and "expecting others to pay a high price". America used chemicals like Agent Orange, to make "them" pay. The statement "Now thinking twice?" is as if questioning if America had acted too rashly and ended up harming the innocent Vietnamese. "Toll",in the last line of the stanza signifies an the large amount of lives of innocent people and unborn babies loss as can be seen from "Toll on the innocent and unborn.".

The second stanza once again talks about the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam during the war, such as:"illness, birth defects and prematurely dead". This also tells us that not only the people present were affected but also the next few generations as can be seen from: "Generations untold will pay".The next few generations will suffer the same fate as their ancestors despite the fact that they were innocent and did not take part in the war at all. "Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn" shows the fact that America does not really care about what happens to Vietnam. As this is happening, "all the deceit continues to spread". America is a world power and thus it is greatly influential and when it uses these chemicals to make Vietnam "pay",other countries would think that it is alright to fight with chemicals as can be seen from:"Nefariously America led astray". The last line in this stanza and also the last line of the poem mentions the "agent orange spray" which is the chemical which the Americans mainly used in the Vietnam War.It was also the chemical that caused all the illnesses and sufferings in Vietnam.The effect of this chemical is described as "execrable".

Remembering what life is.....
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