•
• Written by Denise Levertov, an English American poet
• The poem protests the American involvement in the Vietnam war and displays the
destruction of Vietnamese culture and people
• The poem takes the form of a conversation of sorts, with one speaker asking
questions about Vietnamese people and culture and another offering only inconclusive
answers that highlight the horror of the conflict.
• "What Were They Like" ultimately underscores the inhumanity of war, exploring the
ways it harms innocent civilians and suggesting the incalculable loss of eradicating an entire
people
Human Cost of War
• Levertov draws attention to the suffering of civilians – ordinary, everyday people
whose lives were in “rice and bamboo” as a reminder that the people often most
affected by war are not the ones who wage it.
• In highlighting the fundamental humanity of the Vietnamese people, the poem asks the
reader to acknowledge the unjust inhumanity of war.
• By drawing attention to the people at the centre of the first speaker’s questions, the
second speaker reminds the reader of the true devastation of war: not just the loss of
knowledge around an extinct culture, but the loss of the actual human beings to which
that culture belonged.
• By juxtaposing beautiful yet ordinary life with the devastation of bombs and the silence
that follows, the poem reminds the reader of what is truly lost in war.
• Written by Denise Levertov, an English American poet
• The poem protests the American involvement in the Vietnam war and displays the
destruction of Vietnamese culture and people
• The poem takes the form of a conversation of sorts, with one speaker asking
questions about Vietnamese people and culture and another offering only inconclusive
answers that highlight the horror of the conflict.
• "What Were They Like" ultimately underscores the inhumanity of war, exploring the
ways it harms innocent civilians and suggesting the incalculable loss of eradicating an entire
people
Human Cost of War
• Levertov draws attention to the suffering of civilians – ordinary, everyday people
whose lives were in “rice and bamboo” as a reminder that the people often most
affected by war are not the ones who wage it.
• In highlighting the fundamental humanity of the Vietnamese people, the poem asks the
reader to acknowledge the unjust inhumanity of war.
• By drawing attention to the people at the centre of the first speaker’s questions, the
second speaker reminds the reader of the true devastation of war: not just the loss of
knowledge around an extinct culture, but the loss of the actual human beings to which
that culture belonged.
• By juxtaposing beautiful yet ordinary life with the devastation of bombs and the silence
that follows, the poem reminds the reader of what is truly lost in war.
