Task 2
Complete the template provided in Annex A, focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.
1. Point of View
In this poem, the speaker is an American soldier during the Vietnam War who wanted the war to stop and strongly against modern warfare. This can be seen in first stanza line 1 where the poet wrote “America did not foresee”. This shows that the speaker had felt angry and mad by the great impacts of ‘Agent Orange’ used by the Americans during the ever-lasting Vietnam War, resulting many generations to be affected. Perhaps, the speaker was an American soldier who had experienced the war before, hence, he was able to see the dire consequences of modern warfare on the innocent people.
In addition, in second stanza line 8, the poet wrote “Nefariously America led astray” which tells us that the speaker felt that all these consequences were caused by the Americans. The speaker felt that the actions of the Americans were brutal and inhumane as they had caused many deaths and harmed the younger generations. Also, the Americans wanted to win the Vietnam War badly and thus used the highly dangerous ‘Agent Orange’ on the Vietnamese, however, unfortunately, they were unable to foresee the consequences caused by the use of ‘Agent Orange’ themselves. This can be seen in first stanza line 3 where “expecting others (The Vietnamese) to pay a high price” but the price was just too high for Vietnam to pay. “All the deceit continues to spread”. The hatred and sadness of the Vietnamese would continue to spread to younger generations. Also, in first stanza line 4,"tolling on the innocent and unborn", this shows that innocent people were killed and harmed by the use of ‘Agent Orange’. Therefore, the Americans had to "think twice" as the ‘Agent Orange’ would not only affected the Vietnamese, but also would affect themselves, thus saying that this war would never end.
2. Situation and Setting
- Emotional: "Toll on the innocent and unborn."
As the poet talks about the negative impacts of war, he relates to the depression of the innocent people who were killed in the midst of war. In this sentence, emotional conflicts are conveyed through harsh words used such "toll".
“All the deceit continues to spread”
In addition, in this line, the poet felt that the Americans were too cruel and brutal to have used the ‘Agent Orange’ in the war and felt unfair for Vietnam to suffer this horrendous treatment. Also, strong emotional conflict is conveyed through diction with the use of harsh words such as ‘deceit’ which means hatred.
- Saddening: “Generations untold WILL pay”
This shows that the situation was very saddening and helplessness as the poet felt that the modern warfare used in the war would do no good but only cause more harm on the younger generations who would suffer a lot. Thus, this shows the sadness and cruelty of war on the innocent ones.
3. Language/Diction
- “Potpourri”
In first stanza line 2, the poet used “Potpourri” which means a mixture of materials or substances. Therefore, in this poem, ‘potpourri’ is used to refer to the large-scaled mixture of deaths caused as a result of war, thus showing the great impacts of warfare on the people.
- “Toll”
In first stanza line 5, the poet used “toll” which means a payment or price that people have to pay. However, in this poem, “toll on the innocent and unborn” is used to the sacrificial of innocent lives in the war. Also, this depicts the pessimistic view of war where people were all killed and hurt in the war. Thus, “toll” is used to refer to the sufferings and sacrificial of lives which the innocent people have to pay.
4. Personal Response
From this poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, I quite agree to the poet’s opinions that war is brutal, unjustified, harsh, and will only bring unhappiness, sufferings and cause deaths. In a war, as both sides all battled with each other to win, they will resort to anything that is able to defeat their enemy. However, this will only cause more harm to the innocent ones. In this poem, the Americans resorted to use the ‘Agent Orange’ which were gas attacks to defeat Vietnam in the war. As a result, Vietnam had to pay a huge price and even affected the younger generations. In addition, I agree with the poet that there are many sacrificial of lives in a war, hence, I believe that we have to think twice before starting a war and should not make the innocent younger generations from suffering as ‘war are not over when war are over’, meaning that war will cause dire consequences even if it have ended.
- War Poetry
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
Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.
Hubert Wilson
Ssgt USAF, 1968-1972
In this poem, 'Rainbow Death', the poet is Hubert Wilson who was a Vietnam War veteran served in the USAF security service during the Vietnam War (American against Vietnam).When he was a young man, together with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates, they prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas. They were then sent to Vietnam or other places in Southeast Asia in 1970 to fight for USA in the Vietnam War and eventually stayed there for about 18 years. During his times in the war, his heath had started to deteriorate greatly and suffered from Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, however, the doctors were unable to diagnose his disease. Also, having limb pains, Hubert Wilson’s mobility had deteriorated and thus later caused him to retire as a soldier. Like his father, Hubert Wilson then began writing poems as his pastime and wrote many poems, mostly about war which he had experienced as a retired soldier, thus wrote one of his best and famous poems, ‘Rainbow Death’.
This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare during the Vietnam War that has caused appalling death and suffering, not only to its intended victims - the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”. Thus, this shows that in a war, both sides, no matter what, will get hurt and affect in one way or another, hence, there is no such thing as ‘Win-Win’ situation in a war.
As trench warfare was still not common during that time, both sides, especially the USA, had used ‘Agent Orange’ which is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant, highly contaminated with TCDD. It is used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. During the war, about 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in a total number of 400,000 deaths and disabilities, with 500,000 children born with birth defects.
Thus, this poem shows the impacts of modern warfare (in this case, gas attack) are great and had killed many innocent lives and affected the younger generations. In the poem, stanza 2 line 10, “Generations untold WILL pay”, this shows that the use of modern warfare would cause innocent unborn babies suffer from birth defects and in this line, the word ‘WILL’ emphasises on the great impact that ‘Agent Orange’ would bring to mankind during the war.
This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’ by Hubert Wilson, is written to remind everyone in the world that "wars aren't over when the wars are over". Although this sentence may seem contradictory, it generally means that even though wars have seemed to have ended, the effects of the wars still remains and would cause further problems to mankind, thus showing the danger of modern warfare. The modern warfare will not only cause harm and killed the soldiers on the battlefield fighting bravely for their countries, but also affect the younger generations. Hence, Hubert Wilson’ s intention of writing this poem is to emphasize the impacts and danger caused by war and modern warfare, and also tell people to think clearly before starting a war.
Resources:
- http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow
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
Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.
Hubert Wilson
Ssgt USAF, 1968-1972
In this poem, 'Rainbow Death', the poet is Hubert Wilson who was a Vietnam War veteran served in the USAF security service during the Vietnam War (American against Vietnam).When he was a young man, together with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates, they prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas. They were then sent to Vietnam or other places in Southeast Asia in 1970 to fight for USA in the Vietnam War and eventually stayed there for about 18 years. During his times in the war, his heath had started to deteriorate greatly and suffered from Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, however, the doctors were unable to diagnose his disease. Also, having limb pains, Hubert Wilson’s mobility had deteriorated and thus later caused him to retire as a soldier. Like his father, Hubert Wilson then began writing poems as his pastime and wrote many poems, mostly about war which he had experienced as a retired soldier, thus wrote one of his best and famous poems, ‘Rainbow Death’.
This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare during the Vietnam War that has caused appalling death and suffering, not only to its intended victims - the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”. Thus, this shows that in a war, both sides, no matter what, will get hurt and affect in one way or another, hence, there is no such thing as ‘Win-Win’ situation in a war.
As trench warfare was still not common during that time, both sides, especially the USA, had used ‘Agent Orange’ which is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant, highly contaminated with TCDD. It is used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. During the war, about 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in a total number of 400,000 deaths and disabilities, with 500,000 children born with birth defects.
Thus, this poem shows the impacts of modern warfare (in this case, gas attack) are great and had killed many innocent lives and affected the younger generations. In the poem, stanza 2 line 10, “Generations untold WILL pay”, this shows that the use of modern warfare would cause innocent unborn babies suffer from birth defects and in this line, the word ‘WILL’ emphasises on the great impact that ‘Agent Orange’ would bring to mankind during the war.
This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’ by Hubert Wilson, is written to remind everyone in the world that "wars aren't over when the wars are over". Although this sentence may seem contradictory, it generally means that even though wars have seemed to have ended, the effects of the wars still remains and would cause further problems to mankind, thus showing the danger of modern warfare. The modern warfare will not only cause harm and killed the soldiers on the battlefield fighting bravely for their countries, but also affect the younger generations. Hence, Hubert Wilson’ s intention of writing this poem is to emphasize the impacts and danger caused by war and modern warfare, and also tell people to think clearly before starting a war.
Resources:
- http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow
Can you believe it?! Astronauts to Aquanauts! AMAZING! According to a news article which I had read a few days ago, it is written that astronauts now have to work and live under water! Obviously, it is easy to conjure up images of astronauts working in deep black space, however, nowadays there are also astronauts living and working on the sea floor, where they conduct experiments to prepare for future space missions.
Chris Hadfield's team includes a NASA astronaut, an undersea engineer and a scientist. They live inside Aquarius and carry out experiments in the lab; at the same time, exploring the blue depths outside the porthole windows.
It is the round window that looks out into the pale blue water that provides the biggest clue to Hadfield's whereabouts. The view might be serene, however, the undersea environment is potentially deadly to humans, just as space is. Just some contextual knowledge, he has completed two spacewalks in his 18 years as an astronaut and he said there are similarities between working in space and in the sea.
To prove this, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, Chris Hadfield has actually spent most of the past two weeks about 19 meters below the waves off the Florida coast! During these period of time, he was leading a two-week NASA mission aboard the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, which is run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Chris Hadfield's team includes a NASA astronaut, an undersea engineer and a scientist. They live inside Aquarius and carry out experiments in the lab; at the same time, exploring the blue depths outside the porthole windows.
According to the news article, Chris Hadfield said that, "I found that when I was working outside here over the last couple of weeks, I would suddenly notice where I am while I'm working. I'm busy working on some part of a space suit design, and then an angel fish goes by or a ray scuttles across the bottom of the ocean, and it reminds me of both the comfort-level I've gotten to and the amazing difference of where I am,".
During the two weeks, Hadfield was on the sea floor inside the Aquarius underwater habitat's 122 square meters of living and working space which was anchored next to a coral reef, five and half kilometers off Key Largo in the Florida Keys.
Even on the ocean floor, Aquarius is still visible on the World Wide Web where Commander Hadfield can be seen via webcam on NASA's web site. He stands in a narrow white room with stainless steel equipment as he speaks to reporters using something that looks akin to a cordless phone.
It is the round window that looks out into the pale blue water that provides the biggest clue to Hadfield's whereabouts. The view might be serene, however, the undersea environment is potentially deadly to humans, just as space is. Just some contextual knowledge, he has completed two spacewalks in his 18 years as an astronaut and he said there are similarities between working in space and in the sea."They are remarkably similar. You are wearing gear to protect you from an environment that would kill you. Every breath is amplified so you sound like [famed Star War's character] Darth Vader when you're out walking around out there. You're listening to help from someone inside the vehicle and someone back at mission control, as they try to help give you advice as you work on something complex outside," he said.
In his 'vacation' underwater, it is said that the crew will have conducted a total of 52 so-called "space walks" in the sea! Chris Hadfield also said that these underwater tests actually help astronauts to figure out how much mass they need to propel themselves forward when in space.
So, as you can see, what astronauts have to do now is not just flying in space or making a first step on a planet, now they are faced with greater challenges and make mankind's first step on the seafloor...... (Well, perhaps lots of people had already done it.)
WARNING!ASTRONOMY FANS!
WARNING!
You may not believe what I am writing in this post, but I assure you will not regret reading this. Can you believe it? According to a new study, a monster black hole has been flung from its home galaxy and is now careening through space! Argh......!
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The kicked-out black hole could result from a special set of circumstances, according to computer simulations. For your information, supermassive black holes can contain the mass of more than a billion suns! Just how they accumulate all that mass is unknown, but some astronomers believe that they are formed when two smaller black holes collide earlier.
Depending on the direction and speed with which the two black holes rotate before they merge, the resulting gigantor may be thrown out of the galaxy, resulting in the cosmic interloper spotted in the Chandra observations.
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At that amazing moment, people were all abuzz by this breathtaking sight as people took photos of this astrological occurrence and posted it on social media sites such as yahoo.
As most of you may have already known, the “evening star” is actually one of the planets in the solar system, Venus. Based on my research, Venus is one of the brightest object in the night sky after Moon so people, in the early days (before we has astronomy), thought it was a star.
Actually, when Venus is seen in the easter sky before the sunrise, it is usually referred to as a “morning star” and when it is seen in the evening in the west after sunset which is similar to what had happened on Sunday evening, it is called an “evening star.”
So how does Venus appears as a star? This is due to Venus’ orbit which lies inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun. When the orbit of Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it also reflects the light of the Sun to earth at the same time so that when it moves from the evening to the morning sky, thus it becomes very visible to us and appears as a “star”.
However, have you ever wondered why the crescent moon and star has come to symbolize Islam? If I am not wrong, the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. Most sources say that these ancient celestial symbols were used by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of the sun, moon and sky gods. In this Wikipedia article, it says that possibly the symbol became associated with the Muslim faith when the Ottoman Empire became affiliated with the Muslim world.
So, now you can see how fascinating the 'Evening star' and the crescent moon are! Isn't interesting? And good news to astronomy fans who may have missed their chance to see this breathtaking sight, you may want to visit the following link for more images of the 'Evening Star' and the crescent moon: http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&w=all&q=venus+moon&m=text
So how does Venus appears as a star? This is due to Venus’ orbit which lies inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun. When the orbit of Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it also reflects the light of the Sun to earth at the same time so that when it moves from the evening to the morning sky, thus it becomes very visible to us and appears as a “star”.
Maybe, some people who have seen this view may think that some natural phenomenon might occur when the crescent moon and Venus are being so close together. But trust me, in my opinion, this natural phenomenon has no effect on Earth. These planetary alignments have been happening for the longest time and till now, there is never been a documented effect to our planet. So don't worry........
So, now you can see how fascinating the 'Evening star' and the crescent moon are! Isn't interesting? And good news to astronomy fans who may have missed their chance to see this breathtaking sight, you may want to visit the following link for more images of the 'Evening Star' and the crescent moon: http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&w=all&q=venus+moon&m=text
After reading the stunning news on alien hijacking a spaceship, I believe you - astronomy fans are all hungry for more fascinating news about our space, right? Well, today, I've just read another astronomy news article from sifynews.com regarding astronauts (2010-05-15). Based on the news article, it is written that spaceflight actually compromises immune system of astronauts! WOW!According to a new study, spaceflight takes a toll on the genes controlling immune and stress response, which apparently leads to more sickness among astronauts as compared to us - the 'Earthlings'.
These stresses that go with weightlessness actually confined the crew quarters from being away from family and friends and also have a busy work schedule which eventually cause most of them not having sufficient amount of rest, thus resulting in health problems on the immune system.
Here is what a professor said in his views: "Taken together, our results hint at the possibility that an astronaut's immune system might be compromised in space," said immunobiologist Ty Lebsack at the University of Arizona, the lead author of the study.
In order to support their hypothesis, they had actually compared gene-expression patterns in thymuses from four healthy mice that had spent 13 days aboard NASA's STS-118 Endeavour Space Shuttle to those from an equal number of control mice on the ground.After the experiment, they found that 970 individual genes in the thymus of space-flown mice were up or down-regulated by a 1.5 fold change or greater! So, when these changes were averaged, 12 genes in the thymus tissue of all four space-flown mice were significantly up or down-regulated.
"The altered genes we observed were found to primarily affect signaling molecules that play roles in programmed cell death and regulate how the body responds to stress," said Lebsack.
Therefore, these results relate with experiments carried out on the ground to study how microgravity affects immune cells. Well, although astronauts seem to healthy on the news, they had actually suffered quite a lot in terms of their immune system. Perhaps, this news article may seem unrelated to you but I think it is quite important to know about this. So, being an astronaut isn't that easy anymore, right?
Here is the link to sifynews.com for the news article: http://sify.com/news/spaceflight-compromises-immune-system-of-astronauts-news-international-kfpnagedcgc.html
Recently, I had read a SHOCKING, UNBELIEVABLE and ......STUNNING astronomy news from news.com.au. You may wonder how shocking it is, but I assure you will not believe what you are about to read. According to the news article on news.com.au on 13 May 2010, it is written that NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft which, according to German UFO expert Hartwig Hausdorf, may have been hijacked by aliens! OH MY GOD......!
Based on the news article, A GERMAN UFO expert, Hartwig Hausdorf has claimed that a NASA spacecraft, Voyager 2, may have been hijacked by aliens - who are now attempting to contact Earth!
Hartwig Hausdorf claims that Voyager 2 - an unmanned interplanetary probe that blasted into the space 33 years ago - has suddenly started transmitting some strange, unintelligible signals.
Last month, the probe had actually began sending back distorted messages from its location near the edge of the solar system that baffled NASA scientists who were unable to decode, Mr Hausdorf says
"It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe, thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth," the author of UFOs - They Are Still Flying told Bild.
The signal from Voyager 2 - which takes 13 hours to reach the Earth - broke off fully on April 22.
NASA said engineers were working to solve a data transmission fault. The space agency has not commented specifically on Mr Hausdorf's comments, although it says the fault is likely to be a glitch in the probe's computer memory.
In my opinion, I do not quite believe Hartwig Hausdorf's claim as I feel that this is rather quite impossible! So, just imagine a big-headed alien controlling a spaceship, sitting on the chair, pressing buttons...... can this be possible?! I mean this sounds quite ridiculous and too imaginative to me. Well, of course, I cannot confirm and conclude that this is just his imagination, because miracle does occur! A rather strange one.
Well, personally, I believe this strange signals are actually some fault caused by probably some problems in the spaceship computer memory and system. Obviously, this sounds more convincing and persuasive to me, rather than an Alien invasion on a spaceship!
So, for some contextual knowledge, both Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, were offically launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Three decades on, they are the most distant human-made objects in outer space! Now, Voyager 1 is currently more than 8.5 billion miles from Earth! It will soon travel beyond the heliosphere - a bubble the sun creates around the solar system - into interstellar space, scientists say.
So if you are interested in this piece of strange news article, you may want to visit the following link on news.com.au: http://www.news.com.au/technology/nasa-spacecraft-hijacked-by-aliens/story-e6frfro0-1225865827901?from=public_rss
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Recently, I had just read a science research article regarding the origin of the names of the planets in the universe. In my opinion, it seems like almost all planets or stars are named after either Greek or Roman gods (strange......?!). So let's take Uranus for example. Uranus, one of the planets in the solar system, is actually named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus, the father of Kronos (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).
But then, why is Earth named 'Earth'......? And then who named the Earth 'Earth'? When? Why?
Perhaps, Earth is also named after ancient gods. However, this seems to be wrong! The Earth is actually the only planet whose name in English is not derived from Greco-Roman mythology! According to my research, the name 'Earth' originates from the 8th century Anglo-Saxon word erda, which means ground or soil.
However, in my opinion, I think it's quite impossible to find out who first named the planet 'Earth'. To be frank, I'm not really an expert on words and word origins of these planets, but this seems likely that people used Earth to mean 'land' and then it was the natural thing to refer to all the land and the planet. So that's why the Earth is named 'Earth'! If I'm not wrong...... :)
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Hi all astronomy fans! Now that everyone knows at least something about our space, I think you will be even more fascinated by the marvellous photos of the space and the UNIVERSE! So, please explore the page on "My photo album" for more of these amazing photos! Here is the link: http://2p203chuasongyang.blogspot.com/p/my-photo-album.html
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
