What Were They Like By Denise Levertov

The 1971 poem, “What were they like?” by Denise Levertov, imagines a world where the Vietnam War escalates into a nuclear war. By writing this poem, Levertov hoped to persuade Americans to protest against the 17-year long war. Through Levertov’s own experience as a marginalized Russian Jewish woman, she is able to provide thoughtful insight into the perspectives of the victims of the war and ultimately show the consequences of war. This essay will be delving into the ways as to how the poem portrays the horrible outcomes of war.
The title, “What were they like?”, instills readers with a sense of loss and curiosity. By making the title an open ended rhetorical question, Levertov hangs the question in the air; leaving it unanswered to emphasize …show more content…
Levertov has chosen to have someone else, maybe (in context) a member of the US military, answer the questions directed towards the Vietnamese victims to again instill the reader with a sense of loss. Perhaps on a larger scale, Levertov wanted to imply that often at times wars are written by the ‘winners’; in this case the Americans who ‘bombed’ Vietnam with chemical weapons and rarely do we ever get to hear the tales of the other side. The stories told by the ‘winners’ disregard the lives of the civilians they killed, treating them as collateral damage and ultimately stripping them of their personalities in order to justify their deaths. Levertov provides insight into the consequences of war by implying that many lives are forgotten and forsaken for the ‘winners’ to maintain this image of being glorified war heroes rather than ruthless murderers, preying on the …show more content…
When referring to the victims who’ve been “…charred…” by the nuclear bombs, Levertov uses the imagery, “… their light hearts turned to stone.”; indicating that though once they were full of life and laughter, they are now cold and still, “…laughter …bitter to the burned mouth.”. However, perhaps Levertov has used this imagery to also reflect the effects of war on the soldiers who are part of it. These young men join the army with these glorified expectations, defend their country and return home heroes; having no clue of the horrors awaiting them on the battlefield. And when they do return, war has changed them, no longer are they the enthusiastic men who left; they’ve returned scarred and desensitized to the world surrounding them, constantly trapped in their thoughts and left to hear the dying screams of their brothers over and over. Here, Levertov has implied that the people involved in war are the victims and that no matter what side they’re on, there are very rarely any true