point: anger
evidence:" America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!""Now thinking twice?"
Elaboration: The poet is angry that America is using the different Agents in the Vietnam war. He felt that America could not foresee what will happen in the future and did not care about what consequences that using these agents might have. From our knowledge, this indeed led to many dire consequences as the usage of Agent Orange caused many infants to be born with defects and thus up till now, the effects of the war can still be seen. We can also see that the poet feels that America should have thought twice before using Agent Orange as it caused many bad effects. " Now thinking twice?" shows that the poet probably felt that America after seeing the devastating effects of war think twice now if they should have used agent orange.
Point: sadness
evidence:Toll on the innocent and unborn.
Elaboration: The poet feels sad that the use of Agent orange not only affected those involved in the war, but also those innocent and unborn babies. This is because Agent Orange caused many infants to be born with defects and thus affecting them in the war as well. The poet feels sad and rather angry that the Americans did not think about the consequences before using the agent as this also affects themselves, starting a war that will never end. The agent's effects can still be seen today.
Setting/Situation:
Point: Sad
Evidence: Toll on the innocent and unborn,
Generations untold WILL pay
Elaboration:The setting of the poem is rather sad as the tension of the poem is built up by showing how the future generations of Vietnam will suffer the consequences of Agent Orange as well. Generations untold will pay means that although it looks like only the people during the war was affected, however, many other future generations will suffer the consequences. The tension is sad also because it shows how the children of those involved in war also suffer defects upon birth. Although they are innocent and have nothing to do with the war, they are still affected. This builds up a tension in the setting.
Point: Fear
Evidence: All the deceit continues to spread.
Elaboration: The poet is also rather afraid that the hatred in Vietnam will be passed on from generations to generations and that the hatred of america would never end. Deceit means hatred and thus the setting here is that of fear that the hatred of America would continue to spread even after the war is over.
Language/Diction:
The title of this poem is rather ironical. When we think of rainbow, we think of new life, happiness, nature and probably everything good. However, in this poem, rainbow is used to signify death, pain and suffering. In the First stanza, line 2 "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" an unusual word, potpourri is used. Potpourri means a mixture of things, and in this case, the different colours. Other than agent orange, there are also different agent colours, like green, pink and purple. These colours are placed side by side because they are the other forms of agents, other than orange, to be contaminated and caused health problems. The line shows that the different agents mixed together causes death and suffering.
Strong words like deceit and nefariously are used in the poem too. This shows that the poet thinks that America is a cruel country that uses terrible and cruel means to win the war, not even thinking of the consequences.
Personal response:
I am disturbed after reading this poem. The poem shows me a different sight to war as they show me th cruel methods that countries adopt just for winning. It shows us how the country does not think about the consequences of using the certain weapon in war. I am also disturbed as I never knew that the effects of war could be carried until today. I thought only those people in the war would suffer the pain, but the poem shows me that this pain and hatred can be carried to many future generations.
