What Were They Like? Literary Elements

The poem has two speakers. The first stanza is spoken by the questioner who asks for information about the people of Vietnam. The only thing we know about the questioner is that he is referred to as “sir.” The responder speaks in the second stanza. He or she gives information about the everyday life of the Vietnamese and how it was destroyed by war.

The poem is written in free verse (called “organic verse” by Denise Levertov). It does not use a set meter or rhyme scheme. The poem is structured as a set of six questions and six answers.

Stone hearts (Metaphor)

When asked whether the Vietnamese use stone lanterns, the responder says: “Their light hearts turned to stone.” Here, the sorrow caused by war is compared to a stone heart. This is a powerful line because it turns the literal stone in the first question into a metaphorical “stone.”

Mirrors (Metaphor)

The Vietnamese people grow rice in wet paddies that are compared to “mirrors” because they are still and reflect the sky. This stillness comes to an end when the bombs began falling. The mirrors are then “smashed,” just as glass is smashed.

Song (Simile)

The language of the people is so beautiful that it is compared to music: “their speech which was like a song.”

“Moths in moonlight” is an example of alliteration with the initial “m” repeated. It also uses assonance with the “o” sound in “moths” and “moonlight.”

“Stepped surely” is an example of alliteration with the repetition of “s.”

“Bitter to the burned mouth” uses alliteration of “b” sounds.

The poem makes use of situational irony to drive home its anti-war message. The first six questions ask for details about the everyday life and practices of the Vietnamese people. The reader expects the answers to proceed in the same manner. Instead, the expected outcome does not come. The responder refuses to answer the questions in a straightforward manner, instead stressing the unknowable aspect of Vietnamese ways of life now that the civilization has been destroyed by war.

New American Poetry, anti-war poetry, Black Mountain poetry

The setting of the poem where the conversation takes place in left unnamed. However, the questions and answers describe the lives of peasants in rural Vietnam.

The tone in the first half of the poem is formal and curious. In the second stanza, the tone takes an elegiac turn as it commemorates the victims of the war.

In one sense, the protagonist is the questioner while the responder describing the horrors of the war is the antagonist. In another sense, the protagonist is the simple peasants of Vietnam while the antagonist is the US Army that declared war on the country.

The poem’s major conflict is the destruction wrought by war on everyday people.

The poem reaches its climax in the answer to the fifth question. There the peaceful scene of bamboo, rice paddies, and buffaloes is violently interrupted by the dropping of bombs.

The use of the past tense in the title “What Were They Like?” foreshadows the fact that the poem is describing a speculative future in which the Vietnamese people have been destroyed by war.

The responder frequently uses a calm, matter-of-fact tone to describe the horrors of war and the extinction of an entire culture. This is visible from lines like: “Sir, their light hearts turned to stone” or “All the bones were charred.”