"Vietnamese Morning"

Before war starts
In early morning
The land is breath taking.
The low, blazing, ruby sun
Melts the night-shadow pools
Creating an ethereal appearance.

Each miniature house and tree
Sprouts its, long, thin shadow
Stretching long on dewy ground.
The countryside is panoramic maze,
Jungle, hamlets, hills and waterways,
Bomb-craters, paddies, broken-backed bridges.

Curt Bennett

The poem “Vietnamese Morning” by Curt Bennett describes the aesthetic scene of a Vietnamese countryside on a morning. There is no war; Bennett states that this occurs before the war begins. Bennett uses imagery to show that the countryside is beautiful without the war, and that war should not be fought in Vietnam. He argues this point by the fact that all this natural beauty will be destroyed when the war begins. This idea is augmented with metaphors such as the blanket that covers the ground, which illustrates how serene and beautiful the area is. However, there is a slight shift in tone when Bennett references the bomb craters in the ground. This creates a negative connotation with war as it is destroying nature. This poem has strong anti-war sentiment.

Rice fields glow sky-sheens,

Flat, calm, mirrored lakes
Reflect the morning peace.
The patchwork quilted earth,
Slashed by snaking tree-lines,
Slumbers in dawn's blue light.

Sharp, rugged mountain peaks
Sleep in a soft rolling blanket
Of clinging, slippery, misty fog.
Effortlessly, languidly, it flows
Shyly spreading wispy tentacles out
To embrace the earth with velvet arms.