Task 2

Steps in Analysis
	Point	Evidence	Elaboration
1.	Point of View	"America did not foresee" "Now Thinking twice?" "Toll on the innocent and unborn"	Hubert Wilson was present during the Vietnam War, and was a soldier then. Now, he is suffering from health problems, like sudden tremors, which is thought to be caused by the toxic in Agent Orange. "America did not foresee" is said in a very harsh tone, and is to blame the Americans for killing thousands of innocent people in Vietnam. "Toll on .... unborn" Shows that America is even responsible for those children suffering from birth defects in Vietnam. "Now thinking twice?" is a rhetorical device used, once again showing that America did not think twice and did not foresee the outcome. Hubert Wilson is blaming the Americans for what they did to Vietnam, and also himself. Because of the Americans rash actions by using Agent Orange, he is now suffering from health problems too.
2.	Situation and Setting	Background information	I think that this poem is about Hubert Wilson thinking about the consequences of using Agent Orange, to both himself and the Vietnamese. This can be seen from how Hubert Wilson himself thinks that the toxic from Agent Orange and other chemicals has caused him with the tremors and mobility issues. Hubert Wilson seems to be very harsh and full of regrets in the poem. He also blames America for not thinking twice before using a weapon of destruction like Agent Orange.
3	Language/ Diction	Toll Omnipotent mourn Reflective Nefariously	Toll is pun which is used to mean death and to pay. This shows that the American soldiers who used Agent Orange had to pay the price for doing so, just like Wilson did. The word Omnipotent is used to show that the Americans disregarded those innocent Vietnamese who had to suffer the effects of the war just because they had power. The word reflective also shows that the poet is reflecting on what America has done by using Agent Orange. The word "Nefariously" means an infamous way of being wicked, showing that both Agent Orange and the people who used it would always be remembered for what they have done in a bad way, and not remembered for their sacrifice.
4	Personal Response		Personally, I think that America should not use Agent Orange. This is because Agent Orange who somehow or rather affect their own life style in terms of air pollution. Thus, I think America is very foolish and too rash to use these means of chemical warfare. Definitely, I think chemical warfare and even war should be avoided at all cost. At that time, there was already open diplomacy, and leaders of both countries should have talked and co-operated before fighting a war. Just because of the Vietcong, they killed thousands of innocent civilians. Thus, I think the war was totally not needed, and if governments had co-operated, the war wouldn't even be initiated, and most importantly, innocent civilians and even their descendants would not have to pay for the soldier's mistakes.

Task 1

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

The poem I would like to analyze is Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson. To understand more about the poem, I did some research on what agent orange is and who Hubert Wilson is. Hubert Wilson is a Vietnam war veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. He was prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before he was sent to Vietnam. Half of the troops ended up in Da Nang, an agent orange hotspot, while he and the rest were assigned to Shemya Island, Alska, which was what eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang. He had spent his years as an intelligence analyst there, and 15 years ago, he started suffering from unexplainable health problems. Now, since he has mobility issues, he has become a writer.

Now, let's move on to what Agent Orange is. Agent orange, in short, is used in chemical warfare during the Vietnam war. Although it was discovered in the 1920s, serious testing only began in the 1960s. Agent Orage was used to deny an enemy cover and to conceal dense terrain by defoliating trees and shrubbery where the enemy could hide.

Finally, I will talk about the poem.

The purpose of this poem, is to show the brutality of war. Hubert Wilson shows this by saying things like "Toll on the innocent and unborn". This statement shows that many innocent civilians would die even though war is something between soldiers. Hubert Wilson goes on to talk about how Agent Orange and other gases would affect the unborn. This means that people of the later generation would be born with birth defects and so on.

After doing some research, I realised that Rainbow could mean "Peace". If Rainbow means peace, then warfare would be the "rain". A rainbow only forms after the rain, and the title is saying that only after warfare would there be peace. However, the contents of the poem begs to differ. Thus, my guess is that the title is not meant to show that with war comes peace, but is trying to convey that as modern technology and better weapons are made, the use of toxic gas would be used in warfare. It is either that, or that Hubert Wilson is trying to make a pun out of these words.

So...what do you think? Would there be peace only after war?