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An Imitation of We Lived Happily During the Warby Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky's poem; We Lived Happily During the War reminds people to fight for their rights even during turbulent times of war. The poem talks of how an old couple fought for their rights even t1hough they were in war times. I chose the poem because of the nature message it passes to its readers. The poem does not talk about love like most poems does but instead explores a different path, a path to remind one that they should never cease to fight for their rights regardless of the circumstances. The poem also teaches one how peace of mind is important and how war affects peace of mind. Ilya Kaminsky structured his poem in a free verse kind of a poem combined with a couplet of stanzas whereby each stanza has only two lines. A free verse kind of poem is one that does not follow specific rules for its sentence length and rhyme scheme. Ilya Kaminsky uses many stylistic and literary devices to add flavor to his work. The stylistic devices in Ilya Kaminsky's work include assonance, Metaphor, simile, and imagery.

            Assonance occurs when a work of art uses letters of the same vowel sound in words that follow each other or are adjacent to each other. We lived Happily During the War has several instances of assonance, such as "Invisible house by invisible house by invisible house." (Lynch, Line 12). The vowel sound "i" has been used in the sentence in words adjacent to each other. The other stylistic device used in Ilya Kaminsky's poem is Metaphor. A metaphor compares two or more items without using connecting words such as like to show how these two items are related. There are instances of Metaphor in the poem We lived happily During the War; "In the street of money in the city of money in the country of money" (Lynch, line 10).The other stylistic device I have imitated in my poem is the tone and mood of the poem. Kaminsky uses a somber tone in his poem, evident from the diction or choice of words he uses in the poem, such as "And when they bombed other people's houses" (Lynch, line 1). The bombing of the houses makes the couple sad because they could only be witnesses but have no much to offer to fight for the rights of the people whose houses were bombed. The sombre tone leaves the reader in a sad or depressing mood.

The Outcast

"He is facing the wrath of the gods", so they say, the" righteous and straight of the church."

Who cares for a religious backward fella!, Even the gods did good punishing him

Weak and weary, in his small room, he moans in pain, the son of the devil and god's enemy

No one dares come help him, for like a dog in a mosque; she is an outcast

The local pastor terms him "neither a lamb nor a kid", not...