This is a Dark Time My Love

• The poem's imagery and metaphors explore the fear the terror the pain the death that war brings
• Even nature seems to respond to this dark time to the invasion of the brutal soldiers
• The poem's mood is dark gloomy and menacing
• The speaker might be speaking to his lover but he might also be referring to his country as his love
• The dark time the poem speaks of is connected to the struggles that Guyana faced in 1953 due to British colonization
• The poet was actually one of the freedom fighters and it is believed that he wrote this poem from a prison cell
• Darkness usually represents


  • Sorrow, tragedy, death, evil
• Beetles


  • Have natural body armor, like little soldiers, they crawl about carefully and militantly
• The shining sun is hidden in the sky


  Represents the vibrant spirit and joy of the Guyanese people being stifled by oppression
• Red flowers bending their heads in awful sorrow


  Represents bloodshed, the flowers are wilting because of the oppression
• Dark metal

  Reference to the machinery of war, the weaponry, the guns
• Tears


  Represent the sadness of the people, the crying that comes with oppression, war and death
• Boot of steel


  Represents the heavy, mighty footsteps of the invading soldiers crushing the land
• Man of death, strange invader


  Metaphors for the British soldiers or death itself invading the country
• The invader watches the people sleep and aims at their dreams


  Represents crushing the Guyanese people's dreams of freedom, independence and happiness
• The elements of nature in the poem - sun, flowers, grass - represent the Guyanese flag and national pride
• The poem has no rhymes or metric pattern, it is a short urgent message from the poet
• Poet:

  Martin Carter