an anthology of protest poems and their meanings

1. What Are You Fighting For?By Phil Ochs

This poem is an anti-Vietnam war protest poem. The writer felt strongly against the war that was going on near him.Part of the poem:

Oh you tell me that there's danger to the land you call your own,And you watch them build the war machine right beside your home,And you tell me that you're ready to go marchin' to the war.I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

2. Anti-Racism Poem

This poem is about racism, and how it is wrong. This poem makes the reader think, yes, WHY does it matter?

Part of the poem:Black is Black.White is White.Life is always A racial fight.Why does it matter?Why do we care? Would you see a differenceIf the skin wasn't there?

Tear brimmed eyes scan the garbageIn search of cans and foodThe eyes that never sawThe sight of playgrounds or schoolThe dry chapped hands that only feltThe touch of hammers and ragsThe hands that only knowHow to clean and

scrubAnd not to write and drawThe dusty feet that have never feltThe touch of a warm shoeOr felt beneath themA carpeted floorThe feet that only knowThe prick of thorns and rocks

A child, child like us

Who should have gone to schoolWho should have read books like we doAnd eaten ice cream on a hot summer's dayInstead of picking through the trashOr weaving carpets with fingers thatWere meant to hold pencils and pensA child, with childhood stolen away

This is a poem to protest against child labour. It tells the reader that children have human rights too. The poem is talking about a poor child that is being forced to work, it’s about a child who never had any education or luxuries.

• Power of three (the eyes, the hands, the feet etc.)

• Emotive Language (Tear Brimmed eyes, childhood stolen)

4. Speak for Me

This poem was written in protest of animal abuse/cruelty.Parts of the poem:

I haven’t seen anyone for days.My bones ache for attention,As I see you walk away.It didn’t use to be that way.I guess I got to be too much to handleAs I now sit alone in my deserted land.I have no voice of my own.I need you to speak for me.The days are long as I waste away.Nowhere to go, I pull at the

chains,Welts at my neck, blood, misery and pain.Can anybody speak for me?As hunger rots my core, I wonder where you are,And why you have left me here to suffer.What agony did I cause to deserve this punishment?Can anybody speak for me?Do you even remember my name?When your pellets silence myHowling cries in the night?

With not even a grassy patchTo rest my weary head upon,Dirt is all that remains from my constant pacing.Can someone please speak for me?I lay here dying and unloved.As I am being tossed away with the banana peelsAnd other gluttonous garbage,I needed you to speak for me.

5. Is it because I am black? Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

This poem is about the treatment of the native Americans a long time ago.

Parts of the poem:

WHY do men smile when I speak

Why do men sneer when I arise

Is it because I am black?