This poem about climate change includes rhyme, personification and alliteration. It brings into focus some of the consequences of climate change and challenges anyone who denies the devastating impact that it is having on our planet.
“Climate Change”
By Kia West
I think the planet’s crying
I thought I heard it sob
The people who protect it
Have not done their job
Instead of crystal oceans
With fish and whales and kelp
The oil and rising temperatures
Have creatures calling “help”
Instead of thriving forests
Rich with biodiversity
Vast wastelands are left barren
By the Greedy Company
Our reefs are bleached,
Our bushlands burn,
The storms are raging on,
The icecaps turn
From solid ice into liquid form
The sea levels are all rising
With the growing temperature
And with the thickening ozone
All the scientists are sure
If we don’t change, our chance is gone
There is no Planet B
And with all the evidence around,
How can you disagree?
Poetic Devices:
Rhyme
Personification
Alliteration
Rhetorical question
More about the poem…
This poem has five stanzas that vary in length from four to eight lines. In each stanza, the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other and in the final stanza lines six and eight also rhyme. This helps the poem to flow and have a natural rhythm.
The topic of this poem is climate change, its impacts on the planet and the desperate need for a more sustainable way of life that will protect and renew our planet before it is too late. This subject is a cross-curricular focus of the Australian Curriculum.
The imagery created by the personification in the first two lines of stanza one help to highlight the tragic nature of climate change; it is a man-made problem that governments and companies around the world are acting too slowly to reverse.
The rhetorical question at the end of the final verse gives the poem a high impact ending.It asks the reader to think about their own belief and understanding of climate change.
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