I Was Born Into A World

- by James Franco

I was born into a world

Before recycling was a thing,
Before oil wars,
When the biggest world
Threat was nuclear. 5
The only extinct thing
Was the Dodo,
We consumed and junked.
Then we were told about
Droughts, and disappearing 10
Rainforests.
About melting ice caps,
And we fought Iraq
For a second time,
Like father like son, 15
We needed our oil
Because we didn’t want
Those electric cars.
At one time there were
Huge monsters that 20
Walked where we walk,
Nature swallowed them easy.
Or maybe you believe
It all started with Adam and Eve, 25
But they too were kicked
From the garden
As are we,
With our poison beaches
Run-down towns
And our atmosphere 30
That kills.
I write a poem
And preach to the converted.
We send out loud messages
To ourselves, 35
That our world is dying:
1984, Blade Runner,
Armageddon, The Road.
I’ve yet to read a book,
Or watch a film about a future 40
I’d like to live in.
Fortunately for me,
I’ll die before the earth,
But I’d like a place for my
Computer chip self 45
To click and beep
In bright, clean happiness.

ENGL Ms. Gin

Poetry
“I was Born Into A World” Questions
Surface Questions:

1. What was the world like when the speaker was born, and how does it differ from today?

I think that the speaker was from the past because he says it was before recycling was a thing
and I have known recycling was a thing since I was born. It differs from today because he
says that the only extinct thing was the Dodo bird and I know that there are tons of extinct
animals today.

2. What are the “huge monsters” (21) that “Nature swallowed” (23)? What poetic devices
are being used in each of these examples?
Metaphor and personification
huge monsters are dinosaurs
3. Explain one of the following allusions:
And we fought Iraq
For a second time,
Like father like son (14-16)
Or
It all started with Adam and Eve,
But they too were kicked
From the garden
As are we (25-28)
I think that “It all started with Adam and Eve, but they too were kicked from the
garden as are we” implies that we did something bad to the environment which has lead it
to slowly get father away from us or become something rarer because in the story of
Adam and Eve is that they got kicked out of the garden for eating the apple that they were
not allowed to take. This would relate to present times because we are doing bad things to
the environment right now so it might ‘kick us out’.
Deeper Question (5 marks each)
Provide a clear PEE chain in your response below. Be sure to include at least one properly
integrated quotation from the poem.

4. What does the speaker envision will happen to world at the end of the poem? Why does
he hope there is a happy place for his “Computer chip self” (46)?

The author envisioned that in the future, the world would end because of climate change and
pollution. “And our atmosphere That kills.” Makes it sound like he thinks that the future will be
polluted and dirty. I think that he thinks that in the future the worlds in a computer would be more
pleasant to live in rather than real life because computers are programable. He hopes that there is
a happy place for him because he wants to be happy in the future and not live on Earth but rather
live in his computer. He ends the poem saying that he wants his computer chip self to be happy,
but it is clear that he doesn’t like what he thinks about the future.

5. Is this a dystopian poem? Explain your answer.

“A dystopia is a world in which everything is imperfect, and everything goes terribly wrong.
Dystopian literature shows us a nightmarish image about what might happen to the world in the
near future. Usually the main themes of dystopian works are rebellion, oppression, revolutions,
wars, overpopulation, and disasters.”

The poem is not dystopian because the future that he talks about is very much like our

current world. I know this because the author says “Then we were told about Droughts

and disappearing Rainforests. About melting ice caps,” and all of that is happening to us

today. I think that the poem was written around 1950 because people didn’t really care

about the environment until then and he talks about tragedies that are more recent. It

makes him sound like he is predicting the future.