History Lesson

by Jeannette C. Armstrong

Out of the belly of Christopher’s ship

A mob bursts
Running in all directions
Pulling furs off animals
Shooting buffalo
Shooting each other
Left and right

Father mean well

waves his makeshift wand
forgives saucer-eyed Indians

Red coated knights

Gallop across the prairie
To get their men
And to build a new world

Pioneers and traders

Bring gifts
Smallpox, Seagrams
And Rice Krispies

Civilization has reached

the promised land.

Between the snap crackle pop

of smoke stacks
and multi-coloured rivers

swelling with flower powered zee

are farmers sowing skulls and bones
and miners
pulling from gaping holes
green paper faces
of smiling English Lady

The colossi
In which they trust
while burying
breathing forests and fields
beneath concrete and steel
stands shaking fists
waiting to mutilate
whole civilization
ten generations at a blow.

Somewhere among the remains

Of skinless animals
Is the termination
to a long journey
and unholy search
for the power
glimpsed in a garden
forever closed
forever lost.
 History Lesson Allusion
by Jeannette C. Armstrong Personification
Connotation (negative)
Out of the belly of Christopher’s ship Metaphor
A mob bursts Irony
Running in all directions Symbol
Pulling furs off animals Onomatopoeia
5 Shooting buffalo Alliteration
Shooting each other Hyperbole
Left and right

Father mean well

waves his makeshift wand
10 forgives saucer-eyed Indians

Red coated knights

Gallop across the prairie
To get their men
And to build a new world
15
Pioneers and traders
Bring gifts
Smallpox, Seagrams
And Rice Krispies

20 Civilization has reached

the promised land.

Between the snap crackle pop

of smoke stacks
and multi-coloured rivers

swelling with flower powered zee

are farmers sowing skulls and bones
and miners
pulling from gaping holes
green paper faces
of smiling English Lady

The colossi
In which they trust
while burying
breathing forests and fields
beneath concrete and steel
stands shaking fists
waiting to mutilate
whole civilization
ten generations at a blow.

Somewhere among the remains

Of skinless animals
Is the termination
to a long journey
and unholy search
for the power
glimpsed in a garden
forever closed
forever lost.
In x by y there is a lot of z which is important because of A

In “Poem Title” by Poet Name there is a lot Dominant Poetic Devices

which is important because of “BIG IDEA”

The Hidden history that has been taken away

What had happened to Aboriginal people and their remarkable history? According to Jeannette C.
Armstrong’s free verse ballad “History Lesson”, European people are the only reason that Indians had lost
almost everything that they had including their culture, land, and language. “History Lesson” begins “out of
the belly of Christopher’s ship” (1), as if there was no history to be told before this discovery in 1492.
Armstrong follows suit with mainstream history lessons by writing in a linear and chronological fashion. The
stanzas follow a typical time line, including events such as, “Columbus’s discovery”, “the spread of
Christianity”, “pioneers and traders”, “the industrial age”, “law and order”, and the “modern era”. It seems
ironic that Armstrong chose to discuss these topics and ignore First Nations’ events since she is an Indian
person.The mob is “running in all directions/pulling furs off animals” (3-4) and “shooting each other” (6),
rather than collecting the unused resources for the Queen. Throughout the poem, she discusses the red
coated knights (11), “pioneers and traders” (15), and “farmers… /and miners” (25-26). The poem illustrates
that Europeans could chase out Indians by forcing them to leave the land rather than killing them by disposing
them with “smallpox” and “:seagrams” (18). After they (Europeans) conquered the land, they instantly
“civilized” Indians by destroying their culture and changing their foods. After Christopher Columbus and his
“mob” (2) attacked to Indians, they killed them as much as they could and they destroy every thing such as
“forests” and “fields” (32) by placing them “ beneath concrete and steel” (33). The poet by using constant
repetition in some particular stanzas wants to demonstrate that European existence is significant through out
the history. Finally, there is no “termination” (40) that can help Indians in order to re- gain their land and
“unholy search for the power” (42-43) will last for ever.