Summary Of Archie Roach's Poem 'Took The Children Away'

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Archie Roach has used a distinctive structure to assemble his lyrical poem to communicate the Indigenous children’s sufferings, harsh mistreatments and the separation from their homeland. Took the Children Away has 8 stanzas with approximately 4-13 lines in each stanza. The rhyme scheme that has been identified throughout the poem is irregular. In the lyrical poem, an example of alliteration that was used to emphasise the mood and tone of the poem is, ‘taught them that, and taught them this.’ This signifies that the Europeans tried to teach the Indigenous kids their ways of living and the rules they had to abide to. Repetition was also used frequently used, ‘they took the children away,’ which shows that the white colonists did not regard the