From oppression comes light http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/from-opression-comes-light “Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Well, according to the Canadian mental health association: more than 40% of all Canadians will experience depression at least more than once during the entire span of their life. Basically, the poem “From oppression comes light” by Erik Whitehead explores the aspects of how society influences depression and how depression influences society in an analytical manner. Thus in this poem, the central theme of depression is quite exuberant considering the author’s usage of figurative language (mainly allusion…show more content… So, depression is like a war. You either win or die trying.” –Laura K. Mathews. Hence, according to the Canadian mental health association: only 30% of people in Canada who have been influenced by depression, will be ever able to fully recover from it. As a result, the question that is essentially raised by the poem “From oppression comes light” is “Have we as a society rendered enough of our efforts to sufficiently handle the victims of those going through severe trauma and eventually the state of depression?” In this poem, language plays a great role in establishing its theme, mood, tone and aesthetic qualities. Correspondingly, language is so crucial to the construction and meaning of the poem that the theme, mood and aesthetic qualities are built on its basis. Although, the poem is written in third person objective; it still conveys a nostalgic tone as if the narrator were actually living through the events that veered his life to the path of desolation, rather than actually recollecting them. Basically, the poem is a recollection by the author of the events that shaped his past dramatically while it is also a thorough conjecture about the events that can be done to help him fix his prior blunders and accordingly, helping him come out of the physiological state of
