Presentation of Light and Dark in 'For Lucie' Amelie Maurice-Jones 12th Grade

John Glenday’s For Lucie reads as an ode to a newborn baby girl who is fated to mature into a world governed by moral and spiritual darkness: the narrator urges the child to quell such gloom with the lightness and optimism that infancy brings. Whilst it is possible to read the poem as a message geared towards younger generations urging them to repair the fractured reality left by their predecessors, a more compelling interpretation is that it encourages younger and older generations to work in harmony in order to restore and enlighten the near future.

The binary opposition of light and darkness largely structures the poem, reflecting the battle between the moral darkness of the older generations and hopeful light of youthful optimism as both sides struggle to control society. The poem opens through reference to light (‘Lucie’) and yet closes through indicating towards the ‘dark’, suggesting that the struggle between light and darkness is one that provides many social and economic issues as the generations are unable to cast aside their differences and work forwards for a better future. The diction ‘light’ is repeated twice in the opening stanza, mirroring the child’s noble efforts to cast an enlightened naivety on a bitter and...