The poem The Right Word was written Imtiaz Dharker after the 9 11 bombings. The poem is about this women in her house or work place seeing this figure. In the first stanza she describes the figure lurking in the shadows and that figure is a terrorist. Just from this start we can tell that this poem is going to be a political one. When she said the word terrorist, this can show racism and can be controversial. In the second stanza she starts of with the question ‘Is that the wrong description?’ This shows us that she is questioning her self and that she could be wrong. Also in that stanza she describes the person taking shelter in the shadows instead of lurking, and instead of a terrorist the person is a freedom fighter. In this one stanza the description of this person changes completely. Like wise in the third and the fourth stanza she changes the description of the person to a hostile militant and to a guerrilla warrior. But in the fifth stanza starts of with God help me. In my eyes the character is desperate and wants help. And in this stanza we find out that the shadows are people, And that this person is standing defying the people around him or her and that she is a martyr. Then everything changes, she says that the person is a child that is lost in the shadows. Then she invites the child to eat with her. From this poem we found out that this women judged a figure in the shadows and thought that the figure was a terrorist due to the colour of his or hers skin.
I would think that this poem was written to tell people that you can’t judge people over their skin colour or their ethnicity, And that this women made a mistake about this child. The message of this would be don’t judge people on the race.