[Joanne <3]

Hi ^^. I'm doing a seminar on poems at the moment, and I would like to include the perceptions of readers other than myself towards this certain poem. If you could spare a bit of time just to read it and answer the questions (if you get lazy or would like to skip some, that's okay too), that would be really helpful. I need as many answers, opinions and thoughts as I can get within the next couple of days. Thanks!

NB: Please make your answers as thorough as possible.
Edit: Oh, and my apologies... it's more of a Q&A rather than survey.

-------------------------------------------

The Commission

In this poem there is a table
Groaning with food
There is also a child
Groaning for lack of food
The food is beautifully photographed
The meat more succulent
The fruit as juicy
As you are likely to see.
(The child is sketched in lightly
She is not important.)
The photograph is to be used
In a glossy magazine
As part of a campaign
Advertising after-dinner mints.
This evening the photographer
In receipt of his fee
Celebrates by dining with friends
In a famous West End restaurant.
Doodling on the napkin between courses
The photographer, always creative,
Draws a little Asian girl,
Naked, wide-eyed, pleading
The photographer is pleased.
He has an idea for the next commission,
The one for famine relief.
The tandoori arrives
He puts away his pen
And picks up a fork.

---------------------------------------

Questions

1. Why was the child 'sketched in lightly'?
2. What change of time and place occur in the second stanza?
3. Why does the photographer's celebration seem wrong to us?
4. Why is the photographer pleased with his drawing?
5. What is the phrase 'famine relief' contrasted with in the poem's last three lines?
6. Why is the poem's title appropriate?
7. What techniques has the poet used to convey his message to us?
8. What feelings in you has the poet aroused?

[dark_chancellor]

closed, as requested by OP