This poem describes a "dark time" where soldiers have invaded the land. Nature responds with "awful sorrow" and red flowers hang their heads. It is a time of "oppression, dark metal, and tears" rather than festivals and celebration. The faces of men are "strained and anxious". The poem ends with the image of an invading soldier, "the man of death", watching the speaker's love sleep and aiming at their dreams, seeking to destroy hope for the future. Through metaphor, irony, oxymoron and rhetorical questions, the poem conveys a mood of scorn, lamentation and sorrow for the suffering people and land having their freedom and dreams destroyed by oppressive invasion.

1. POETRY
This is the Dark Time, My Love by Martin Carter

2. This is the Dark Time, My Love by Martin Carter
This is the dark time, my love,
All round the land brown beetles crawl about.
The shining sun is hidden in the sky
Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow.
This is the dark time, my love,
It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears.
It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery.
Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious.
Who comes walking in the dark night time?
Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass?
It is the man of death, my love, the strange invader
Watching you sleep and aiming at your dream.

3. LEARNING OUTCOMES
In this section, you will:
• discuss the situation and
message of Martin Carter’s
poem, ‘This is the Dark Time,
My Love’
• trace how the poetic devices
create the appropriate tone
and mood in the poem.

4. Situation
Martin Carter
The speaker in the poem is talking to someone he
loves dearly (or possibly to his country, which he
also loves dearly) about the way the land has been
invaded by soldiers (All round the land brown
beetles crawl about). Their presence is a festival
of guns and a carnival of misery: instead of the
people having festivals like Phagwah and
Christmas, or a carnival filled with dancing and
laughter, guns are having a celebration, and
misery is parading on the streets. The poem ends
with the terrifying image of someone standing
over a sleeping person aiming, not to murder, but
to kill the dream-to kill all hope for the future.

5. Structure
The poem consists of three regular unrhymed
stanzas. The first mentions the invading soldiers
(brown beetles) and the sorrowful response of
nature. The second shows how the joyful
festivals and guns, misery and anxiety. The third
asks rhetorically who has come to destroy the
land and the dreams of the people.
British Army 1950s Uniform

6. POETIC DEVICES IN THE POEM
1. Metaphor
“All around the land brown beetles crawl about.” The soldiers are being compered
to brown beetles.
2. Alliteration
“All round the land brown beetles crawl about.” This refers to the British soldiers
who occupied the country during this time. Note the use of alliteration here in
‘brown beetles.’ The persona communicates a landscape filled with the soldiers,
corresponding to the atmosphere of war.
3. Irony
“It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery.” The words festival and carnival
are indicative of joyous celebrations but what the country is experiencing is sorrow
not joy. The line is also a juxtaposition of two ideas.

7. 4. Oxymoron
Occurs in the phrases festival of guns and carnival of misery. Festivals and carnivals are
times of fun and celebration; it is terrifying to think of guns and misery holding
festivals and carnivals in the streets. The poet utilizes two oxymorons here (two
contradicting ideas in close succession). He refers to this dark time of war as a festival
(associated with joy and celebration) of guns (machines of terror, oppression and violent
death). Quite incompatible/contradictory terms. He continues by describing it as a
carnival (associated with fun and the joy of children) of misery (a terrible emotion of
helplessness and despair). The persona remarks the strained emotions in the faces of
everyone around him- including his own countrymen and the soldiers.
5. Rhetorical Questions
“Who comes walking in the dark night time?
Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass?” The poet uses rhetorical questions
to lead into the reveal of a personification of war and death. It hints at something being
closely related to dark times such as these, who has a ‘boot of steel.’ This reflects the
oppressive and abusive effect war has, pressing down on not only the environment, but
on the people of the country as well. It tramples the grass underfoot, showing blatant
disregard for nature- opting instead to fulfil selfish goals through needless death and
suffering.

8. Mood and Tone
The word crawl also tells us how much the speaker scorns the troops, while my love suggests the
intimacy between the speaker and the person he addresses. The tone, on the other hand, is scorn for
those who would trample on loveliness and secretly arrive under cover of darkness to control
helpless, unarmed people. On the other hand, the tone is a lamentation for the people and the land
whose dreams are being destroyed.
The mood of the reader is much affected by the tone of the speaker. We feel anger towards the
invader, sorrow at the suffering and destruction, compassion for the speaker and the one he loves,
indignation at the injustice of the entire situation.
DIDYOU KNOW?
In 1953, after the People’s Progressive Party won
the elections, the BritishGovernment
suspended the British Guiana’s Constitution and
troops were sent in to quell the resulting unrest.
Martin Carter was imprisoned for three months
for defying the regulations imposed.
His poem, ‘This is the Dark Time, My Love,’ was
inspired by that period of Guyana’s history.

9. Message
While the poem was inspired by specific historic events in British Guiana, the impact of the
poem is felt by all lovers of freedom who sense that forces are at work to take that freedom
away. The poem is a lament for the loss of freedom and hope.