This is the blackout poem of Andy Stoyanova, and I’m using it to connect the short poem to the short story The Veldt by Ray Bradbury. This poem was taken from page 45 of the novel 1984 by George Orwell.

When I first read this poem, it reflected someone who was afraid of change, and when they finally confronted the problem they were afraid of facing, somebody superior to them dismissed it, and soon, everything would start going downhill. Connecting it to The Veldt, I think it mostly connects to George Hadley. The line which says to “apply unconsciousness”, I feel, means that the Hadley’s were living parts of their lives subconsciously. They didn’t realize what feeding into all of the advanced fantasies of their house would lead to. “Once again, act to understand.” At first, everything was harmless, or so, that’s what the Hadley’s thought. Once George and Lydia had realized what the nursery was doing to their children, they wanted to shut it off. While Lydia thought that one more minute wouldn’t do any harm, they ended up with a grim ending. No one can ever truly understand everything. “Involved enthusiastically” for me, means that the whole Hadley family was more than happy to invest in the futuristic technology, and indulge themselves in it. It was almost like a trance. They weren’t swayed by the fact that barely anyone but themselves had bought the inventors things, but instead persistent on the fact that they were lucky to have these things which ended up destroying them. “He tried to mention the impossible” is George’s warning to his family that the nursery and everything in their house was eating them alive, stripping away humanity, and George tried to change it, to make his family live freely and independently again, but, “Of course, the leader pushed backwards” was the children, trying to manipulate and beg their way into keeping the nursery, into using it once more, which ended up working. “Until they extended in great gleaming motor-cars” signifies how futuristic and technologically involved The Veldt is. With all their gadgets, and virtually advanced things, I think that they connect.