Background of the poem

Children in the darkness

In my opinion, the poet was most likely a soldier in the Vietnam War and he pitied the children there as their lives are destroyed by war and corruption. When he was fighting in the war, he felt that these innocent children should be sitting in classrooms and receiving proper education enjoying a peaceful childhood instead of suffering by fighting the war and experiencing torment and sadness. He feels angered because he thinks that children should not live such a meaningful and suffering life and were treated unfairly due to the war. Hence he wrote this poem to pour out his grievances and used children in the darkness as the title to give us a clue on the contenet.

References
http://keyserzone.blogspot.com/2010/05/poetry-analysis-children-in-darkness.html