Kidnapped

This study guide will help you analyse the poem “Kidnapped” by Ruperake Petaia. We will show you examples of elements in the text that will be relevant for your analysis. In these notes, we will focus on the summary, composition, characters and narrator, language and style, imagery and metaphors, theme and message.

Presentation of the poem

Title: “Kidnapped”
Author: Ruperake Petaia
Published in: Blue Rain
Date of Publication: 1974/1980
Genre: Poetry

Ruperake Petaia (b. 1951) is a Samoan writer who explores issues related to colonialism and post-colonialism. The satirical poem “Kidnapped” was originally written in 1974 and published in a poetry collection titled Blue Rain in 1980. Petaia has worked most of his life in public service in Samoa, an island country in the Pacific.

Rhythm and rhyme

The poem is written in free verse. This means that it has no rhyme and no fixed rhythm pattern. What gives the poem rhytm is the natural flow of words, the combination of shorter and longer lines and the limited use of punctuation. This suggests that the poem should be read as a free flow, following the natural rhythm of words.