The Holocaust Through Poetry
The Holocaust Through Poetry
Poetry is personal. It is an emotional experience in which we can express our anger, sorrow, laughter and love. It can make us laugh, cry and think. It should appeal to all of our senses. It connects us to others at the most essential of levels – the heart, mind and soul. It can deliver messages and wisdom about life, and it can help us see our lives through a different lens. It can cause us to question ourselves and others. It can be satirical, symbolic and metaphorical. It can show us what matters or remember what once mattered. It can allow us to take risks and it can allow us to heal. It can be about the exquisite beauty of nature and our mere existence.
Poetry is often arranged in collections or thematically. We will be examining and then creating poems that relate to the Holocaust. I would like you to examine the Holocaust poems on the back and analyze them. Choose two of these three poems and do the following:
- Describe the author’s purpose in writing this poem and what their dominant message and tone is through the poem.
- If this poem were to be set to music, what type of music would you set it to and why? If you could chose a musical artist to perform it, who would it be and why?
- Find two examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole…) in each poem and one sound device (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia…).
- Find a strong example of imagery from the poem and write it.
- Find and write the line that is most interesting to you and explain why that is so.
- Find two word choices that are exceptional and write them down.
- Compose a poem orfound poem of your own. A found poem is when the poet takes the words from another source (in this case the novel, Night) and arranges/combines them in such a way as to create an original poem with the form, convention, impact and tone of poetry. In this case, you are turning prose into poetic verse. To do this, you will use sentences, phrases, quotes and words (“artifacts”) from the novel and combine them in such a way to create poetry.Your poem, whether using artifacts from Night or not shouldbe at least 20 lines. Choose your words carefully and write about something that captures what you took from reading Night and our study of the Holocaust. Remember, it doesn’t have to rhyme!
Requirements Checklist for the Found Poem:
1. ____ Your poem MUST be at least 20 lines in length and have an interesting title.
2. ____ If you use artifacts from Night, please indicate the page number that the artifact came from.
3. ____ Your poem does not have to rhyme, but it MUST have meter/rhythm (e.g. iambic pentameter).
4. ____ Your poem MUST include at least one example of 4 different poetic devices! You MUST underline and
label these examples!
5. ____ You must also include a visual with your poem. It should symbolically represent the theme of your poem.
6. ____You will share your poem on ______. Practice your reading to make sure it carries the proper pacing,
rhythm and tone.
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SCORING RUBRIC:
4 = Advanced3 = Proficient2 = Basic 1 = Below Basic/Incomplete
- Two of the Holocaust poems are carefully analyzed(X3)_____
- Found poem has distinct meter and rhythm (It reads like poetry and not like prose)_____
- Found poem incorporates at least 4 literary devices (clearly labeled)_____
- Arrangement of the lines/artifacts in your poem is logical (good fluency)_____
- Visual is neatly done and representative of the poem_____
- The poem you composed has strong word choice_____
- The poem you composed has strong voice and appropriate tone_____
- The poetry reading is fluid and reflects appropriate tone, pacing and rhythm (X2)_____
- All work is neatly done and conventionally sound_____
- There is evidence of strong effort and an attempt to push yourself. All work
follows the directions carefully._____
TOTAL _____/52
52-47 = A 46-40 = B 39-32 = C 31-24 = D
Three Holocaust Poems for Contemplation and Analysis
(Choose two to analyze)
Tale of a Sprinter,
in the Winter of 1938
by Sudeep Pagedar
THE PAST -
I am an athlete from Berlin,
my feet are fast and swift.
I can run faster than anyone!
Truly, this is the Lord's gift!
Any race I participate in,
I always come in first,
for I tell myself, "I HAVE to win";
it is like a great thirst.
Even if someone, somehow passes me,
I put on an extra burst of speed
and run past him, leaving him behind;
thus, I take the lead.
I once thought, "If I keep running this way,
I might be in the Olympics, some day..."
THE PRESENT -
But now the year is nineteen-thirty-eight
And for my dreams, it's just too late.
My running days are all gone,
I'm not going to see tomorrow's dawn.
Yes, it is true
that I can run very fast;
But it is also true
that I am a Jew...
There's no running, from the Holocaust.
Holocaust
by Barbara Sonek
We played, we laughed
we were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. We had dreams, then we had no hope. We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind can not happen again. Remember us, for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away.
From "What Really Makes Us Free" by Elie Wiesel
Defeated and downcast,
overcome by fatigue and anguish,
tormented and tortured day after day,
hour after hour,
even in their sleep,
condemned to a slow but certain death,
the prisoners nevertheless managed
to carve out a patch of freedom for themselves.
Every memory became a protest against the system;
every smile was a call to resist;
every human act turned into a struggle
against the torturer's philosophy.
... the executioner did not always triumph.
Among his victims were some who placed freedom
above what constituted their lives.
Some managed to escape
and alert the public in the free world.
Others organized a solidarity movement within the inferno itself.
One companion of mine in the camps
gave the man next to him a spoonful of soup every day at work.
Another would try to amuse us with stories.
Yet another would urge us not to forget our names—
one way, among many other, of saying "no" to the enemy,
of showing that we were free, freer than the enemy.
Even in a climate of oppression,
men are capable of inventing their own freedom,
of creating their own ideal of sovereignty
What if they are a minority?
Even if only one free individual is left,
he is proof that the dictator is powerless against freedom.
But a free man is never alone; the dictator is alone.
The free man is the one who, even in prison,
gives to the other prisoners
their thirst for, their memory of, freedom.