David Vogel, born in 1891, lived with grief and loss before his very eyes before his death in a tragic occurrence. He spent his youth in Lvov and Vilna but settled in Vienna in 1912, although he was born in Stantanov, Russia. Later on, in the outbreak of World War One, Vogel was captured and imprisoned in Austria detention camps as a Russian enemy. He was released in 1916, and lived a solitary life thereafter. When World War Two uprised he was incarcerated in French detention camps. He was released from France in 1941, but captured but Nazis just three years later. Supposedly, he died in the Holocaust in 1944. David impacted society through awareness of the affects he had on the Holocaust with his poems, How Can I See You, Love, Here You Sit Beside Me, and I Saw My Father Drowning.
David’s text How Can I See You, Love impacted society by sending awareness about affects over the Holocaust. This poem tells a story of someone standing alone, surrounded by grief and sadness, being lost or having darkness enclosing over them, and having their childhood blurry and
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dark. “How can I see you, love, Standing alone, Amid storms of grief, Without feeling my heart shake? A deep night, Blacker than the blackness of your eyes, Has fallen silently, On the world. And is touching your curls. Come, My hand will clasp your dreaming, Hand, And I shall lead you between the nights. Through the pale mists of childhood, As my father once guided me, To the house of prayer.” This poem captures the loss as well as the sadness that pulls along as someone has died. This poem depicts a person watching another as death and darkness overwhelms them. Vogel wrote his poems for intentions of himself, for the most part. He had a journal of poems found after he died and they were later published, a handful that was while he was living. He wrote about love, and loss, because that's all he knew from having his childhood taken away to losing the only people he had in his life. David Vogel’s poem Here You Sit Beside Me Impacted society with its heartbreaking story of loss and sadness in the Holocaust.
This poem is telling a story, perhaps of someone grieving over the loss of someone lose to them, with no happiness nor hope left to have. “Here you sit beside me, Our shadows have outgrown us. The lamp goes out, The joy already came, already went. Our heart will grieve, We’ll sit here melancholy, Like children greatly punished. Here you sit beside me, Our shadows have outgrown us” Earlier within the poem it states “The joy already came, already went” which is meaning there is no joy left as it was once there, just sadness and sorrow left behind. This poem shows that he, and other people he was with, went through a great amount of sadness and loss because the Holocaust took loved ones and family members away and he may have felt as if he didn't have hope left any chance of happiness.
David Vogel’s text I Saw My Father Drowning impacted society with
his pain from the Holocaust. In this poem Vogel talks about the loss of his father, or anyone at all, and no longer having anyone with him. “I saw my father drowning, In surging days. His weak hand gave a last white flutter, In the distance – And he was gone. I kept on alone, Along the shore, A boy still, With small, thin legs, And have grown as far as this. And now I am my father, And all those waves, Have broken over me, And left my soul numb. But all I held dear, Have gone into the wilderness, And I can stretch out a hand to no one. I am happy to rest, In the black cradle of night, Under the sky’s canopy, Studded with silver.” Vogel is saying that his father died and he had nothing left. He later says that he, is his father, old, that all the sadness and loss in his life, has broken him. As everything had flown over him like waves, the waves being everything he had lost and loved crashing over him, as Vogel said “And left my soul numb.” He also says that he doesn't have anyone to stretch out a hand to, because again, he doesn't have anyone. This poem was written in heartache and sadness for the loss of his father and everyone around him. He wrote it to say that he at in his end and all the pain and loss has “numbed his soul.” How Can I See You, Love, Here You Sit Beside Me, and I Saw My Father Drowning, written by David Vogel, impacted society by telling heartbreaking stories of how the Holocaust affected him.
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
This poem is related to night and the idea of not giving up when all seems lost. The people of Sighet never lost hope until the end, sometimes they are ever too optimistic, “Every encounter filled us with joy-yes joy: Thank God! You are still alive!” (pg. 35). When Elie thought about giving up, dying, whether it be in the last few months of Buna, on the death march to Gleiwitz, or the trains to Buchenwald, he did not give up because of his father, which motivated him to keep on surviving and not give up. And what if he were dead, as well? I called out to him. No response. I would have screamed if I could have. He was not moving. Suddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight.” Elie without
When I read this poem I felt the tone was very gloomy and somber, because the setting of the poem takes place in a cemetery. I also felt sad for the speaker because she felt “left out” as stated in line 15. I did find it peculiar that she used the word left out when referring to all of her family members dying. Pastan uses allusion when she refers to the “grown-up secret” said in line 16. What I think
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One was considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself. Elie Wiesel was considered to be one of those men, for he had his father working side by side with him. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, a young boy and his father were condemned to a concentration camp located in Poland. In the concentration camps, having family members along can be a great blessing, but also a burden. Elie Wiesel shows that the relationship with his father was the strength that kept the young boy alive, but was also the major weakness.
The Holocaust was a tragic event in history which instilled fear and sorrow in so many. This time can be seen as one without order, because the law at the time said the actions taken were just (epigraph translation). A poet was able, however, to take such a chaotic time in history in the poem The Book of Yolek, and create a more personal attachment (for the reader) to the topic. The poet Anthony Hecht has taken the Holocaust (more specifically the moving of Jewish orphans to a concentration camp) and made it simple and nostalgic, taking a more calm approach to the subject ("5th August 1942: Warsaw Orphans Leave for Treblinka"). By using the form of a Sestina (very precise form difficult to properly do), along with the images, rhetorical use of grammar, and the tone portrayed throughout the piece, Anthony Hecht demonstrates a peaceful outlook can be given to the most chaotic moments in human life (Strand et al. 20). However, he also demonstrates the need for emotional attachment when referring to an occurrence (in history) of the past.
Experts estimate that 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, six million of them being Jews; that is approximately two thirds of the Jewish people in Europe killed from 1933-1945. Elie Wiesel, a man who survived the Holocaust himself, wrote the memoir Night in order to remind the world of the horrors that went on through those years, and how humanity must never allow them to happen again. Throughout the book, someone Wiesel discusses often is his own father, Chlomo, whom he remained with throughout the experience. Wiesel tells of what they endure and eventually tells of his dear father’s death. Through all the pain Wiesel suffers in the Holocaust, his father remains his greatest driving force.
Elie Wiesel wrote in a mystical and existentialistic manner to depict his life as a victim of the holocaust in his many novels. Such selections as ‘Night’ and ‘The Trial of God’ reveal the horrors of the concentration camps and Wiesel's true thoughts of the years of hell that he encountered. This hell that Wiesel wrote about was released later in his life due to his shock, sadness, and disbelief. Elie Wiesel spoke in third person when writing his stories. Unlike other Holocaust stories, Wiesel gave not only the facts but also the horrific and realistic feelings of a victim in the camps. All of Elie Wiesel’s novels were based on his life.
World War I and II brought the worst of times for some people; loved ones were lost, families were separated, homes were destroyed, and innocent lives were taken during this time. There are many ways to deal with these hardships; Jewish poet, Avrom Sutzkever, used his hard times as inspiration for his writing and as a way to deal with the war and survive it (INSERT CITATION). This part of history also resulted in other great works of art as a way to deal with what the war brought, during and after the war was over. Avrom Sutzkever wrote his poem “Frozen Jews,” using such dark and depressing imagery, connotation, and diction because of his historical and biographical background.
The text says that darkness is a source of comfort. The poem begins with the line, “In this dark I rest” (Levertov 1). The word rest is stopping movement to relax, to refresh, and to recover strength. The text implies that the speaker is able to relax and find strength within the dark. The connotation of rest suggests comfort; therefore, the speaker is comfortable in the dark. Comfort insinuates familiarity. The speaker is familiar with the dark, which explains why he/she is able to find rest within it. Rest is ceasing to engage in a stressful activity, which indicates that the light causes stress to the speaker. The speaker is "unready" for this stress, so the speaker finds comfort in the dark. The text also hints to a specific darkness. It uses the word “this” to imply that it is a certain kind of darkness that is comforting the speaker. Later in the poem, the speaker talks about silk, “Black silk, shelter me” (5). The silk is black and so is the dark. Silk is also a material that fills up as much space as it can and gets in all the spaces. The darkness is filling up every possible spot it can and trying not
The Holocaust was one of history’s most tragic periods. There were many poems and stories written about this depressing period. In two of these pieces, a poem called “Holocaust” by Barbara Sonek and a novel called “Daniel’s Story” by Carol Matas, the narrators discuss the Holocaust. The authors of both pieces, had used first person point of view, and the perspective added emotion to the pieces. In the poem “Holocaust”, written by Barbara Sonek, the narrator explains the horrible events that he/she and fellow Jewish children went through during the Holocaust. In the excerpt of “Daniel’s Story” by Carol Matas, the narrator Daniel, tells of a specific experience that he went through during the Holocaust. The first person perspective makes the
The phrasing of this poem can be analyzed on many levels. Holistically, the poem moves the father through three types of emotions. More specifically, the first lines of the poem depict the father s deep sadness toward the death of his son. The line Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy creates a mental picture in my mind (Line 1). I see the father standing over the coffin in his blackest of outfits with sunglasses shading his eyes from the sun because even the sun is too bright for his day of mourning. The most beautiful scarlet rose from his garden is gripped tightly in his right hand as tears cascade down his face and strike the earth with a splash that echoes like a scream in a cave, piercing the ears of those gathered there to mourn the death of his son.
the poet is trying to portray the fragility of a life, as it is created with the intent to be lost (death
This Text links to the texts above as like them the author experienced some form of a loss and learnt something from it. Also just like the first text, “Pass On,” by Michael Lee the poet believes that the dead are truly never gone. Neil Hilborn talks about how Punk Rock John saved him and how later he was murdered. This is shown when Neil says, “That first mosh pit was not a quiet conversation about suicide, it was Punk Rock John telling me, “Hey asshole! Don’t kill yourself!”” and later when the poet says, “But then some out-of-town skin dropped a guillotine knife blade into John’s skull. This shows both that he was the poets hero but was also tragically lost. The ending line shows the poets purpose of the text. It says, “As long as I can remember, I will hear him– he says, “kid, you’ll be fine.” This shows that even though this poem is all about loss, it can be overcome and loved ones are truly never gone as long as they are not gone from your memories. The point of this poem was to show that loss is devastating inevitable but can be overcome and that the lost loved ones will always be in your heart. The purpose is also obvious through the overall sad tone of the beginning of the text but the uplifting tone at the end. “Of Mice and Men”, the text below relates to this text as it also captures the feeling of loss although in a different way, through the loss of ultimate
Elie Wiesel was born in Romania in 1928. As an adult, he was imprisoned in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. After Hitler was thwarted and he moved to America his poems were mainly based on his experiences inside the concentration camp, and the way it affected his life once he moved to America. The America I Love is a poem based on his experience when the American soldiers freed them from Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel uses his prior experiences and the way they have transformed him to convey his very prominent feelings in relation to this time in his life.
... place in the house after the death. The line, “Is solemnest of industries” uses the word industry, which conjures an image of an assembly line and a ritual of going through the motions with little thought going into it. The turn before the second stanza shifts the focus from the mourning process to the recovery process. Through the metaphor of “Sweeping up the Heart” like with a broom, the living are urged to clear the pain and sadness out of their hearts. The final lines leave the message that you should not waste your love or emotions about the deceased for when they are dead but to save them until you join them in death. The last line, “Until Eternity-” implies some sort of afterlife where you could share these sentiments with them and see them again, which is enhanced by the use of the dash at the end to lend mystery and uncertainty to what eternity will hold.