Babi Yar - Analysis Of The Poem

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Babi Yar - Analysis of the Poem

Yevtushenko speaks in first person throughout the poem. This
creates the tone of him being in the shoes of the Jews. As he says in
lines 63-64, "No Jewish blood is mixed in mine, but let me be a Jew .
. . " He writes the poem to evoke compassion for the Jews and make
others aware of their hardships and injustices. "Only then can I call
myself Russian." (lines 66-67). The poet writes of a future time when
the Russian people realize that the Jews are people as well accept
them as such. If you hate the Jews, he asks, why not hate me as well?
True peace and unity will only occur when they have accepted everyone,
including the Jews.

Stanza I describes the forest of Babi Yar, a ravine on the
outskirts of Kiev. It was the site of the Nazi massacre of more than
thirty thousand Russian Jews on September 29-30, 1941. There is no
memorial to the thirty thousand, but fear pervades the area. Fear that
such a thing could occur at the hands of other humans. The poet feels
the persecution and pain and fear of the Jews who stood there in this
place of horror. Yevtushenko makes himself an Israelite slave of Egypt
and a martyr who died for the sake of his religion. In lines 7-8, he
claims that he still bars the marks of the persecution of the past.
There is still terrible persecution of the Jews in present times
because of their religion. These lines serve as the transition from
the Biblical and ancient examples he gives to the allusi...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 08-09-05 9:53am
Category: English
Words: 1043
Pages: 4.17