Poetry Podcast

The speaker discusses the poem "Friday Evening" by Zdenek Weinberger, a young boy who died in a concentration camp. The poem reflects the confusion and sorrow experienced in the camp. The speaker relates to the poem because their great-great-grandfather was also in the same camp. The repetition in the poem symbolizes the monotonous and repetitive nature of life in the camp. The spotlight on children emphasizes the horror of the Holocaust. The poem ends with a hopeful tone, but also suggests a desire for revenge. The speaker analyzes the themes of violence and vengeance in the poem. Welcome listeners. Today we are going to examine the poem Friday Evening by Zdenek Weinberger. He was only 15 when writing this, so just a child. We don't know much about him, as he was murdered before he could live a full life, but he has provided us with an invaluable window into his and many others' experiences. This poem is heartbreaking, as it is filled with such genuine confusion and sorrow. My great-great-grandfather was deported to the same concentration camp as Zdenek, Terezin. They were there at the same time, for an overlap of a couple weeks, in fact. The relation between this poem and my family drew me to it. Here's a poem. Friday evening. How long since I saw Harad Kani bathed in the sun? How long since I was a human being? But I wonder today, was it all just a dream? A year now I've been in the Terezin ghetto. A year now I've watched people get destroyed. A year now I've stared at walls cracking and peeling. Before, when the constable guarded the barracks, and no one could enter, and no one could leave, his bayonet was fired, and his eyes full of anger he stared at the streets of Terezin. Saturday. The barracks seething with people. The yard full of children. What's going on? The children will go to their waiting mothers when the forward march is given. The constable walks by them with a rifle and bayonet. At last they stand by the women's barracks, but the command is now given. Go back. Sadly, the children leave their mothers. Mothers they did not even see. It's always this way, with everything. Daily portions of turnips and coffee. Daily, dozens of people die. Why? Why? Why do the innocent die? But the day will come when this all will end. The day will come when we shall live again. The day will come when we shall settle accounts. The speaker uses repetition numerous times throughout the poem to achieve a specific feel. After being pulled from normal life and taken to a concentration camp, the speaker has lost all sense of routine and normality, with every day being monotonous, undecipherable from one another. The repetition of words symbolizes the repetitive nature of his life and surroundings. The poem starts with how long since I saw a Rodkinny bathed in the sun? How long since I was a human being? The recurrence of how long really drives the point that he does not recall when he last saw his own. When we make efforts to be educated on the events of the Holocaust, it is difficult to fully comprehend the crisis. Because of this, it can be startling when we get the insider, especially when the emphasis is placed on children, as the poet himself was born. Having focused on the children, we are left confused, just like the speaker, and everyone involved, as to why on earth anyone would subject children to this horrible life. The speaker asks, why? Why do the innocent die? All of the people being persecuted and murdered were innocent, but nothing symbolizes innocence more than children. They are fresh and untainted. They have not been alive long enough to have done questionable things or to have a guilty conscience. It is a powerful statement to shine the spotlight on children, whom we are biologically ingrained to have more sympathy towards, to really make clear how horrid and terrifying the events of the Holocaust were. The final line of the poem is, the day will come when we shall settle accounts, which adds an entire new dimension to the poem. The general theme of the poem prior to this last stanza is sorrow and confusion, and then it takes a turn towards hopefulness in the beginning of the concluding stanza, saying that eventually they will make it out of here. But the last line has a new tone. The Oxford Dictionary's definition for to settle accounts with is to have revenge on. Not only does the speaker see freedom in their future, he plans for reconciliation or even vengeance. This is a morally gray area. Of course they have been deeply wronged, and it is understandable to want to avenge themselves and those murdered. But revenge only leads to more revenge, which is the beginning of a vicious cycle. Going off of my analysis of the last line of the poem, about how senseless violence will only lead to more violence, even to the point where we forget the original stem, a possible symbolism of this is in the third stanza. 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