Babi Yar 

In the poem, "Babi Yar", Yevgeny Yevtushenko does a
wonderful job of paying tribute to the Jewish victims of
the Holocaust. He does this by portraying the history of
the Jewish people. Yevtushenko also uses various literary
devices to heighten the sentiment of the poem. 

The poem is told in the first person, by the author of the
poem. In the poem it is also apparent that he is addressing
all Russian citizens when he writes "O Russian people". In
this manner Yevtushenko is able to eulogize the Jewish
victims of the Holocaust in front of a wide audience. This
technique also allows him to speak directly to the Russian
people and tell them of their wrongs at the end of the
poem. 

Through usage of the first person he is able to place
himself in the various situations of anti-Semitism in
history. He takes us from Egypt, to the cross; from the
Dryfus affair to the pogroms; from Anne Frank's dark room
to the massacre of Babi Yar. Through all this Yevtushenko
proclaims that "I" was there. This gives the reader a sense
of being trapped in the middle of these horrifying events.
The first person gives an eerie description that a third
person description could not give. 

After he finishes his recitation of past events he begins
addressing the Russian people of the present. He tells them
that in general the Russians are a good hearted people.
But, he goes on to say that there are a minority of
Russians who ruin the good name of the whole. Yevtushenko
contends that these people call themselves "The union of
the Russian people". However, he then goes on to directly
contradict their self-proclaimed name with clever uses of
diction. He claims that the Internationale, or the Russian
"union" song, will only be sung after these same
anti-Semites are dead. In the last lines of the poem he
admits that although he is not a Jew he demands to "let me
be a Jew". Only when he is a Jew can he then go on to "call
myself a Russian". What he means by all this is that the
Russian people are not a group of Jew-haters, but rather a
country of people who feel for the sorrows of the Jewish
people. 

The first stanza is an introduction that tells us the
occasion of the poem. It claims that "There are no
monuments on Babi Yar, A steep ravine is all, a rough
memorial." He then goes on to devote the rest of the poem
as a eulogy to the Jews killed by the Russians. Therefore,
this first stanza gives us the reason why he wrote the
poem. This poem would in fact be the memorial for Babi Yar.
The first stanza also does a terrific job of setting the
gloomy tone for the rest of the poem. He also seems to hint
at the fact that the anti-Semitism that began with the
Christians is the same exact anti-Semitism that has
continued to the present date. The anti-Semitism of Egypt
remained in "her ancient days", but he insists that "I
perish on the cross, and even now I bear the red marks of
nails." His usage of the words "even now" contend that that
specific anti-Semitism continues to the present date. 

In the next few stanzas, sound plays a critical role. In
the first line of the second stanza there is a repetition
of the letter "d" in "Dryfus, detested, denounced". This
sound conjures something approaching from behind you, like
a march. Although, this stanza only affects one man,
Dryfus, but there is the image of something approaching in
the "d" sound. The second line of the third stanza reads "I
seam to see blood spurt and spread". Here we have the
repetition of the "s" sound. This sounds like air escaping
from something, getting ready to explode. Then all of a
sudden there are "The rampant pogrom roars". Things are
getting worse. In the following stanza is a "translucent
twig". The repeated "t" sound is like the ticking of a time
bomb. Immediately after this one reads of the "pounding",
or the final explosion. The explosion creates a "silent"
sound and an "endless soundless" because "thousands and
thousands of thousands are dead". There is hardly anyone
left to attack. Almost all the Jews are dead.