Part one of term paper
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 mysel ...

Part two of term paper
... 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 ...