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This poem by Carol Ann Duffy serves as a plea to humanity to not repeat the horrors of the past, specifically the Holocaust. It recounts the firsthand horror witnessed by a Jewish woman as she waits for her death, highlighting the violence and atrocities committed by the Nazis. The poem emphasizes the need for remembrance and the importance of learning from history to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
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What do you think the poem might be about? • Consider the title. • What are the connotations of ‘shooting stars’?
Poem Context • ‘Shooting Stars’ by Carol Ann Duffy was written by the poet as a plea to humanity not to repeat the horrors of the past.
The poem is a recount of a Jewish woman as she waits for her death. • The woman describes the first hand horror of the violence that she witnesses.
The Holocaust The systematic, bureaucratic state sponsored persecution and slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazi’s and their collaborators.
Not just Jews: • Communists • Socialists • Gypsies • Homosexuals • Disabled – physically and mentally.
Racial Superiority • The Nazi’s believed that anyone who could be labelled as ‘racially inferior’ needed to be cleansed in order to protect the ‘Ayran race’
Einsatzgruppen • These were mobile killing units that carried out mass murder operations in Eastern Europe. • Large groups of people were rounded up and force to dig trenches. They would then stand on the side and were shot. • They literally dug their own graves.
Gas Vans • Victims were herded into converted lorries and vans and taken for a drive • The carbon monoxide produced by the engine was then pumped into the van killing all the people inside. • A long slow death.
Gas Chambers • The introduction of Zyclone B gas (prussic acid) allowed the Nazi’s to murder vast numbers of inferiors in a relatively short time.
Total estimated victims • 6 million Jews • 3 million Soviet POWs • 2 million ethnic Poles • 1 million others • Estimated over 12 million victims
Shooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy Other poems by Carol Ann Duffy include: • ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ • ‘Stealing’ • ‘Valentine’ • ‘Havisham’ • ‘War Photographer’
After I no longer speak they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring. Rebecca Rachel Ruth Aaron Emmanuel David, stars on all our brows Beneath the gaze of men with guns. Mourn for our daughters, upright as statues, brave. You would not look at me. You waited for the bullet. Fell. I say, Remember. Remember those appalling days which make the world forever bad. One saw I was alive. Loosened his belt. My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear. Between the gap of corpses I could see a child. The soldiers laughed. Only a matter of days separate this from acts of torture now. They shot her in the eye.
How would you prepare to die, on a perfect April evening with young men gossiping and smoking by the graves? My bare feet felt the earth and urine trickled down my legs. I heard the click. Not yet. A trick. After immense suffering someone takes tea on the lawn. After the terrible moans a boy washes his uniform. After the history lesson children run to their toys the world turns in its sleep the spades shovel soil Sara Ezra… Sister, if seas part us, do you not consider me? Tell them I sang the ancient psalms at dusk inside the wire and strong men wept. Turn thee unto me with mercy, for I am desolate and lost.
Identify any techniques used in your stanza • Imagery • Structure • Word choice • Tone and/or sound techniques Highlight and annotate examples of the above techniques.
