Summary Of The Poem Overload By Lily Brett

Poets express their concerns about human suffering, the cruel nature of Nazis and the living conditions of War camps through the use of poetic devices in order to create a response in the readers. Through poetic devices used by Lily Brett and Trish McCallister, they make the reader sympathise with the victims of World War Two, specifically the Jews, and they create hatred towards the Nazis and their actions towards these victims.

The poems Sport and Arbeit Macht Frei both written by Lily Brett convey the poor living conditions that many Jews had to endure in during their time in camps. In the poem Sport, Brett used imagery to convey how torturous and demeaning these exercises were to the Jews, by discussing the ‘ragged pack of eager gymnasts’

In the poem, Overload written by Lily Brett made the readers question the morality of the Nazis, as the poem conveyed the utter disrespect for the victims, as they were ‘burning for five hours’. This imagery helps convey the idea that the Nazis treated the Jews, or their corpses, with respect or dignity they deserved, which led the readers to feel socked and hopeless. Lily Brett’s other poem, Children II, presented the idea that the Nazis didn’t care who died, and they found it easier to kill the children, which questions the psychological side of the Nazis, as it should be harder to kill children because of their innocence. Additionally in the poem Overload, the onomatopoeia helps emphasise the Nazis malicious actions against the Jews, as the ‘hissing, spitting, glistening’ bodies were burned. The ‘hissing, spitting, glistening’ assists the readers to comprehend what the fire and bodies would have looked and sounded like. Furthermore, in the poem Children II, Brett uses the poetic technique onomatopoeia to communicate the children’s dreadful deaths, as the Nazis were ‘snapping their backs’ and ‘flung into the air’. Onomatopoeia helps express the tragic acts of killing the innocent and vulnerable children, which leaves the reader to resent the cold-blooded Nazis, as the readers believe it is harder to murder children than

The poem Another Selection expresses the idea of countless malnourished Jews, the personification of the ‘mourning’ snow covered in black ash conveyed how there are similarities between the ‘rows and rows’ of Jews. The black ash represent misery that has come over the Jews whom were once happy, this personification helps the reader to relate to the Jews in this situation. In The Dream, McCallister creates a flashback sequence throughout the poem, which enables the reader to comprehend the feelings of the victims, before, after and during World War Two. From her mother’s point of view, she describes fear as her ‘constant companion’, which suggests the idea of strong motherly instincts, the personification of ‘fear’ conveys the idea that there is so much fear that it creates the shape of a human, and it is always at her side. This helps the reader to feel sympathetic and compassionate towards her mother. Furthermore, Another Selection Lily Brett uses imagery of the ‘rows and rows’ of Jewish victims which suggests the sheer amount of victims of the Holocaust, which affects the readers in which they feel saddened by the idea of the enormous size of victims. McCallister’s poem The Dream includes many imagery ideas throughout the poem, yet at the end there is simple imagery as she ‘wakes up with the sun’, which