Symbolism In A Little Flower, Scorched Pearls By Abraham Sutzkever

Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet who was known as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust.” He was born on July 15, 1913 in Smorgon, Russian Empire, now Smarhon, Belarus. He wrote poetry from an early age, initially in Hebrew. He was among the Modernist writers and artists of the “Young Vilna” group in the early 1930’s. He wrote many famous Yiddish poems. His poems consist of his memories from his childhood in Siberia, his life in the Vilna during the World War II, and his escape to join Jewish partisans. Through his poems, he recalls his early childhood experiences. He became a major figure in Yiddish letters and throughout the world as he was one of the creative artists who had lived through and survived the devastation. His poems are imagistic and filled with metaphors. Through his works in, A Little Flower, Scorched Pearls, and A Moment, the impressions of hardships endured are more symbolic and metaphoric. Abraham uses symbols and metaphors throughout his poems. In the poem, A Little Flower, the first line reads, “For wanting to bring a little flower through the ghetto gate..’ (Sutzkever, line 1). The first line talks about a little flower and it symbolizes resistance. When the Jews tried resisting during the Holocaust, they would

The title itself portray the Jewish civilians and civilization being portrayed as waste and the human image being reduced to worthless skeletons. For instance, in the line, “You blow on the coals of my burning wrath,” it represents the damage that had been done to the Jews. Also, the lines, “of all that lady’s joys, amongst the ashes, only her pearls, scorched grey, remain,” this is an important representation of the ashes of the Jews that had been killed. Also, in my opinion, I believe that it also can be a representation of although the Jews have been killed, what remains forever is their belief and the will to never lose