Marco Corrao P.

3 April, 18th, 2016

How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work

developed through the interactive oral?

Throughout his poetry, Yahuda Amichai proposes a deep, critical social commentary on the complex

situation experienced by his country: Israel. Understanding the historic context of Israel’s conflictual

situation, as well as the author’s personal backround, turned out to be fundamental to deeply

understand te scope and style of Amichai’s poetry.

Discussing the concepts of sionism and the U.N. resolutions in Israel- all topics developed through the

Interactive Oral- gave me a broader insight on a key idea expressed in these poems. Amichai sees these

international resolutions as a futile and pointless attempt of foreign countries to decide the sort of

Israel, as though they are moving pawns in a chess board. This idea is well-remarked in the U.N. poem,

where the author pictures these countries while they “get their nourishment from far away/ through

winding pipes, through dark veins, like a fetus”. This powerful image allows the reader to visualize

foreign countries that, while living far away from the conflict, exploit the Middle East by “sucking” the

oil away, like fetuses.

The theme of love is indeed another structural element of Amichai’s poetry. In particular, with “God

Has Pity On Kindergarten Children”, the author blends together the ideas of love, religion and war,

resulting in a powerful point. Amichai stresses out the pointlessness of justifying war and hatred

through religion, which, on his view, should a supreme incarnation of love. Amachai, in other words,

takes responsibility for people’s suffering away from God, and place it on the people themselves. On

this line, he seems to take a strongly critical attitude toward such manipulation of religion, attitude

which appears to be in line with his personal history of enstrangement from Judeism.
Marco Corrao P.3 April, 18th, 2016

Yahuda Amichai’s poetry carries a strong sense of resentment towards the conflict affecting his

homeland. This critical tone reflects on his poetic style, extremely rich in symbolism and embittered

sarcasm. The background information provided throughout the Interactive Oral represents, in

conclusion, a powerful tool to understand this imagery and , thus, to understand the deeper meaning of

his poetry as a whole.