Never Shall I Forget

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1958

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem is in free verse, so, as the name implies, Wiesel is free to make his lines as long or short as he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about meter (the rhythmic or syllabic structure of a poem), nor does he have to rhyme. The free verse contrasts with the content of the poem, however, as Wiesel himself isn’t free. He’s trapped in Auschwitz, surrounded by death and inhumanity. The difference between the subject matter and the form and meter creates tension and highlights the sinister, “sealed” (Line 2) world inhabited by Wiesel and the other prisoners. Wiesel can express his horror however he wants, but he remains stuck in Auschwitz. There isn’t a line long or short enough to get him out of his predicament.

The free verse speaks to the absences present throughout the poem. Night, for example, symbolizes the lack of compassion and justice. The laws and boundaries that Wiesel thought governed society aren’t there. In the poem, the lines don’t have to adhere to rules or boundaries. Some lines are long and look like they could go off the screen or page, while other lines are short—as if they just received an extremely close haircut. The varying line lengths also support the poem’s heightened tone. Wiesel’s emotions are on sharp display, and the drastically different lines emphasize Wiesel’s unmitigated inner turmoil.

Anaphora and Repetition

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or clauses to illuminate an idea. The device is used prominently in many religious devotionals, including the biblical psalms. In the poem, anaphora occurs with the phrase “Never shall I forget,” which starts Lines 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 11. The phrase highlights the theme of Trauma and Indelible Memories. Wiesel repeats the phrase because he can’t forget the horrors he experienced in the Holocaust. He can’t leave them behind or move on from them. They follow him everywhere in life, and through the phrase, the memories follow Wiesel and the reader through the poem. Wiesel can’t forget, and the reader shouldn’t forget, and the repetition of the phrase makes it easy for the reader to not forget.

Though the poem has no rhyme or meter, the repetition of “Never shall I forget” gives the poem a melody. It turns the lyric into a funereal chant, with the phrase serving as a stable beat that creates a certain rhythm.

A word that Wiesel repeats outside of anaphora is “night,” and it occurs three times in Lines 1-2. The term links back to the title of Wiesel’s best-known book, and it draws attention to the symbolism behind night, namely isolation from goodness, lightness, or justice. He also repeats “silence” (Line 7), or “silent” (Line 5), and “smoke” (Lines 3, 5). The repetition serves to paint a clear image of the dark, silent, smoke-filled night that changed Wiesel forever.

Allusion

Allusion is a literary device a writer uses to reference certain things, places, or subjects outside of the text. Typically, they don’t explicitly name them, but they suggest them. Allusion adds meaning and depth and allows readers to make connections and get the reward of putting the figurative puzzle together. Wiesel doesn’t mention gas chambers or crematoriums in his poem, but he alludes to them with terms like “smoke” (Lines 3, 5) and “flames” (Line 6). The allusion creates a haunting atmosphere, and it’s up to the reader to identify the unnamed horror. If Wiesel included words like “gas chamber” or “Auschwitz,” the poem might feel more like a history lesson. Instead of explicitly telling the reader about the terror of the Holocaust, Wiesel leads the reader in the direction of terror, trusting that the reader can connect the proverbial dots.

The allusion works because of Wiesel’s visibility and widespread awareness of the Holocaust. A person doesn’t need a PhD to have heard about the Holocaust and understand its components. As Anita Lobel says in No Pretty Pictures, Holocaust documents and products saturate Western culture. Thus, Wiesel can use allusion because he can presume the reader already has basic knowledge of the event.

Another example of allusion in the poem, though one less immediately recognizable, is the allusion to the Seven Seals of God mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Revelation. In Lines 1-2, Wiesel states that his life has been turned into “one long / night seven times sealed.” The purpose of this allusion is to compare his experience of the Holocaust to the end times signaled by John of Patmos’s vision of Jesus Christ breaking the Seven Seals and releasing apocalyptic events onto the world.