The Book of Yolek

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1982

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Sestina

A sestina consists of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy (which can also be called a tercet). Sestinas are usually unrhymed. They create their effect through a complex pattern of repetition of end-words (or terminal words). The end-words in each stanza must be the same, but in each stanza they are arranged in a different sequence. If the end-words of the first stanza are represented as 1-2-3-4-5-6, then the first line of the second stanza must end with 6 (the last end-word in the preceding stanza). The pattern continues as follows: the second line of the second stanza must end with 1, the third with 5, the fourth with 2, the fifth with 4, the sixth with 3. This scheme continues through to the sixth stanza. The end-words of the first three stanzas can therefore be presented as 1-2-3-4-5-6; 6-1-5-2-4-3; 3-6-4-1-2-5. In the three-line envoy, the pattern is usually 5-3-1 or 1-3-5, which are the end-words of the sixth stanza. Each line of the envoy contains two of the six end-words from the preceding stanzas, which means that all six of the end-words appear in the envoy.

In “The Book of Yolek,” the six terminal words, as they appear in Stanza 1, are “meal,” “walk,” “to,” “home,” “camp,” and “day.” (“too,” “tattoo,” and “1942” appear as variants of “to.”) Also, the final letters of five of the end-words spell out the name “Yolek” (the “c” for “camp” is excluded):

Whether on a silent, solitary walK

Or among crowds, far off or safe at homE,

You will remember, helplessly, that daY,

And the smell of smoke, and the loudspeakers of the camp.

Wherever you are, Yolek will be there, toO.

His unuttered name will interrupt your meaL (Lines 31-36).

Hecht varies the regular pattern of repetition of the end-words in the envoy. Instead of 5-3-1 or 1-3-5, he has 6-3-1. In other words, the end-word of the first line of the envoy, “day,” occurs at the end of the sixth line in the first stanza, and so on.

Meter

Much of the poem observes an iambic rhythm, but the meter is flexible and there are many variations. Some lines are regular iambic pentameter. An iambic is a poetic foot in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable; an iambic pentameter consists of five iambic feet. “For Jewish Children, cutting short the meal” (Line 16) is in iambic pentameter. Line 13, although it looks on the page as if it is a shorter line, is also regular iambic pentameter, which can be seen if the year is spelled out as it is pronounced: “The fifth of August, nineteen forty-two.”

In the variations from the iambic rhythm, Hecht employs anapests (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable), trochees (the opposite of an iamb, in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable), and spondees (two stressed syllables). Line 1, for example, is mostly iambic but has a trochee in the fourth foot: “The dowsed coals fume and hiss after your meal.” Line 6 begins with an anapest (“In the deep”) and continues with a spondee, “bronze glories,” before the line closes with three iambic feet. In Line 2, “Of grilled brook trout, and you saunter off for a walk,” the first three feet are iambic, but the remainder of the line contains a trochee (“saunter”) and an anapest (“for a walk”).

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonants in nearby words. Hecht uses the technique on a number of occasions. In Line 4, “weeks and worlds” is alliterative, as is “declining day” in Line 6. Although occurring over five lines, and therefore somewhat separated, in Stanza 5, the powerful words “torments” (Line 26), “tattoo” (Line 28), and “terrible” (Line 30) create an alliterative effect. In Stanza 6, “silent, solitary walk” (Line 31) is alliterative, and the “s” sounds are heard again nearby in “safe” (Line 32), “helplessly” (Line 33), and the “smell of smoke” (Line 34).