Protocols+by+Randal+Jarrell

Protocols

(Birkenau, Odessa; the children speak alternately.)

We went there on the train. They had big barges that they towed. We stood up, there were so many I was squashed. There was a smoke-stack, then they made me wash. It was a factory, I think. My mother held me up And I could see the ship that made the smoke.

When I was tired my mother carried me. She said, "Don't be afraid." But I was only tired. Where we went there is no more .Odessa. They had water in a pipe--like rain, but hot; The water there is deeper than the world

And I was tired and fell in in my sleep And the water drank me. That is what I think. And I said to my mother, "Now I'm washed and dried.” My mother hugged me and it smelled like hay <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">And that is how you die. And that is how you die.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">--Randall Jarrell.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">In pairs, read the poem and figure out the dramatic irony. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">Answer these questions:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">What is your response to this poem?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">What words made you feel this way?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">How does this poem use dramatic irony and to what effect?