“The Butterfly” by Pavel Friedmann
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone…
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ‘way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here,
In the ghetto.
Volavkova, Hana. I never saw another butterfly. New York, NY. Shocken Books. 1993.
- Assign one poem from I never saw another butterfly and discuss some of the experiences that the children of the Terezin Camp had.
- Students are to write a letter of encouragement to their assigned poet. They are also to create a butterfly that represents the soul of that poet.
- At the end of the lesson, students will find out whether or not their poet survived the Holocaust or not.
