Mr. G's Lit Blog

“The Hangman, by Maurice Ogden”.

This poem made me think, remember and never forget. This poem was one big metaphor to me. The Holocaust in disguise, people were being killed. Nobody said it was wrong. Bystanders/ most of the world during the Holocaust/ the towns people. What a shame. The Victims/ Blacks, Jews, Disabled, Gays/ The infidel, Jew, Black, alien one and eventually the whole town plus the speaker.

We read a perfect example of how people can quickly become powerful and how we have to act before that power gets to us.

A lesson.

So many hidden meanings and riddles, that it just intrigues me more to read the poem over and over again.

Sick and disturbing mental pictures drive me away from the poem.

I have to know about my past and to make sure that I don't live one day without thinking of those people who died to make my life better today. Jews, non-Jews. I have to be aware and not let myself slip like the town's people in Ogden’s poem.

With this I conclude by saying that “The Hangman” was the best poem I have ever read. I recommend that everybody should read it. All Races, Religions, grannies, grandpas, moms and dads.

Marc L. 6A