Yehuda Amichai and Tourists

Yehuda Amichai and “Tourists”
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Yehuda Amichai and “Tourists”
Yehuda Amichai and tourist is a poem that displays some traits that characterize it as a postmodern poetry. First, the structure of the poem is irregular. It includes the form of verses which shows no adherence to any regular structure. The use of blank verse freely which is split into two parts shows no strictness in the stanzas. For instance, in the first part, there is some flow in rhythm and the length of the line; the second part is efficiently prosed that seems to have an erratic line breaks. This kind of train of thoughts in poetry makes it be usually of a postmodern piece. Also, the break taking place between the first and the second sections shows a change in the way of the Amichai’s thoughts. He moves from overall observation concerning tourist to a particular recollection. “Once I sat on the steps by the gate at David’s tower…” (Amichai, 2016).The poet’s message from the first section of this poem is about tourists who only visit them with fake condolences with the intentions of just having their pictures taken at Jewish memorial “visit of condolences is what we get from them/ they have their pictures taken/ Together with their famous dead” (Amichai, 2016). He speaks about visitors who tour grave memorial which the Jewish considers it a loss not taking it as an important thing since they do not understand their significance in human’s point of view “They put on grave faces at the wailing wall/ And they laugh behind the heavy curtains”(Amichai, 2016).

In the second section the poet talks about the tour guides who just select out anything they think to be a surviving feature of the ancient building, however, it becomes more difficult for them to relate them “A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I become their target maker/ ‘you see that arch from the Roman period/ I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guides tell them. The poet’s thought concerning the tour guides is not successful since he too is being used as a target to tourists “…there sits a man who’s bought fruits and vegetable for his family”.
Reference
Amichai, Y. (2016). Tourists. Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture, 21(4), 116.