Secondary. Year 9. Seven billion people, seven billion stories:
What makes a compelling life story?
Sequence 1
‘People’ worksheet
Yevgeny Yevtushenko is a Russian poet (also teacher and film director), born in 1933. He is
regarded as an important and talented poet because of the ideas and meaning he conveys through
his poetry, and the way he is able create images, rhythm and emotion through language. For these
reasons, he has also won many awards. Work through these activities and decide whether you
think he has something important to say, and whether the way he has used language works for you.
Literary device
What can you find? What do
you think?
Your response
Repetition
Used to create emphasis or a
sense that life or ideas can be
repetitious, or seen many times
over. 1 Find four key words that have
been used more than once in this
poem.
2 What mood or ideas are
emphasised with these words?
Grammar
Rhetorical questions are used
to make the reader think; short
sentences are used to create a
sense of finality and confidence. 3 Find two examples of questions
the poet uses for effect, and to
get the reader thinking (rhetorical
questions).
4 What does the poet hope we will
think or feel with these questions?
5 ‘No people are uninteresting’
(line 1): Describe in one short
sentence what the poet thinks
makes every life interesting. Cohesion
Created through the repetition of
words and phrases representing
key themes/concepts/refrains,
making them salient and creating
a ‘rhythm’ through the poem.
6 List all of the negative words in
this poem. What is their overall
impact on the emotional content
of the poem?
7 Identify two pairs of antonyms
(words with opposite meanings) in
the poem. What effect is created
by this ‘juxtapositioning’ of these
words?
© 2013 Education Services Australia Limited
Secondary. Year 9. Seven billion people, seven billion stories:
What makes a compelling life story?
Simile
Compares two things using the
words ‘like’ or ‘as’. 8 ‘Their fate is like the chronicle of
planets’ (line 2): Why do you think Yevtushenko is
suggesting that people’s lives are
like the long histories and stories
of planets? Symbols
Symbols are used to represent
something else. For example,
sunshine might be used to
symbolise good fortune, while a
knife might be used to symbolise
violence.
9 Match the symbols in the next
column, using straight lines,
to what you believe they may
symbolise. You may have other
interpretations that are equally
valid. For example, ‘first snow’
and ‘kiss and fight’ might be taken
to symbolise his innocence and
loss of innocence.
First snow
a person’s
knowledge
Kiss
a person’s
creativity
Books
a person’s
journeys in life
Bridges
a person’s
experience
of nature
Painted
a person’s
canvas
stories of love
Machinery a person’s
battles in life
Fight
tools a person
has used
10 If this poem was about you,
what are five symbols you would
use to suggest what is most
significant in your life? Your symbols:
11 Try to come up with five
symbols for your life that are
equally varied. (For example,
someone might come up with
maps, bikes, piano, tears and
spaghetti. Another person might
choose surgery, writing, fishing,
grandparents and rap.)
1.
2.
3.
Notice that Yevtushenko has
attempted to use diverse symbols
to pick up on many aspects of life. 4.
5.
© 2013 Education Services Australia Limited