"Ich wollte meinen König töten"

A Poem by Sarah Kirsch

This poem, published in 1973, is great to use when teaching the simple past tense. It contains many verbs in the past tense, and the verbs are level-appropriate for third semester students. (wollen, geben, werfen, haben, sollen, gehen, tanzen, etc.) Many of the verbs should be familiar to third semester students. The verbs which are new are in a context that should help the students get to know the newer verbs.

"Ich wollte meinen König töten" is not short, so one could just use a portion of it, but if the content and themes of the poems are to be discussed, the whole poem should be used.

Lesson Plan

The title is discussed first because it immediately gives a lot of insight into the poem.

Here it is noteworthy to point out to students that "wollte" is used and to ask what the meaning of "wollte" is to make sure it is clarified as "wanted to."

One could then ask, "Hat das 'Ich' in diesem Gedicht seinen König getötet oder nicht?" This question should get students to start pondering the significance of "wollte."

One could then ask: If "wollte" was changed to "will" or even "habe ... getötet," how would that affect the title's meaning and/or content of the poem?

For words in the poem which are unclear, they can be glossed or simply talked about as they are encountered. To clarify these words one could act out what these words mean, or define them by using other familiar German words.

There are a lot of action words in this poem like geben, werfen, einbauen, verjagen, verschließen, verbrödern, etc. Therefore, after these words are clarified, one could have the students play charades using these action words. Or the students could even act it out while a narrator reads through the poem.

It would also be beneficial to have all of the students get a chance to act the poem out to involve all the students, but also to see how they interpret what these words mean.

At this point, much about the poem has already been discussed. If the students have not already read the poem out loud for the charades game, this would be an appropriate time to read the poem out loud to the students to make sure they hear the correct pronunciation of the words in the poem, and then have them read it in pairs to each other to practice reading out loud.

Then, one could ask the students when they think this poem was written, and the teacher could give suggestions like 1292, 1517, 1623, and 1765. (The date could be left out when making the handout and then later revealed).

After this, the teacher could have the students describe what kings were like in these different times.

Good discussion questions
at this point would be:

Was ist ein König?
Bin ich ein König?
Bist du ein König?
Wo oder wann gibt/gab es Könige?
    Gibt es viele Könige heutzutage?
Was machen Könige?
Wie ist das "Ich" in diesem Gedicht gelaunt? Glücklich?
    Böse? Geärgert? Gelangweilt?

Warum würde diese Person schlecht gelaunt sein?
Wie könnte ein König Menschen ärgern?
Was ärgert Sie? (This could be linked to a cultural theme, for example, two themes in our book are "Gewalt" and "Märchen," which this poem would make a good transition.)

Ich wollte meinen König töten

Ich wollte meinen König töten
Ich wollte meinen König töten
Und wieder frei sein. Das Armband
Das er mir gab, den einen schönen Namen
Legte ich ab und warf die Worte
Weg die ich gemacht hatte: Vergleiche
Für seine Augen die Stimme die Zunge
Ich baute leergetrunkene Flachen auf
Füllte Explosives ein — das sollte ihn
Für immer verjagen. Damit
Die Rebellion vollständig würde
Verschloß ich die Tür, ging
Unter Menschen, verbrüderte mich
In verschiedenen Häusern — doch
Die Freiheit wollte nicht groß werden
Das Ding Seele dies bourgeoise Stück
Verharrte nicht nur, wurde milder
Tanzte wenn ich den Kopf
An gegen Mauren rannte. Ich ging
Den Gerüchten nach im Land die
Gegen ihn sprachen, sammelte
Drei Bände Verfehlungen eine Mappe
Ungerechtigkeiten, selbst Lügen
Führte ich auf. Ganz zuletzt
Wollte ich ihn einfach verraten
Ich suchte ihn, den Platz zu vollenden
Küßte den anderen, daß meinem
König nichts wiederführe

— Sarah Kirsch (geb. 1935)