Poetry voices the ethical demand through address—second-person pronouns, apostrophe, or witness. The lyric becomes a site of obligation, where attention to another’s suffering or presence interrupts self-absorption, transforming poetic utterance into responsive, intersubjective care.

Ethical demand (Levinas) is the infinite responsibility evoked by the Other’s face—prior to freedom or reciprocity. In poetry, it appears as address that obligates: Merwin’s “Separation,” Forché’s “The Colonel.” The lyric “you” isn’t rhetorical but ethically summoning. Students should analyze how poems stage encounter without reducing Other to object. Related to intersubjectivity, hospitality, and end-in-itself—but more asymmetrical. Professors can link it to witness poetry and trauma studies.