THE BOOK OF POEMS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ... - TopReferat

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Give back to me the one I love,
Restore her from the ashes!
Return her under the father's protection,
Even though she is guilty, let her free!
Your purifying cover
Spread out over sinful Russia!
And let me, a stubborn slave,
See her, alive…
Open!
As long as she is in the grave,
I will not leave my Father's door.
Here, the poet's urgent call is not only for the salvation of Russia, but for her own
salvation as well. She needs to see Russia revived; she needs to have her beloved land
returned to her. The poet's cry to free Russia despite its guilt could just as easily be
applied to herself, the stubborn slave. Her fate depends on the restoration of Russia.
Gippius follows "Неотступное" with "Южные стихи," a short cycle of four
poems written between 1923 and 1926 which describes the poet's displacement in a
southern climate, far from home. By the end of the cycle, the poet has moved away from
the desperate tone of "Неотступное." Initially disturbed by the foreign surroundings,
particularly the heat and motionless, clear skies, she eventually finds relief in rain.
A larger cycle of six "Южные стихи" was originally published in Современные
записки in 1924. 149
In Сияния, Gippius kept three of those six poems, changing the
names of two, and added a fourth. These deliberate changes all contribute to the integrity
of the cycle within Сияния as a whole, highlighting connections between the poems and
to the preceding poem, "Неотступное."
149 Современные записки 18 (1924): 100-103
112