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

does now, in exile, but it is seemingly impossible. Her soul is tied to her native land,
incapable of finding a place in the peaceful south.
When initially published, the poem was titled "Сумерки," also suggesting the
mixed nature of the poem—the light of the south and the darkness of Russia mingle
together in the twilight, the convergence of day and night. The new title, however,
focuses the reader's attention on the last lines of the poem which are concerned with the
fate of the poet's native land. This emphasis on the final emotional, personal address
connects "За что?" more directly with its antecedent, "Неотступное," and suggests that
the poems which follow, while not making direct reference to Russia, are also informed
by the poet's despair for her native land.
In the second poem of the cycle, "Лягушка," the poet listens to a frog, imagining
she might discover a new understanding of the world hidden in the frog's secret language.
In the end, however, she rejects this foolish notion, blaming it on the murkiness of the
southern night:
Но я с досадой хлопаю окном:
Всё это мара ночи южной
С ее томительно-бессоным сном...
Какая-то лягушка! Очень нужно!
But with vexation, I slam the window shut:
All this is just the murk of the southern night
With its oppressively-sleepless sleep…
Some frog! Very necessary!
By slamming shut the window, the bridge between her internal and external worlds, 150
the poet has, in effect, closed herself off to her spiritual life.
150 Matich has described the image of the window in Gippius's poetry as a symbol of the poet's isolation or
seclusion. It separates her from the rest of the world: "By virtue of the window, which is usually high
above the ground, the poet is put into the position of a remote observer who looks at the outside world
through her window-keyhole." Matich, Paradox, 89. While the window does indeed separate, it also
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