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

The poet's spiritual weariness continues to be felt in the third poem of the cycle,
"Жара." The unchanging clarity of the night sky oppresses her with its inevitability; the
Milky Way is a stagnant river in the heat. The poet longs instead for the movement of
clouds:
О, тени Божьих мыслей,—облака!
Я вас любил... И как о вас тоскую! 151
Oh, shades of God's thoughts—clouds!
I loved you…And how I long for you!
In the context of this cycle, the absent, yet longed-for clouds can be seen as
representative of the poet's native sky, turbulent yet alive, home to Gippius's dynamic
faith. They will ultimately bring relief to the poet in the form of the rain of the cycle's
final poem, "Дождь":
И всё прошло: пожары, знои,
И всё прошло,—и всё другое:
Сереет влажно полог низкий.
О, милый дождь! Шурши, шурши,
Родные лепеты мне близки,
Как слезы тихие души.
And everything passed: fires, sultry days,
And everything passed—and everything is different:
The cover of night turns damply gray.
Oh, dear rain! Babble, babble,
Your native murmurs are close to me,
Like quiet tears of the soul.
In Сияния, Gippius replaced the poem's initial title, "Мелькнули дни," with "Дождь,"
highlighting the connections to the previous poem, "Жара." With the rain of "Дождь,"
the oppressive heat of "Жара" has been broken. The soul, filled to the brim with anguish
provides an opening for communication between the poet's internal and external worlds. By slamming the
window shut here, the poet cuts off this channel.
151 These lines recall the opening lines of "Сиянья": Сиянье слов... Такое есть ли?/Сиянье звезд,
сиянье облаков—/Я всё любил, люблю...
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