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

you wouldn't have endured the red lace.
But you and the city are both in the grave,
you are silent, Petersburg is silent.
Who will push the stone off the grave?
Lord, Lord: it already stinks…
Who? Not Peter. Not water. Not flame.
Someone is near. He will call.
And out will come the one wrapped in shrouds:
"Loose him. Let him go."
Like "Eternité Frémissante" and "Равнодушие," "Лазарь" suggests the passage of
a considerable amount of time. The poem was first published under the title "Рыжее
кружево (о Петербурге)" in 1923 and dated 8 November (Gippius's birthday), 1922. In
Сияния, however, Gippius not only changed the title to the more universal "Лазарь," but
she included the dates 1918-1938 at the end of the poem, making it one of only two
"dated" poems in the book. While Gippius made a few minor changes to the 1923
version in addition to the new title, the poem is largely the same. The dates thus do not
reflect a twenty-year period of work on the poem, but rather suggest the poem's lasting
effect from 1918 to 1938—from the fall of Russia to the Bolsheviks to the current year,
the time of the publication of Сияния. "Лазарь" thus spans the entire period of Сияния,
marked as both its youngest and oldest poem. All this time, Petersburg has been slowly
decaying; Peter has been rotting away silently on his horse, incapable of resurrecting his
city, covered with the red lace of blood; the poet continues to beg God for the
resurrection of her native land. Russia and the poet still require a spiritual revolution—a
return to the simple truth of Christ who will come and call for all of Petersburg to be
released, as Lazarus was.
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