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

space is highlighted by the break in meter—the first twelve lines are entirely
amphibrachic except for the seventh line: Мягкою белою церковью.
Lavinia expands the image of the heart as icon lamp to a comparison of her entire
body to a soft white church. Further realizing this metaphor, she describes the crowds of
children and old women who physically enter her womb and bow to her heart. As in the
sister's letter and Lavinia's third poem, she presents a church open to the outside—the
children and old women are like the angel and the bear, the wolf and the passerby.
This association of church and body recalls the equation of Christ's body with the whole
Christian church, capable of uniting both Jew and Gentile. 219
When the visitors leave
Lavinia's body, however, the empty church dissolves in a heap. Her church-like body is a
modest imitation of Christ's body; her heart, like everyone else's, contains only a bit of
the immensity of Christ's love. This attempt to imitate Christ constitutes the narrative
center of Lavinia's book.
Several other poems in Lavinia's book focus on churches and temples, often
highlighting the connection between the holy place and Lavinia herself. In the thirtieth
poem, "Моя молельня," Lavinia describes her ability to create a place of prayer
anywhere—even in the metro:
Свою палатку для молитвы
Я разбиваю где угодно—
219 See Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, 2:13-22, 5:29-30. This letter, while possibly not written by Paul
himself, shares his ecumenical viewpoint: "Gentiles and Jews, [Christ] has made the two one, and in his
own body of flesh and blood has broken down the barrier of enmity which separated them; for he annulled
the law with its rules and regulations, so as to create out of the two a single new humanity in himself,
thereby making peace. This was his purpose, to reconcile the two in a single body to God through the
cross, by which he killed the enmity" (2:14-16). In the next verses, the imagery shifts abruptly to describe
Christ as a building rather than a body: "You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with
Christ Jesus himself as the corner-stone. In him the whole building is bonded together and grows into a
holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built with all the others into a spiritual dwelling for
God" (2:20-22). This and future biblical citations are taken from The Oxford Study Bible (New York:
Oxfod University Press, 1992).
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