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

comment. He straightforwardly reports his actions within a steady iambic meter, 67 lulling
the reader with his song and creating a sense of security—a sense which is suddenly
disrupted by the warning of inevitable darkness. The fisherman appears to have no
control over and thus no responsibility for the fated darkness. Muni's fisherman,
however, is openly desirous—he wants only the sun, not simply stars, and he races
through his supply of bait because the sun is too heavy for him to pull out of the water. It
is his self-acknowledged passion that brings about the darkness.
Muni's skazka, while presented by Pereyaslavtsev, appears to stem from
Bol'shakov. When Pereyaslavtsev proclaims his new name, he mentions that he reverts
to his old name only in letters (usually stories) to his niece: только в письмах к
племяннице я—дядя Саша (123). The hesitating tone, the grand desire but inability to
capture the sun recall Pereyaslavtsev's complaints about Bol'shakov—his failure to carry
through with his many passions, his acknowledgement of his own weakness (125). In his
poem, Khodasevich transforms this voice of Bol'shakov, already a sympathetic character
in comparison with Pereyaslavtsev, into a more mystical, idealized figure. By
eliminating Bol'shakov's psychological dismay, he relieves his fisherman of
responsibility and blame. The darkness seems destined, fated for no real purpose.
Khodasevich has claimed Bol'shakov's words—the "truer" words, closer to the "real"
source than Pereyaslavtsev's—and made them purer, more innocent.
By contrast, Khodasevich's poem "За окном—ночные разговоры" adopts the
voice of Pereyaslavtsev:
За окном—ночные разговоры,
Сторожей певучие скребки.
67 The steadiness of this typical balladic meter is due to the rhyme scheme. All masculine rhymes ensure
that the iambic pulse never breaks.
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