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

дня," "Сны"), the later editions emphasize successful moments (“Эпизод,” “Вариация”)
in which the lyric persona achieves a complete separation of body and soul. These
epiphanies enable the soul to observe and contemplate its earthly self from a higher
plane. I will discuss these poems in more detail when I address the changes made to the
1921 edition of Путем зерна. Here I suggest that while Muni's experiments with
двойничество were driven by an inability to deal with the “real” world, Khodasevich’s
gradually prove helpful in synthesizing the spiritual and the physical realms—in finding a
way to live. "Рыбак" has no such helpful attributes. With its bleakness and
hopelessness, it no longer belonged in Khodasevich's reconceived book.
Changes to the 1921 edition of Путем зерна
The second edition of Путем зерна is very close to the first—Khodasevich adds
six poems, all but one written after the publication of the first edition, and he eliminates
one. Of the six new poems, only two remain in the final edition of Путем зерна:
"Вариация" and "Дом." In this section of the chapter I will show how these two poems
fit organically into the final version of Путем зерна. Khodasevich acknowledges the
"way of the grain" in each of them, expressing a hopeful understanding of the universal
cycle of death and rebirth. By contrast, the new poems later excluded from the final
edition ("Газетчик," "Как выскажу моим косноязычьем," "Сердце," and "Старуха")
are mired in the personal despair and anguish more typical of Khodasevich's early poetry.
In 1921 Khodasevich was suffering through one of his worst periods of furunculosis. His
physical and emotional pain is reflected in these tormented, cynical poems—poems
which, once separated from his immediate biographical circumstances, no longer find a
place in the more wide-reaching final edition of Путем зерна.
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