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

An unclear noise rumbled, like the captive echo
Of the lake or sea wind.
The fourth full line of this excerpt ("Вновь ощущать все тело, руки, ноги…") is
recalled in the first line of "Вариация" ("Вновь эти плечи, эти руки"). In both cases,
the lyric hero is intensely aware of his own physicality. In both poems he also senses
utter exhaustion ("Струилось вновь во мне изнеможенье" in "Эпизод"; "И вдруг,
изнеможенья полный" in "Вариация"). Thus the soul appears to experience its return
to the body in "Эпизод" in much the same way that it leaves the body in "Вариация."
This cyclical, repeating pattern is highlighted by the use of "вновь" in both poems. The
first word of "Вариация," "вновь" refers both to the literal repeated action of stepping
out onto the balcony and to the earlier experience of "Эпизод." In "Эпизод," "вновь"
brings the reader back to the beginning of the poem—to the pre-episode state of
exhaustion which is mirrored at the end: Изнемогая в той истоме тусклой, /Которая
тогда меня томила, /Я в комнате своей сидел один…(lines 3-5: Languishing in the
dull lassitude that wore me down, I sat in my room alone…). In lines 13-17 of "Эпизод"
the lyric "я" first describes his surroundings (the bookshelf, death mask of Pushkin,
children’s cries outside the window) which return in vivid detail once the episode is over
(lines 68-70: Снова/ Увидел я перед собою книги,/ и маску Пушкина, и снова за
окном/Услышал возгласы.)
While at the end of "Эпизод" the poet apprehends these surroundings clearly, his
first description is clouded by the onset of the episode. The sounds of the world reach
him as if through thick, deep waters: …Громыхали/Салазки по горе, но звуки
мира/Неслись ко мне как будто бы сквозь толщу/Глубоких вод… (lines 17-20:
Toboggans rumbled down the hill, but the sounds of the world reached me as if through
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