Marina Tsvetaeva, Her Life in Poems - Rolf Gross

In December 1915 Marina was invited by the literary journal Severny Zapiski (Northern
Notes) to read her poetry in Petrograd – the name of Sankt Petersburg had been changed
during the War to hide its Germanic origins. -
Literary Petrograd regarded Tsvetaeva as a representative of unsophisticated,
provincial Moscow: A promising, slightly hysterical young woman, who didn't fit into any of
the established literary circles of the capital. She was made to run the gauntlet. Her
appearances and presentations continued to be awkward, especially considering the
skilfully prepared productions of Akhmatova, whom she was compared to at every step. -
Moreover, she shunned glasses and couldn't see her audiences clearly.
Marina was taken from party to party. Kuzmin, the versatile minstrel, grand-uncle, and
co-founder of the Sankt Petersburg literary scene, took her under his wings. He fit equally
poorly into fashionable labels and liked her poetry. Haughty Blok did not attend her
readings, and Gumilyov and Akhmatova were absent at the time. This prevented a first
confrontation with Akhmatova, her life-long rival. Notwithstanding, Marina adored the
divine Blok and revered Akhmatova.
After her return to Moscow Marina wrote a cycle of poems to Blok and a seemingly
embarrassingly extravagant collection of eleven poems to Akhmatova. She ever received a
response from either poet. As an example, two stanzas from her first poem to Akhmatova
should suffice
1.
Oh, Muse of weeping, fairest of the Muses!
O you, chance progeny of a white night!
You send a black blizzard upon Russia,
And our screams pierce us like arrows.
And we jump and emit a dull: Oh! -
Hundredthousands – swear an oath to you: Anna
Akhmatova! This name - an immense sigh,
And it falls into the depth, which has no name.
...etc.
June 19, 1916
The form of the poem hints at Marina's hidden objective: It is an imitation of
Akhmatova's style of writing. In the remaining poems Marina becomes more explicit,
making gentle fun of Akhmatova's diction and subjects. Akhmatova was lauded for her
“classical” structure and subjects - what Mandelstam once called Akhmatova's “hieratic
solemnity”, which appeared stilted and arrogant to Marina. Yet Marina truly and without
jealousy admired Akhmatova.
The differences between the two women lay deeper. Akhmatova concealed her inner
fire behind a reserved constrained harmony, while Marina, the poet of extremes, was
baring her turbulent soul, forever crying out in despair. Characteristcs that Akmatova
viewed with distate.
Marina made few friends on that visit. Besides Kusmin she met Mandelstam and
Pasternak, who had the sense to keep his distance from her, but became her closest and
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