The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Poetry by Michael s> Wachtel (review)

Abstract

514 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 In conclusion, despite the high quality of the writing, it must be said that the volume has significantlacunae: there is no mention of diary writing, for instance, especially diaries that were cultivated and developed over many decades by writerssuch as MikhailPrishvinand Kornei Chukovskii.The text is also marred by sloppy editorial work, with a number of misprints and transliterationalinconsistencies ('Aleksandr'on p. xxxii, but 'Alexander'on p. xxxv; Vasilievich on p. i88, but Vasil'evich on p. I89, to name a few). Nevertheless, the book as a whole offersvaluable new insights into Russian culturaldynamics,and the interactionof historyand culture. Department ofEuropean Studies andModern Languages DAVID GILLESPIE University ofBath Wachtel, Michael. 7he Cambridge Introduction to RussianPoetgy.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York,2004. xii + i66 pp. Bibliography .Suggestedfurtherreading.Indexes. C14.99: $2 I.99 (paperback). THIS book isa student-orientedsequelto the author'sTheDevelopment ofRussian Verse. MeteranditsMeanings from the same publisher (reviewed in SEER, 78, 2000, 1, PP. 138-39). Understandably, there is a degree of overlap between the two works. Wachtel begins his new opus by relating the major Russian poets to the context of their times (pp. 5- II) and highlightingthe key featuresof Russian verse form metre, rhythm, rhyme, stanza (pp. 15-34). The descriptionof metre and rhythm in termsof quaint concepts such as 'scuds','scansion'and 'feet' is almost a century behind the times. More meaningful points of reference in verse theory today are 'word combinations', 'rhythmicalforms', syntaxand partsof speech. The passageson rhyme and stanzaforms,although informative,are fartoo brief.Despite abundant recent scholarlyevidence, there is no awarenesshere of the compromisesthatinevitablytakeplace between formand content. One shapes the other. Such interaction is most obvious in rhyming: similarityin sound is mandatoryyet contrastsin meaning and grammaticalform arejust as important. The remark that the rhyme 'liubov'iu/izgolov'iu', which Mandel'shtam borrowed from Batiushkov, is 'ingenious and rare' (p. 79) is firmlycontradictedby the classicaltradition:it occurs,among otherinstances, in Tat'iana'sletter to Onegin, in Zhukovskii,Tiutchev, Benediktov,Lermontov , Nekrasov,Fet,ViacheslavIvanov, Gumilev, Khlebnikovand Esenin.It is notoriouslycommon among contemporaryRussianpoets. The exposition moves on to explore the variousRussian poetic stylesfrom the point of view of lexicon, sound, images and syntax (pp. 35-49) and then to the evolution of the Russian poetic tradition (pp. 50-62), to shifts in its favouritegenres (pp. 65-94) and to itsthree majorthemes of love, natureand patriotism. The most valuable feature of this introductory study is the discussionof the variouslyricgenresand typesof poetry. These sectionsbegin with a brief characterization of the solemn ode as practised by Lomonosov and subsequentlypersonalized by Derzhavin before it gave way to the elegy REVIEWS 515 early in the nineteenth century. Lyricpoetry subsequentlyfocused on themes ratherthan genres. There is only one remarkabout folkpoetry (p. I7). Indeed, Wachtelwrites that 'Before the eighteenth century, Russia had no viable secular literature' (p. 65). Why then did Pushkinand his contemporariesassiduouslyrecord the folk song tradition? Perhaps this blind spot explains the author's failure to highlightthe essentiallyoral qualityof Russianverse of the past two centuries. As he well knows, educated Russiansdo not merely read poetry. They recite it spontaneously,without referenceto printedmaterials,hence the high levelsof intertextualitythatpervadethe Russianpoetry tradition. The brief discussion of intertextuality itself brings to light some telling connections, such as echoes in Akhmatova of Pushkin, in Sosnora of Derzhavin, in Prigov of Pasternakand in Iskrenkoof Okudzhava (pp. 50-57 and passim). Readers new to Russian poetry might have been offered many more examplesof thistrulysignificantand characteristicphenomenon. The value of thisbook asan 'introduction'to itssubjectmustbe questioned. Despite suggestionsthat it is accessibleto studentswith only a year of Russian (p. ix), it assumes automatically that those same students are sophisticated readers of poetry. Even relatively advanced undergraduateswould find the welterof informationdaunting.ThirtyormoreRussianpoets fromTrediakovskii to Kibirov are briefly quoted each along with an English prose equivalent and several other Russian poets and novelists are mentioned. More than a dozen West European and classical poets, as well as several philosophers,composersand paintersfeaturein the exposition. My own preference would have been a larger number of substantial discussionsof a small range of lyricalmasterpiecesalong the lines of the love poetry Pushkin's'Ia vas liubil . . .', Akhmatova's'Ia ne liubvi tvoei proshu ... ' and Tsvetaeva's 'Popytkarevnosti'(pp. 96-IO9) of...