Women in Evtushenko's Poetry

Abstract

As George Reavey has aptly observed, Evtushenko is a great champion of the ordinary man and has a tender heart for suffering humanity.' This tender heart is never more in evidence than in his many poems about Russian women. He is intensely concerned about women, Russian women in particular, and the subject of women is extremely important in his lyric poetry. The aim of this paper is to examine some of Evtushenko's poems on feminine themes. Many contemporary Soviet poets write about women: Voznesenskii, Slutskii, Martynov and Rozhdestvenskii, to name only a few; but Evtushenko's poems on the subject are somewhat different from those of other poets. While most of them present women in love, this is a minor subject for Evtushenko. The portrayals of women by Voznesenskii tend to abstractions and grandiose images that distract attention away from the woman;2 he treats the subject intellectually. Evtushenko takes the opposite approach. His female characters have specific qualities; they are earthly creatures; their feelings are intense and real. Evtushenko does not distance them with abstract associations. At the same time his poetic I is less personally involved in the action than those of poets like Voznesenskii. Like Voznesenskii, however, he sees women as victims of a cruel fate who are to be pitied or admired. Yet each of them is a unique human being, and there is always a certain tragic touch about each one. Although his female characters are not the beauties that most poets present, Evtushenko dramatizes them in such a way that they appear more moving and attractive than the conventional love-goddesses. Another feature of Evtushenko's poetry which distinguishes him from many poets who write about women is that he is particularly