Three Commentaries on Poems by Mandelstam

Abstract

Grigorii Kruzhkov examined three of Mandelstam’s poems. First, he identifies the various voices in “The Decembrist” (Dekabrist), arguing that this musical quality is an innovation in M’s poetry. Reading “To Cassandra” (Kassandre), he argues that the order of the stanzas was changed to conceal its counter-revolutionary meaning, nevertheless apparent to the attentive reader who could perform the same reading. Third, in the poem “The Apartment” (Kvartira), he deciphers the significance of “Nekrasov’s hammer,” suggesting that the poet identifies with the boy who is hurt when he jumps on a footboard full of nails rather than with Nekrasov, the earlier poet who condemned this practice, or the fine people riding in the new Soviet carriage of state.