Bely, Andrey - G. S. Smith (essay date 1987)
G. S. Smith (essay date 1987)
SOURCE: "Bely's Poetry and Verse Theory," in Andrey Bely: Spirit of Spiritualism, edited by John E. Malmstad, Cornell, 1987, pp. 243-84.
[In the following excerpt, Smith elucidates the factors that have inhibited critical attention to Bely's poetry, in particular the poet's extensive revision of his work.]
It is a remarkable and suggestive fact that we do not seem to possess an extended analysis, a close reading, of any single one of the 500-odd lyric poems published by Andrey Bely. One of his two longer poems, The First Encounter (Pervoe svidanie, 1921), has received more adequate critical attention; the other, Christ Is Risen (Khristos voskres, 1918), has not. Circumstances have combined to foster either partial studies with a narrow thematic focus or generalizing works that wrench small quotations out of context and make broad summary judgments. The prose works have always been...
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