Many contemporary Soviet poets write about women … 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…. 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 an unique human being, and there is always a certain tragic tone 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 fascinated by old women, those whose lives are filled with experience and on whom time has left its mark. He observes every reflection of their eyes, every movement of their hands, the color change of their faces. He is an astute psychologist in that he, like Gogol' and sometimes Tolstoi, uses outward signs to disclose the inner world of his characters. (pp. 320-21)

Love poems are relatively rare in Evtushenko's poetry. Most of them can be found in his earlier collections. In the 1959 edition of Stikhi raznykh let [Poems of Various Years] there are about a dozen poems dealing with love. The treatment of that theme seems artificial, however, the reader is not impressed. On the other hand, these poems do show the poet's maturing powers of observation and especially his attention to detail already being used as a means to penetrate more deeply into the nature of feelings and situations. (p. 322)

The colloquial speech used in all [Evtushenko's] poems and the carefully chosen detail of the scenes of Soviet life make the portrayal of the women come alive convincingly.

From his presentation of Russian women we deduce that they are no different from other women in the world, who all need love and care. But the different environment of the Russian women has certainly laid its mark on them. Evtushenko has caught the grotesque contrast between the theory and the reality, which has produced courageous and strong women, qualities that make them the "best men." According to Evtushenko, suffering, patience and loving hearts, which remain unhardened by everyday struggles, have ennobled these simple women. (pp. 332-33)

Although the tone of his lyrics is usually sad, when he is depicting these women's struggles against all kinds of misery, the sadness at times gives way to an optimistic, almost joyful mood, as is the case in "Po jagody," "Zhenshchina i more" and other poems. Suffering is a sign of life. That Russian women seem to master the impossible and survive enables Evtushenko to see them as superior human beings. (p. 333)