magic, in most of the translations as associated
with the speaker, which again draws a contrast
with the supposedly more ordinary woman that
the ex-lover is now with.
Stanza 12
The lover, however, has renounced Lilith and her
powers and now, according to the speaker, must
content himself with a bottomless pit, which
sounds like Hell. As the poem draws to a close,
the speaker seems almost to feel bad over this
possibility, that her former lover may be in a hell-
ish relationship; she uses an endearment in asking
her second-to-last question. And her last question
suggeststhatiflifeishard for the ex-lover,itisalso
hard for her. For a moment it seems that the
speaker has put aside the vengefulness and spite
that seems to be motivating her and is expressing
empathy for her old lover’s plight.
But then the last phrase of the poem seems
an attempt to reestablish the speaker’s superior-
ity and distance from her former love. After
suggesting that life is hard for both of them,
she turns the final question into a statement
that she is with another man. This is a hard life
perhaps, because she would prefer to be with her
ex-lover, but she has moved on and found some-
one new and thus does not need her ex-lover. It is
a dismissive statement, suggesting that the
speaker has no need for jealousy because she
has turned her eyes in a new direction—and yet
of course she has written a whole poem about her
ex-lover, such that she may not really be over
him. Life must still be hard for her; her new man
must not be consolation enough.
Themes
Jealousy and Abandonment
As the title suggests, the whole poem is about the
speaker’s jealousy over the ex-lover’s abandon-
ment of her for another woman. It is not an
entirely original theme for a poem; in Victorian
England, Alfred Tennyson, for one, built one of
his famous poems, ‘‘Locksley Hall,’’ on the basis
of his speaker’s unhappiness over a romantic
rejection. However, whereas Tennyson uses his
speaker’s jealousy as a jumping-off point leading
into discussions of the social and political state
of England, Tsvetaeva’s poem stays resolutely
fixed on the notion of jealousy and abandon-
ment and in stanza after stanza conveys the
speaker’s feelings of hurt and pain over the sit-
uation, feelings only slightly masked by a surface
layer of contempt and indifference. Over and
over she suggests that she is highly superior to
her rival, as if not understanding how her lover
could have left her for such a rival. And as a form
of revenge for her abandonment, she imagines
her lover suffering almost physically and cer-
tainly paying an emotional price for choosing
another over her.Nostalgia
By implication, Tsvetaeva’s poem is a celebra-
tion of the past, of a time of majesty, grandeur,
and divinity. Her speaker conjures up numerous
images of what the relationship of that time used
to be like for the departed lover. It was likeTOPICS FOR
FURTHER
STUDY Write a poem about feelings of jealousy and
abandonment in the wake of a failed romance.
Research the different political movements
competing in Russia on the eve of the revo-
lutions in 1917. What happened to them?
Did any of them survive outside of Russia?
Write a paper detailing your findings,
including whether any political movements
from before 1917 have followers in Russia
today.
Research the different literary movements in
Russia in the early decades of the twentieth
century. What happened to them? Did any
of them influence literary movements out-
side of Russia? Write a paper detailing your
findings, including whether any literary
movements from before 1917 exist in Russia
today.
Research the mythological figure of Lilith.
Find out if she appeared in any other literary
works of the era of Tsvetaeva’s poem. Write
a paper detailing your findings, including
the different ways Lilith has been portrayed.AnAttemptatJealousy