divine experience; Carrara marble suggests a
grand work of art, contrasting with cheap plas-
ter; and references to the marketplace create an
image of the vulgar hustle and bustle of ven-
dors—the life the lover has chosen in contrast
to the more glorious one suggested by the
imagery about Sinai and a throne.
The image of the reins of Zeus on the lover’s
forehead and the reference to an ulcer or wound
are somewhat different but still fit in with the
theme of jealousy and revenge. They suggest
pain and suffering for the lover, something the
speaker seems to wish on him.
Only one image in the poem neither glorifies
the speaker and the old relationship nor casts
aspersions on the rival nor depicts pain for the
lover: the opening image about rowing, which
seems such a neutral, peaceful image of the lover
pulling away from the coastline that is the
speaker. Perhaps this neutrality is meant to sug-
gest that the rupture with the old world can seem
to be quite peaceful, yet, as the rest of the poem
suggests, it may in fact be something cata-
strophic. Or this image can simply represent the
speaker warming up, speaking in neutral tones
until her emotions overtake her and lead her into
more intense images.
And yet even that opening image of rowing
away contains something violent in it, for it is
described by referring to the stroke of an oar.
The use of the wordstroke, found in at least four
published translations, though in context just
what an oar does in the peaceful act of rowing,
does suggest a striking or a blow. Thus, even at
the beginning there is a hint of the anger that is to
come.
Pointed Metaphors and Allusions
Most of Tsvetaeva’s uses of imagery in her poem
also serve as examples of her use of metaphor
and allusion. To mention Sinai is to allude to the
biblical story of Moses and God on Mount
Sinai. To speak of the reins of Zeus is to allude
to the king of the Greek deities, and the mention
of Zeus’s reins on the lover’s forehead is a meta-
phorical description of him as some sort of ani-
mal, perhaps a horse, pulling a chariot.
Similarly, the mention of Carrara marble is
both an allusion to a famous building material
and also a metaphor in which the speaker
becomes this famous and superior building
material, while her rival metaphorically becomes
much less valuable plaster dust. To call oneself a
queen or sovereign is also to use metaphor, as it
is to implicitly compare bad conscience to an
ulcer or wound.
A special type of metaphor calledsynec-
dochemay be at work in stanza 8, when the
speaker asks the lover if he still sings. This may
simply be a literal question, but singing, which
she implies he is no longer doing, could represent
something more. In asking if he still sings, she
may be asking if his whole relationship is joyful
and exultant. The singing, or lack thereof, is thus
seen as representing the whole relationship.Enjambment
More than once in her poem, Tsvetaeva uses
enjambment, running a sentence from one
stanza into the next. This is not so uncommon
a practice in modern poetry, in contrast with
more traditional works, in which thoughts and
sentences more often end and remain in one
stanza. In Tsvetaeva’s case, the enjambment
may reflect the passion of the poem, which
leads to the thoughts overflowing the bounds
of the stanzas.Historical Context
Prerevolutionary Russia
Tsvetaeva lived through difficult times in her
native Russia and abroad. During her childhood
and adolescence, protests against tsarist rule in
Russia culminated first in the failed revolution
of 1905 and then in the two revolutions of 1917,
the February revolution, in which the tsar was
overthrown and replaced with a liberal provi-
sional government, and the October revolution,
in which the Bolsheviks or Communists took
power, leading to the civil war between the Red
Army of the Bolsheviks and the White Army of
their opponents.
Before the 1917 revolutions Russia had been
a place of ferment in both the political and liter-
ary spheres. New political parties sprang up, and
the government experimented with representa-
tive government, while in the literary sphere the
conventional realism of the nineteenth century
was challenged by a number of modernist move-
ments, including symbolism, acmeism, and
futurism.AnAttemptatJealousy