So recently, as a means to facilitate growth in my own creative abilities, I picked up journaling. This is something I do every day, writing down anything that comes to mind. A verse, a snatch of poetry, things that pissed me off that day, etc. Having a creative outlet right at my fingertips is still so fascinating to me. The fact that anything I write can become a masterpiece is the type of poetic inspiration that I feel many of the authors we've read possess. So I sought out a female poet who was a known diarist in order to tie this in to our course.
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian Soviet poet from the early 1900s to her death in 1941. She survived the Russian Revolutions of 1917, witnessed the steady decline of Europe and growth of Nazi power, saw her husband arrested for espionage, and committed suicide shortly thereafter. The entire time, she was journaling, collecting her thoughts for poetic work. One of her poems from 1915 struck me as the sort that would come about from some physical observations she made and recorded.
I Know the Truth
I know the truth - forget all other truths!
No need for anyone on earth to struggle.
Look - it is evening, look, it is nearly night:
what will you say, poets, lovers, generals?
The wind is level now, the earth is wet with dew,
the storm of stars in the sky will turn to quiet.
And soon all of us will sleep beneath the earth, we
who never let each other sleep above it.
In short, this poem discusses the inevitability of death and the passing of time, perhaps describing the decline of the economy and social stability of the Russian Empire. As well, the line "we/ who never let each other sleep above it" could also be referring to the combative and aggressive nature of mankind, and the inevitability of war.
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva is an interesting woman who had a lot happen in her short life. A common theme that I remember from high school is that a lot of her work is very personal, dealing with issues that have occurred in her own life; not from many other peoples prospective. It is important to consider the titles and dates of Tsvetaeva's poems, then looking into the history and what is going on in her personal life. With that being said, I believe your reading of this poem nearly spot on. Socially and economically, Russian Empire was on a decline at this time, implying that the civil war did not start until 1918. Tsvetaeva also informs that she and other people know the hard oppression that they are under. The people are not happy with it and the potential of war is effecting people physically and emotion, some people dying, being put back in Earth where they will rise into the same oppression.
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