Imagine waking up one morning to discover a collection of your poetry has been published in another country, without your permission and in a mixed-up order you never would have approved. That’s what happened to Russian poet Osip Mandelstam; his second poetry collection, Tristia, appeared in Germany in 1922, via a friend who had the poems published.
It was beginning to be a dangerous time for Russian poets and writers. The Russian Civil War would continue for another year, although the Bolsheviks were in control of large swaths of the country, including Moscow and St. Petersburg (renamed Petrograd and soon to be renamed Leningrad). Mandelstam was in something of a double bind; not only was he a poet, he was also from a suspect social class. He was born in 1891 in Warsaw. His wealthy parents owned a prosperous leather manufacturing business, and his father won the privilege of being allowed to live in St. Petersburg. That’s where Mandelstam grew up and was educated.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
Sir Raleigh, Storytelling, and the Sea – Alan Howell at Story Warren.
Arthur in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land: The Search for Regeneration – Seth Myers at An Unexpected Journal.
Footsteps – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.
Explore the World of Willa Cather in Her Nebraska Hometown – Jeff MacGregor at Smithsonian Magazine.
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