The plot code of two poems about the «non-meeting»: «Essay of a room» vs «Spektorsky»

The paper deals with similarity and difference between two works of Russian poets of the first half of the 20th century - «Popytka komnaty» («Essay of a room») by Tsvetaeva and «Spektorsky» by Pasternak. Tsvetaeva’s poem is considered to be one of the complex texts of the author and resembles a shorthand copy of the night dream which can’t be interpreted logically. In her letter to Pasternak, Tsvetaeva declares that the whole poem is directed to him with «consciousness and will» and asks to check the «poetic authenticity of every line». The code of the plot of the poem is related to the motive of an imaginable meeting of the two poets which appears to be a «non-meeting». Responding to Tsvetaeva’s request Pasternak uses the main motives and images of «Popytka komnaty» for «Spektorsky». He kept the code of the plot of the poem and deformed Tsvetaeva’s mythopoetics. Pasternak used the principle of extensiveness, giving epic character to the image. Poetics of Tsvetaeva, on the contrary, assumes intensity, submitting the depicted world to the author’s will. Collision of opposed approaches led to poetic confrontation and conflict. In the final part of the poem «The bus» Tsvetaeva fights against Pasternak’s mythopoetics. Despite the friendly nature of personal relationships of the two poets until the tragic death of Tsvetaeva, their art models in the 1930s didn’t coincide.

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