Classic and Contemporary Poetry
YARILA, by SERGEI GORODETSKY Poet's Biography First Line: First to sharpen the ax-flint they bent Last Line: A new god. Subject(s): Goddesses & Gods; Mythology; Mythology - Russian; Poetry & Poets; Russia; Soviet Union; Russians | ||||||||
First to sharpen the ax-flint they bent, On the green they had gathered, unpent, They had gathered beneath the green tent. There where whitens a pale tree-trunk, naked, There where whitens a pale linden trunk. By the linden tree, by the young linden, By the linden tree, by the young linden, The linden trunk White and naked. At the fore, shaggy, lean, hoar of head, Moves the wizard, as old as his runes; He has lived over two thousand moons. And the ax he inhumed. From the far lakes he loomed Long ago. It is his: at the trunk The first blow. And two priestesses in their tenth Spring To the old one they bring. In their eyes Terror lies. Like the trunk their young bodies are bright, Their wan white Hath she only, the tender young linden. One he took, one he led, To the trunk roughly wed, A white bride. And the ax rose and hissed And a voice was upraised And then died. Thus the first blow was dealt to the trunk. Others followed him, others upraised That age-old bloody ax, That keen flint-bladed ax: The flesh once, The tree twice Fiercely cleaving. And the trunk reddened fast And it took on a face. Lo,this notchis a nose, Thisan eye, for the nonce. The flesh once, The trunk twice Till all reddened the rise And the grass crimsoned deep. On the sod In the red stains there lies A new god. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 259 by LYN HEJINIAN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by JOSEPHINE MILES THE DIAMOND PERSONA by NORMAN DUBIE IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (7. RUSSIA: ANNO 1905) by CHARLES REZNIKOFF TAKE A LETTER TO DMITRI SHOSTAKOVITCH by CARL SANDBURG READING THE RUSSIANS by RUTH STONE THE SOVIET CIRCUS VISITS HAVANA, 1969 by VIRGIL SUAREZ A PROBLEM IN AESTHETICS by KAREN SWENSON THE BIRCH TREE by SERGEI GORODETSKY LINES ON LEAVING THE BEDFORD STR. SCHOOL HOUSE by GEORGE SANTAYANA |
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