Society
Through his poems, Andrei Voznesensky expressed his negative view of Communism. However, he was attacked by Nikita S. Khrushchev, the Soviet Union leader and General Secretary of the Communist Party.
For more on Khrushchev and Andrei, click here.
Nikita Khrushchev accused Voznesensky of being a bourgeois formalist and even threatened to exile him.
However, Voznesensky remained steadfast in his goal to give the people - and himself - a voice.
For more on Khrushchev and Andrei, click here.
Nikita Khrushchev accused Voznesensky of being a bourgeois formalist and even threatened to exile him.
However, Voznesensky remained steadfast in his goal to give the people - and himself - a voice.
“He [Khrushchev] said 'work'. This word is my program. What my attitude is to Communism — what I am myself — this work will show.”
'Abuses and Awards'
"ABUSES AND AWARDS" by Andrei Voznesensky
A poet can’t be in disfavor, he needs no awards, no fame. A star has no setting whatever, no black nor a golden frame. A star can’t be killed with a stone, or award, or that kind of stuff. He’ll bear the blow of a fawner lamenting he’s not big enough. What matters is music and fervor, not fame, nor abuse, anyway. World powers are out of favor when poets turn them away. |
"I Am Goya"
One of Andrei Voznesensky's most famous poems is 'I Am Goya', inspired by the horrors of World War II.
“I Am Goya” translated by Stanley Kunitz
I am Goya of the bare field, by the enemy’s beak gouged till the craters of my eyes gape I am grief I am the tongue of war, the embers of cities on the snows of the year 1941 I am hunger I am the gullet of a woman hanged whose body like a bell tolled over a blank square I am Goya O grapes of wrath! I have hurled westward the ashes of the uninvited guest! and hammered stars into the unforgetting sky – like nails I am Goya |
A live performance.
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Rishika Padnani Ms. DaSilva/Ms. Lane Class 9-1