The Voronezh Poems (1934–7) and the Geometry of Exile

This chapter concentrates on the poems of the First Voronezh Notebook that chronicle exile, starting with the journey into the unknown and transitioning unevenly to the theme of habituation. Drawing on folkloric tropes as well as cinematic devices, the poems represent a hope that the exile might escape through shape-shifting or heroic antics, as well as the fear of oblivion that he faces. One key anxiety and source of inspiration concerns the endlessness of the flat steppe extending from Voronezh, and the poet turns his mind to plotting the geography of exile in relation to the Kremlin, to metropolitan culture, to Voronezh itself, and ultimately to the vast space that threatens to engulf him. Counterpointing poems about human contact and socialization are lyrics that with ‘an eye sharper than steel’ scrutinize space for forms that can be moulded by the imagination.