Identity catastrophe juxtaposition in leningrad

Poetry

“Leningrad, ” a poem simply by Osip Mandelstam detailing the cruel reality in post-war Russian federation, examines the result of the adjustments on the identity of the narrator, who is forced to consolidate his old thoughts of his hometown of Petersburg plus the unfamiliarity from the new Leningrad following his return. This internal compare is not only within the concept of the the composition, but likewise in its extremely structure, as Mandelstam relies on using competitors in his terminology to illustrate the internal variation faced by the narrator. Juxtaposition is a strategy at the core of Osip Mandelstam’s composition with the poem “Leningrad”, which clashes familiarity and alter to illustrate the way personal identity is definitely relative to encircling.

Through the piece, Mandelstam uses words and phrases that give a feeling of nostalgia and familiarity, although follows associated with harsher keyword phrases that give bad feelings. A good example of this technique are located in the 1st stanza, exactly where it states, “These will be my outdated tears, as well as my own tiny veins, the swollen glands of my own childhood” (Mandelstam 1-2). The concepts in the past, that belong, and childhood are lifted, but put next to words and phrases which has a much more negative connotation, including tears, problematic veins, and swollen glands. This kind of juxtaposition of the nostalgic and oftentimes stylish memories of childhood and home put with other tough phrases produces a picture of the bitter disconnect when the narrator returns to his hometown.

Mandelstam creates one other contrast between seemingly safe commands 1 might listen to in childhood and unfavorable experiences. Inside the second stanza, it scans, “Open large. Swallow as well as the fish-oil from the lake lamps of Leningrad” (3-4). Just as children have much difficulty swallowing medication with the doctor, Mandelstam indicates the fact that narrator has an evenly difficult time acknowledging the changes that contain occurred in his hometown. This is certainly seen in stanza three as well, where it states, “Open your eyes. Do you know this kind of December day time, / the egg-yolk with all the deadly tar beaten into it? ” (5-6). Mandelstam uses another control, and once again uses the egg yolk as imagery by childhood, and shows the negativity of his experience with the “deadly tar”. His use of the typical memory from the past with the help of a unsettling element shows how his past have been clouded by the negative alterations around him. Mandelstam’s utilization of the technique of positioning an innocent sensory control alongside an upsetting experience shows the reader the visceral impression of the situations experienced by the narrator.

The author uses juxtaposition another time in stanzas four and five, in which he contrasts the previous facets of his identity in his city with the idea of death. Impermanent aspects of personality, such as telephone numbers and tackles, are pointed out. In stanza four, Mandelstam writes, “Petersburg! I no longer want to die but / You understand my mobile phone numbers” (7-8). The narrator describes his unwillingness to let go with the past simply by stating that he would not want to die, although the familiar things, including telephone numbers from the earlier, have most likely changed. The author also publishes articles, “Petersburg! I have still received the addresses: / I can look up useless voices” (9-10). Mandelstam once more uses the familiarity of the addresses, and uses the phrase “dead voices”, which in turn likely explains friends and family with either moved or perished during the time that the narrator was away. In the two stanzas, the narrator speaks of facets of his identity in specific regards to his hometown, such as cell phone numbers and address of himself and family members, yet he also introduces the idea of death, forcing him to both equally literally and figuratively look at how the issues and people he used to know are no longer generally there. The way of different these tips of familiarity and change inside the same stanzas works to showcase the interior struggle the narrator encounters when grappling with the changes about him.

The final two stanzas spotlight the internal distinction that the narrator experiences by comparing his fond remembrances of the previous with imprisonment. In the sixth stanza, Mandelstam writes, “I live on backside stairs, and the bell, / torn away nerves and all, jangles during my temples” (11-12). This stanza implies that, though he conceals from the past by living “on back again stairs”, the narrator even now faces a constant and unpleasant reminder with the drastic changes that have occurred in the place he previously called house, akin to the sounding of the bell disturbing his head. The final stanza takes on an identical view, reading “And I actually wait till early morning for friends that I love, / and rattle the door in its chains” (13-14). This kind of stanza intensifies the sentiments in the earlier one by using stronger disconcerting imagery, just like that of rattling “the door in its chains”. It is even now indicated the fact that narrator longs for the familiarity with the past wonderful loved ones who had been there, nevertheless this passage conveys the way the past imprisons the narrator. Because the narrator is always required to juxtapose the alterations in the present along with his fond recollections of his past, he faces an emergency of personality.

The particular poem “Leningrad” examines essentially is the idea of personal identity being linked with a sense of place and home, and the formula of this piece is essential to the illustration of this idea. The juxtaposition used throughout the poem produces a sense of disparity, which can be indicative with the struggle of the narrator, that is forced to constantly contrast his own earlier memories with all the new unfamiliar circumstances. The contrast found in the tips and dialect of each stanza is not only useful, but required to the full comprehension of the function. Osip Mandelstam’s use of accommodement in the structure of “Leningrad” highlights the disaccord between the past as well as the present in order to illustrate the interior experience of the narrator and the way personality is troubled by place and environment.

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