The Most Significant Receptive “Node” of Vasyl Stus’ Poetry

Abstract

The article under studies reveals the issue of key arguments that arise while reading the poetry by Vasyl Stus at the time of his ideological persecution and imprisonment, carrying out poetological and comparative interpretation of the verses “Ves obshyr miy chotyry na chotyry…” (“My whole expanse is four by four…”) and “Zazyrayu v zavtra – tma i tmuscha…” (“Looking into tomorrow – darkness and gloom”). The experience of murderous “today” (in the second verse, the paradigm of “today” has been condensed with the “days of remembering”) inevitably leads the poetic thought to the fragmentation of space and time. The latter may be regarded as the very point that gives an almost unmistakable answer to the question about Stus’ verse, which has the right to be called his last one (final). Despite the tragedy of experiencing loneliness and thought of inevitable death in both verses, the projection of time is made in opposite directions. In the first example, it leads directly from the prison cell to the mortal afterlife, while in the second – from the emptied dwelling of “looking into tomorrow” purposefully turns back, finding a life-affirming balance in analogies extrapolated from the episodes of historical antiquity. Therefore, Vasyl Stus does not reveal the theme of existential boundaries in these two verses as the psychology of the pre-death state (“No fear, no pain, no hesitation / before death...”). This theme assumes a philosophical dialogue, communication of a completely different kind, entering ontology, the inner and the boundless space of the author’s spirit, as well as leading both the author and the readers beyond the horizon of the obvious and becoming the most important receptive “node” of his poetics.