Among the myriad of lyrical poems assigned for Friday, Pasternak’s were my favorites, especially following the interesting discussions we had today. With the hopeless tone set by stories like The Last Rendezvous and Will, I was in the perfect mindset for the poem entitled “Hamlet” (from Dr. Zhivago). The final stanza resonates:  “And yet the order of the acts is planned, the way’s end destinate and unconcealed. Alone. Now is the time of the Pharisees. To live is not like walking through a field.” The dejected realization of destined human struggle is heavy and poignant.

This concept tied in nicely, I thought, with Akhmatova’s two works “I have a certain smile” and “When a Man Dies.”  The speaker grapples with the smile, an inherently beautiful human trait, a symbol of life and vivacity, and how a “certain” smile can mean different things to different people. A smile is one of the most profound symbols of love: “I don’t care that you’re brash and vicious, I don’t care that you love others.” This declaration proves a beautiful prelude to the latter poem, as the speaker ponders the only time humans break from their mortal shackles, their lyrical fate written from birth, is in death: “His eyes look in a different way, his lips smile a different smile.”

The shift of these tones represents a gorgeous self awareness.