In many of the reading so far, we’ve seen nature approached as an omnipotent uncontrollable force. The authors have manipulated an Eden like relationship where nature and wilderness are unobtainable and unconquerable. In “Forest-Lodge,” however, Zabolotsky presents man and nature as equal combatting foes, giving more developmental credit to humanity than the previous authors.

In Forest-Lodge Zabolotsky presents multiple moments of conflict between the natural and the domesticated, each of which shows a stalemate between the two forces. The very title of the poem “Forest-Lodge” is an oxymoron, similar to the famous Green Church in the mid-evil poetic epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Forest implies a natural space and wild space, whereas Lodge signifies a manmade artificial dwelling. A “Forest-Lodge” therefore presents a conflict of the two space, man attempting to domesticate a space within the wilderness.

The representation of animals presents further tension. When the man shoots at “a shaggy creature that loomed at the door,” the mysterious animal’s retreat is juxtaposed with descriptions of the man’s cat springing, “from the sill and hid under the stairs” and the man’s dog growling, “despondently.” The domesticated animals who inhabit a developed space react in fear of nature. Much like the space within forest lodge, they too are separated and distant from their natural and wild beginnings.

Development does not just inhabit natural space but also alters it. As the man shoots at the mysterious creature, “a shot rang out,/ shaking the forest to its foundations.” The man’s gunshot is paralleled to the lighting from the storm earlier in the poem, both being destructive forces but one natural and the other manufactured. Just as the lightning could strike the forest lodge and destroy it, so to can the man fire back at nature.

Zabolotsky leveling of natural and development forces is a novel take on the interaction between Russian culture and the environment. As before we had the perspective of humans being belittled by the grand wilderness, Zabolotsky depicts a combative relationship. Zabolotsky’s “Forest-Lodge” forces consideration of the power of nature in developed spaces, and the continual destruction and domestication of natural spaces.