SOURCE: "Marina Tsvetaeva," in Poets of Modern Russia, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 132-58.

In the following excerpt, France examines subjects, themes, and literary techniques in Tsvetaeva's poetry.

Tsvetaeva compares poetic significance with poetic greatness:

A significant poet is what anyone—any significant poet—can be. To be a significant poet it is enough to have a poetic gift of significance. To be a great poet, even the most significant gift is too small—he needs an equivalent gift of personality—of mind, soul and will—and the aspiration of the whole personality towards a definite aim; that is, its organization. But a lofty poet is something that even a quite insignificant poet, bearer of the most modest gift, can be—like, say, Alfred de Vigny—by the power of his inner worth alone winning our recognition as a poet. In that case the gift was just big enough...