SOURCE: Goldstein, Darra. “The Heartfelt Poetry of Elena Shvarts.” In Fruits of Her Plume: Essays on Contemporary Russian Women's Culture, edited by Helen Goscilo, pp. 239-50. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1993.

In the following essay, Goldstein commends the spirituality and sensuality found in Shvarts's poetry.

The world of the unseen, with its spirits and demons, takes on nearly tangible form in the verse of the St. Petersburg poet Elena Shvarts. In visions both playful and somber Shvarts conveys a spirituality that derives from intense exploration of the self. Self-exploration is an attempt at purification—or “circumcision,” as she terms it.¹ But unlike other poets, who typically choose the intellect or the soul for their poetic conceits, Shvarts makes the heart the very physical locus of her musings. This emphasis on the heart, an organ of the body that traditionally has spiritual significance, lends her work passion in both...