SOURCE: Sandler, Stephanie. “Review of Dikopis' poslednego vremeni, by Elena Shvarts.” World Literature Today 76, no. 2 (spring 2002): 224-25.

In the following review, Sandler examines themes of grief and loss in the poems of Dikopis' poslednego vremeni.

After the scorching poems of Solo na raskalennoĭ trube (Solo on a White-Hot Trumpet; 1998), Elena Shvarts has begun a quest for an understanding of writing itself, and of the time of writing, if we are to take seriously the metaphors behind the titles of these her two most recent books of poetry. In Dikopis' poslednego vremeni (Wild Writing of the Recent Past) she wonders how, in this day and age, she can write. Poised between the disasters of Russian history and personal loss, Shvarts's new book announces itself as a species of wild writing. Readers who know Shvarts's work will find the epithet entirely plausible, but the wildness may not be exactly what...