Pasternak's claim for art is that of simplicity and clarity. The right choice of rhyme, rhythm, and meter, the right poetic techniques in general: all this he recognizes as of great importance. But of even greater consequences are the powers of language. (p. 56)

The forces which control the artist cannot always be explained, and Pasternak's protagonist, Yury Zhivago, had experienced, in Varykino, that during the creative moment "the ascendancy is no longer with the artist or the state of mind which he is trying to express, but with language, his instrument of expression."… Both the state of mind which is longing for form and the instrument of expression play an important role in Pasternak's poetic process; and in his art, in his poetry, in real art, content and form flow into one. (p. 57)

Pasternak's poetic history can be divided into four major periods. Between his first book, [The...