SOURCE: "A Soviet Whitman." in The Christian Science Monitor, March 8, 1991, p. 10.

In the following review, D'Evelyn emphasizes the public and social aspects of Yevtushenko's poetic practices evident in The Complete Poems.

For about 30 years now, Yevgeny Yevtushenko has lit up the international scene with his unique fireworks, a blend of chutzpah, charm, and sheer gall. His most recent coup—a teaching stint at the University of Pennsylvania—brings the career of this Soviet poet to a pinnacle of success. Now the publication of his complete poems in English [The Complete Poems] will provide opportunities for a long look at the basis of his career, a large body of poems of diverse kinds that is at once accessible and beguilingly obscure.

Yevtushenko was 20 when Stalin died. He rode the anti-Stalin wave to prominence, reading in front of thousands and selling tens of thousands of his books of poetry. Even...