Experiment with canon (on the poetics of A. Voznesensky’s sonnets)

Andrei Voznesensky, who proved himself to be an “atomic minstrel,” an unreserved singer of scientific and technical revolution, whole-heartedly striving for the future, was not, objectively speaking, an ardent fan of the sonnet, as, indeed, were his idols and teachers Mayakovsky and Pasternak. However, he nevertheless paid a certain tribute to this ancient genre-strophic form, enriching it with radical innovations. The article analyzes the so-called “Impromptu Sonnet” (1998), which completes the poet’s sonnet ensemble. The title of the poem simultaneously serves as its genre definition. The motif of Emptiness, оne of the steady ideological and thematic dominants of Voznesensky’s work is considered in connection with his fascination with the works of M. Heidegger, with whom he personally communicated in Freiburg in 1967. We find a reflection of the German philosopher’s in Voznesensky’s essays, including “The Tooth of Reason,” “О” and in several cyclizing lyrical poems, a significant part of which are sonnets or at least their derivatives. The article focuses most closely on the distinctive contrast in the poet’s ideas between the high content conditions of the classical sonnet and the exceptionally liberal attitude to its canonical forms.