HOPE AGAINST HOPE by Nadezhda Mandelstam. 431 pages. Afheneum. $10.
"Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go," said Claudius as he sent Polonius to eavesdrop on Hamlet. The prince of petulance had his problems, not the least of which was that he was an excellent poet who could not keep his mouth shut. Compulsively putting the truth into unforgettable images and rhythms is indeed a form of madness that tyrants have always feared.
Osip Mandelstam, one of modern Russia's best poets, was touched with such divine madness. Born in 1891, he became an Acmeist,...
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