CULTURE WATCH : Crossing the Divide

The world has lost Joseph Brodsky, a great poet who had the rare ability to cross the divide between East and West.

Born in 1940 in Leningrad, Brodsky began writing poetry at 15 and soon, as Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney wrote, he “established personal relations with the whole pantheon of the classical and vernacular literatures of Europe and the Americas.” The poetry of John Donne inspired him to learn English.

Soviet bureaucrats declared him a “parasite” because he spent much of his time writing. He was sent to prison in the Arctic and twice was put into mental institutions. Expelled from his country in 1972, Brodsky moved to the United States and 15 years later won the Nobel Prize. He became U.S. poet laureate in 1991. His poetry, which stresses the transcendence of the individual, reflects his personal confrontation with tyranny:

I wish you good night. May I,

too, sleep soundly.

Won’t you bid a goodnight

to my native country

For settling accounts with

me--from that distance

where, by the massing of miles,

or simple

miracle, you have been changed

to only

a postal address.

Brodsky believed the world would be better if leaders were chosen on the basis of what they read. “As a form of moral insurance .J.J. literature is more dependable than a system of beliefs or a philosophical doctrine,” he argued.

Joseph Brodsky’s legacy will live on in the many fine poets who have been influenced by his universal message and elegance.