In Paris the family lived in poverty, the income came almost entirely from Tsvetaeva's writings. Its print, 100 numbered copies, were sold by special subscription. The last collection published during her lifetime, After Russia, appeared in 1928. This was a highly productive period in her life - she published five collections of verse and a number of narrative poems, plays, and essays.ĭuring her years in Paris Tsvetaeva wrote two parts of the planned dramatic trilogy. In 1922 Tsvetaeva emigrated with her family to Berlin, where she rejoined her husband, and then to Prague. Tsvetaeva's poetry reveal her growing interest in folk song and the techniques of the major symbolist and poets, such as Aleksander Blok and Anna Akhmatova. During the famine one of her own daughters died of starvation. Inspired by her relationship with Konstantin Rodzevich, an ex-Red Army officer she wrote Poem of the Mountain and Poem of the End.Īfter 1917 Revolution Tsvetaeva was trapped in Moscow for five years. The poems composed between 19 appeared in 1957 under the title The Demesne of the Swans. Parnok's career stopped in the late 1920s when she was no longer allowed to publish. Tsvetaeva's affair with the poet and opera librettist Sofiia Parnok inspired her cycle of poems called Girlfriend. Magic Lantern showed her technical mastery and was followed in 1913 by a selection of poems from her first collections.

In 1912 Tsvetaeva married Sergei Efron, they had two daughters and one son. She made her debut as a poet at the age of 18 with the collection Evening Album, a tribute to her childhood. Tsvetaeva started to write verse in her early childhood. The family travelled a great deal and Tsvetaeva attended schools in Switzerland, Germany, and at the Sorbonne, Paris. Her mother Mariya, née Meyn, was a talented concert pianist. Her father, Ivan Tsvetayev, was a professor of art history and the founder of the Museum of Fine Arts.

My Poems... by Marina Tsvetaeva