The Core of The Triangular Pear

The Core of The Triangular Pear

The beatnik poetry of Andrei Voznesensky shows an evolving image of America from a Russian standpoint. In his poem “The Triangular Pear,” Voznesensky has no agenda to show the positive nature of Russia, or the negative effects of capitalism. Instead, his sole concern is to discover the core of America, to answer the age-old question, “What is America? Where can she be found?” To do this, he must search both extrinsically and intrinsically. Voznesensky shows this search throughout the poem by constantly scaling. His imagery goes up and down, as does his presentation of the piece. Furthermore, this poem is fast paced, which adds to the feeling of constant movement. “The Triangular Pear” is split into two parts, Prelude I and II. The first prelude talks about the speaker’s search for America, while the second prelude focuses on what he sees and finds in America. Clearly, Voznesensky sees America in a way Russian writers before him had not, and using his unique lens he adds to one’s understanding of America.

The first six lines show Voznesensky’s urgency and hurried pace with the way they appear on the page, as well as using two exclamation points. Voznesensky even writes, “I measure, explore, / discover, all out of breath…” In these first few, lines Voznesensky utilizes the American mood of always rushing around, to discover something new, in order to show his need to understand America, and therefore he shows the grasp he has on at least one aspect of the American spirit. In lines five and six he uses repition when he writes “In America, America,/ In myself, myself…” Here the speaker shows his need to find America and himself. By putting the “Americas” on the line above and lining them up to be...

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...in the heat of the chase….” (60-61). He so much as admits that he has yet to make a puzzle out of all these pieces that are America.

Clearly, Voznesensky sees America in a way Russian writers before him had not, and using his unique lens he adds to one’s understanding of America. In the end, one feels as though Voznesensky never does grasp the spirit of America, but that’s all right. He enjoys the chase and in accepting the fact that he does not know what America is, he finds a truth of sorts: The truth that America cannot and will not be easily quantified. The point is not to find the treasure trove, but to gain a treasure’s worth of understanding while experiencing the journey. To say he had found America would have been a great injustice to his experiences and to the richness of humanity, part of which is represented with the “triangular pear” that is America.