When young we identify with Alyosha His optimism and his innocence His fragile, flowering Orthodox 1 faith A happy, almost-holy fool for Christ
When older, the sensual Dimitri, With irresponsible lusts and desires Grasping for the rewards of the moment Now, ever now, wanting everything now
Then older still, as intellectual Ivan Sneeringly aloft, above all faith and flesh A constructor of systems and ideas From the back pages of French magazines
Though never do we identify with Nest-fouling, leering, lurking Smerdyakov Our secret fear, unspoken fear, death-fear: That he might be who we untruly are
But hear, O hear, the holy bells of Optina 2 Those Russian messengers 3 singing to us Inviting us to meet Alyosha again At Father Zosima’s poor 4 hermitage
1 Russian Orthodox 2 The name of the real monastery upon which Dostoyevsky modeled his fictional one 3 The Brothers Karamazov was first published as a serial in The Russian Messenger 4 Poor only by secular standards