Doctor Zhivago Part 17: The Poems of Yuri Zhivago Summary

Part 17, Chapters 1-5

Part 17 of this book gives us 25 of the poems written by Yuri Zhivago at various points in the novel. We're not sure when they were written, but taken together, they give us a window into some of Zhivago's deepest thoughts.
The first poem we read is about Shakespeare's Hamlet. The poem is about a single person on a stage trying to be an individual and struggling against the idea that the crowd (or society) has already tried to write his script for him. You can see a connection here with Zhivago's struggles against Communist ideas.
Poem 2 is about snow, dung, and Zhivago's connection with nature.
Poem 3, called "Holy Week," talks about the role that religion has continued to play in Russia, even though the Communist government doesn't approve of it.
Poem 4 is called "White Night," and it's spoken to someone that Zhivago loves. Poem 5 is called "Bad Roads in Spring" and it talks about the day Zhivago was kidnapped to work with the Forest Brotherhood army.

Zhivago's 6th poem is called "A Final Talk." It's about someone reuniting with a lover he's been away from for a long time. It also talks about how the poet expects his lover to move on and get married to someone else. But no matter how much he loves a woman, the speaker can't help but feel that his urge to pull away is always stronger than his urge to be with someone.
Poem 7 is called "Summer in Town," and it's about a guy watching a woman combing her hair.
Poems 8 through 12 are about nature, love, and the human mind. What they're definitely not about is Communism and politics. Zhivago, you see, never cared much for politics. He just wanted to sit down and write poetry about love and nature and the individual—rather like Pasternak himself.

Zhivago's 15th poem is probably the most important one in the bunch, because it's about the candle that Zhivago saw burning one night in Lara's window before the two of them had even met. At one point in the book, Lara even wondered if Zhivago would have seen this candle burning. Well, now we know that he did, and that he thought about it constantly.

These poems are mostly about the difficulty of splitting up with someone you love, which was something Zhivago had to do many times in his life.

These poems show Zhivago reflecting on what the future might bring, not just for him, but for Moscow and Russia as a whole. What role will spirituality play? Will people ever reconnect with nature and with their deepest passions, or will they continue to be robots who can't think for themselves?

Zhivago's final poem is called "The Garden of Gethsemane." This poem is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which Zhivago interprets as a story about how the free individual will always triumph over a society that tries to kill his or her individuality. But even though this is the case, these individuals almost always end up dying young.
The poem ends on a hopeful note, though, suggesting that Zhivago has made peace with himself and is ready to die.