The Grand Inquisitor

“These Poor Villages” by F. I. Tyutchev (1855)

This poem, the last stanza of which Ivan quotes as he recites “The Grand Inquisitor” to his brother Alyosha, describes the suffering in the poor villages of Russia. The anguish of his fellow Russians had a great impact on Dostoevsky and fueled many of his most famous writings.

“The Second Coming” by W. B. Yeats (1919)

Yeats’s poem describes a world in chaos in which traditional systems of belief are faltering. Like Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor,” this meditation on the gulf between Christian teachings and the modern world is set against the backdrop of the Second Coming of Christ.

“The Hollow Men” by T. S. Eliot (1925)

Eliot's poem explores the emptiness and moral bankruptcy of modern society, evoking a sense of spiritual desolation. As in Dostoevsky’s work, religious resonances are prominent throughout, and the Lord’s Prayer is reworked at the end of the poem, culminating in the famous concluding lines: “This is the way the world ends / Not with a band but a whimper” (Lines 97-98).