Word: poushkin
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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...third lecture on "Russian History and Literature" last evening, Prince Serge Wolkonsky sketched the course taken by Russian literature during the period between Poushkin's death in 1837 and the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Among the numberous poets who group themselves around Poushkin, the name of Lermontov is the most celebrated. Comparing him with his great contemporary, the lecturer defined Lermontov as "the poet of romantic pessimism." An important place in Russian poetry belongs to Koltsoff for having introduced into literature elements of popula language, and especially for having made the peasant's life an object of fiction...
...romanticism in Russia: the historian Karamsin Joukovsky. The former wrote the first Russian sentimental novels-among these being "Poor Lizzie," over which contemporaries have shed many tears. The latter was the real funnel through which romanticism invaded Russian poetry. He was the real precursor of Russia's greatest poet-Poushkin...
Born in 1799, Poushkin's first poem appeared in 1818. His literary career appears wonderful, when it is recalled that it was put an end to by a duel when he was thirty-seven years old, leaving him only nineteen years of literary life. In speaking of Poushkin as compared with his predecessors, the lecturer showed that in the eighteenth century poets had spoken of outside life; in the beginning of the present century they spoke of feelings and the inner life, yet with sterile aspirations into a world of dreams; Poushkin takes real life inasmuch as it is reflected...
...gave an account of one of Poushkin's most characteristic creations-a novel in verse: "Eugene Oneguin,"-with an interesting sketch of the literary aspect presented by Russian society of the first decade of our century. The chief chacteristic of Poushkin's lyric poetry was harmoniousness and many sidedness. Equally excellent, said the speaker, was the poet in picturing human sorrow or human joy. One never goes without the other, and, to express the poet's complexity, the lecturer characterizes it as "pouring rain with brilliant sunshine." He endeavored to give his hearers an impression of Poushkin's language...
...concluding remarks, Prince Wolkonsky dwelt on the interesting question of Poushkin's national character-in how far he is representatively Russian; many critics finding him too universal to be called a strictly national poet...