The poetry of Alexandr Blok (1880-1921) marks the highest achievement of that fertile period in Russian literary history chiefly identified with the Symbolist movement. The aim of this book is to convey some idea of Blok's scope and development as a poet in a selection of fifty poems and it provides an editorial apparatus to facilitate understanding and appreciation.
The visionary, mystical element is present in most of Blok's poetry, but this does not preclude a considerable evolution - from highly personal lyrics of the early cycles through the 'transitional phase' of volume II,...
The poetry of Alexandr Blok (1880-1921) marks the highest achievement of that fertile period in Russian literary history chiefly identified with th...
Aleksandr Blok (1880-1921) lived thought his country's savage wars and radical traumas, trying to welcome the new order. But there was no space in it for his kind of imagination. His poem The Twelve has claims to being the first great poem of the Russian Revolution. It remains enigmatic, the language elevated, the tone celebratory, even mystical. Mayakovsky, bringing Revolution into the very language and form of his poetry, wrote against Blok and the old forms, answering The Twelve with 150,000,000. Trotsky wrote Certainly Blok is not one of us, but he came towards us. And that is what broke...
Aleksandr Blok (1880-1921) lived thought his country's savage wars and radical traumas, trying to welcome the new order. But there was no space in it ...
