E.A. Baratynsky

Baratynsky was born in 1800 1, that is, in the same year as Pushkin; both were the same age as the century. - He received extraordinary abilities from nature: a deeply sensitive heart, a soul filled with an unsleeping love for beauty, a mind that is bright, extensive and at the same time subtle, so to speak, to the point of microscopic insight - and especially attentive to sublime and poetic objects, to profound questions, to the movements of inner life, to those thoughts that warm the heart, clarifying the mind - to those musical thoughts in which the voice of the heart and the voice of reason merges consonantly into one thoughtful reflection. – In his first childhood he received the most careful education; it later helped a lot in the development of his unusually refined taste. “But his youth was unhappy. In distant Finland, in the midst of wild and gloomy nature, separated from his family and friends, with an irresistible longing for his homeland, far from those who could understand him and console him with sympathy, he sadly and lonely spent the best years of his youth. This circumstance probably contributed to the fact that his brightest thoughts, even at the happiest time of his life, remained forever permeated with a quiet but irresistible sadness. However, perhaps he was already naturally inclined towards this line of thought, which is very often noticed in people who combine deep intelligence with deep sensitivity. It probably happens because such people look at life seriously, understand its high mystery, understand the importance of their purpose, and at the same time relentlessly feel the poverty of earthly existence. That is why, even in the circle of fun and noisy pleasures, they often seem sad; That’s why the very feeling of joy for them is combined with an irresistible thoughtfulness and is more similar to sadness than to the gaiety of ordinary people. But meanwhile, from Finland, Baratynsky could sometimes come to St. Petersburg, where at that time the first graduating class of students from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum had just arrived - young men, almost children, bound by bonds of noble friendship based on the same upbringing, on a common, instilled love for the great, for the beautiful, for enlightenment, for the sciences, for the arts - a friendship especially strong by the internal agreement of their moral concepts. Among them were young Pushkin, Delvig and many young men, rich in talent, or remarkable in mind, or strong in character, with various abilities, but all imbued with an impatient thirst for activity, a lively desire for significant goals in life. Subsequently, not everyone developed in the same way; various circumstances took them in different directions; some may have stopped in their development; others, perhaps, could deviate from the first direction, fall for a while into extremes or delusions; others happily completed their careers: but at that time their common friendly sympathy awakened in each of them all the best abilities of the soul, so that from their significant circle, or from living contact with them, almost all the remarkable people of that time came out. Baratynsky also became friends with them, and, in their life-giving company, the first spark of his poetic talent, already prepared by his former life, kindled in his soul. So in good, as well as in bad, the sympathy of the people around us awakens from the heart those aspirations that otherwise, perhaps, would never have been born. The general opinion soon connected the name of Baratynsky with the names of Pushkin and Delvig, at the same time, as the inner affinity of heartfelt passions connected them with the most sincere friendship, which remained intact until the end of the lives of all three. Baratynsky died last year, in Italy, which he especially loved in his distant dreams, in the circle of his family, where he found that spiritual happiness that was the main need of his loving heart. “Our life passes here sweetly,” he wrote in his last letter from Naples to his brother. Baratynsky's poems are distinguished by the same qualities that constituted the peculiarity of his poetic personality: the sophistication of the external decoration always hides in them a heartfelt thought, deeply and carefully thought out. But meanwhile, no matter how remarkable their poetic dignity is, they still do not fully express the world of grace that he carried in the depths of his soul. Born for a sincere circle of family and friends, unusually sensitive to the sympathy of people close to him, Baratynsky willingly and deeply spoke out in quiet friendly conversations, and thereby sometimes drowned out the need to express himself to the public. Having poured out his spiritual thoughts in a friendly conversation, lively, varied, inexpressibly fascinating, full of happy words and meaningful thoughts, warmed by the warmth of feeling, imbued with elegance of taste, intelligent, always appropriate jokes, foresight of subtle remarks, amazing originality of thoughts and especially the poetry of inner life, Baratynsky was often content with the lively sympathy of his close circle, less caring about possible distant readers. That is why for those who had the good fortune to know him, the beautiful sounds of his poems are even more significant, as echoes of his inner life. But for others, in order to understand the beauty of his creations, one must first think about the overall meaning of his individual poems, listen to the general harmony of his thoughtful poetry. In the village of Mara, Tambov province, Kirsanov district; June 29th. You might be interested in: