Baratynsky, Evgeny - J. A. Harvie (essay date 1973)
J. A. Harvie (essay date 1973)
SOURCE: “Russia's Doomsday Poet,” in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, April, 1973, pp. 170-81.
[In the following essay, Harvie examines Baratynsky's poems containing his criticism of science, technology, and the emerging capitalist-industrialist society.]
Of Baratynsky's poem “The Last Poet” (“Posledny poet”) Belinsky said that it would have been a masterpiece but for the perverse equation of poetry with ignorance and the blaming of science for the degeneration of society.1 Later apologists for Baratynsky have generally felt constrained to argue that all he really meant was that there was a certain charm about mystery which is removed by knowledge.2 No such defence is necessary today. With the benefit of 130 years of hindsight it is clear that Baratynsky was right and Belinsky was wrong; indeed, he has some claim to be called Russia's Doomsday Poet.
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