"Light Poetry" an expression that denoted in France in the 17th - early 19th centuries poetic texts devoted to chamber, intimate topics (friendship and friendly feast, sensual love, praising female beauty) or interpreting “high” topics in an unexpected way (a witty and playful expression of philosophical motives). The concept of "light poetry" passed into other European literatures; it existed in Russian culture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Distinctive features"light poetry" - a confidential tone, an attitude to reproduce secular "chatter", paradoxism, a tendency to indirect, periphrastic naming of the objects mentioned (especially in erotic poetry - in works depicting love joys, the beauty of a naked female body).

"Easy poetry" arose in precision salons and was a kind of rococo poetry. "Emblem" light poetry” - banquet speeches, a friendly feast, cups of wine - form a stable complex of motives ... She uses ancient concepts and onomastics not for nomination, but to create stylistic halos and for euphemistic purposes. Euphemism, the aestheticization of everyday concepts lie at the very foundation of precision and rococo poetry. Their direct naming is taboo, just as erotic poetry taboos obscene concepts; a style of description is created that veils the subject area with the widespread use of metaphorical designations, allusions, allegories, metonyms, euphemisms. Such are “roses and lilies”, which have already turned into a linguistic metaphor, denoting the chest, “parks” - a periphrastic naming of death, etc. These are aestheticizing words, the role of which, however, is not only the “decoration” of style, but also the formation of the poetic “language of the initiates”. They are addressed to the cultural elite.”

"Easy poetry" distinguishes the image love relationships and confessions as a kind of "art of love"; sensual love is aestheticized. In "Easy Poetry" the concepts of "voluptuousness" (volupte), "laziness" (paresse) and "idleness" (oisivite) were given a positive meaning. The authors of "light poetry" in French literature of the 18th century were the young Voltaire, P.J.Bernard, J.B.Gresse, C.E.L.Chapelle, G.A.Cholier. In the late 18th - early 19th century, the traditions of "light poetry" were developed and rethought by E.D. Parny, the author of the book "Erotic Poems" (1778): elegiac poetics and individualization of the lyrical "I" are combined in Parny with a bold depiction of love passion, hedonistic motives and description of love as a gallant game, in which both frivolity and betrayal are acceptable as revenge for the coldness of the beloved.

Light poetry in Russia

In Russia, "light poetry" as a special direction is formed at the turn of the 1770-80s. One of the first works was a playful poem (“a fairy tale in verse”, or “an ancient story in free verse”) by I.F. Bogdanovich “Darling” (1778) - a free verse transcription of the French novel by J. Lafontaine “The Love of Psyche and Cupid” ( 1669). The story of Cupid and Psyche was recounted in the poem in a tone of casual "chatter", the description of their love is colored with light irony and aestheticized. The program poem - “Message about light poetry” (1783) was created by M.N. Muravyov, whose works influenced Russian “light poetry” In the 1790-1810s, the “Karamzinists” - followers of N.M. opposing the dying "high" poetic genres(ode, heroic poem) "middle" genres that were previously on the literary periphery: elegy, friendly message, album poems, madrigals, cultivating "light poetry". Three of Karamzin's messages became striking examples: "Message to Women" (1795), "To the Unfaithful" (1796) and "To the Faithful" (1796), combining morality with irony and defiant passion of love. The pinnacle achievements of Russian "light poetry" are the poems of K.N. The history and significance of Russian "light poetry" Batyushkov devoted "Speech on the influence of light poetry on the language" (1816). Imitations of “light poetry” by Batyushkov and Guys are found in the lyrics of A.S. Pushkin of the lyceum and St. Petersburg period. By the 1820s, when the romantic elegy and romantic poem became the dominant genres in Russian poetry, "light poetry" went to the literary periphery.

Interest in it revived in Russian literature Silver Age at the turn of the 1920s. Poems that recreate the features of the style of "light poetry" were created by V.Ya.Bryusov, F.K.Sologub, M.A.Kuzmin. The traditions of "light poetry" are especially noticeable in Kuzmin's cycles "Love of this Summer" (1906), "Interrupted Tale" (1907), "Different Poems" (1907), "Rockets" (1908), "Deceived Deceiver" from the collection "Networks . The first book of poems "(1908). Kuzmin poeticizes "the spirit of trifles, charming and airy." His world is a game, masquerades, love walks, confessions. He resorts to stylistic clichés (“your tender gaze, sly and alluring”, “skillful kiss”), to the poetics of erotic allusions that do not go beyond the brink of propriety; uses the well-established metaphor of "light poetry" ("bitter arrows of love", "Cupid winged" as an allegorical designation of love feelings).

The phrase light poetry comes from french poesie fugitive.

Batyushkov, poet. Born in Vologda. He belonged to an old noble family. He was brought up in St. Petersburg, in private foreign boarding schools. In addition to French, he was fluent in Italian, later in Latin. He served in the military (he was a participant in three wars, including the foreign campaign of 1814) and petty bureaucratic service, and later in the Russian diplomatic mission in Italy. In 1822, he fell ill with a hereditary mental illness that had long been creeping up on him. Since 1802, he settled in the house of the writer M. N. Muravyov, his relative; Then he began to write poetry. He joined the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts. With the poetic satire "Vision on the Banks of the Leta" (1809), which became widespread in the lists, Batyushkov took an active part in the controversy with the "Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word". Batyushkov was the first to use the word "Slavophile", which later became widely used. Batyushkov joined the Arzamas literary circle, which opposed the Conversation, which included representatives of new literary movements - from V. A. Zhukovsky and D. V. Davydov to the young Pushkin, whose powerful talent Batyushkov immediately appreciated. He became close to the circle of A. N. Olenin, where the cult of antiquity flourished. Batyushkov's works, published in magazines, were published in a separate edition in 1817 - "Experiments in verse and prose" (in 2 parts).

Batyushkov became the head of the so-called. "light poetry", dating back to the tradition of anacreontics of the 18th century, the most prominent representatives of which were G. R. Derzhavin and V. V. Kapnist ("a model in a syllable," as Batiushkov called it). The chanting of the joys of earthly life - friendship, love - was combined in Batyushkov's intimate friendly messages with the assertion of the poet's inner freedom, his independence from the "slavery and chains" of the feudal-absolutist social order, whose stepson he acutely felt himself. The program work of this kind was the message "My Penates" (1811-12, publ. 1814); according to Pushkin, it "... breathes with some kind of intoxication of luxury, youth and pleasure - the style trembles and flows - the harmony is charming." An example of "light poetry" is the poem "Bacchae" (published in 1817). The patriotic enthusiasm that seized Batyushkov in connection with the war of 1812 brought him beyond the limits of "chamber" lyrics (the message "To Dashkov", 1813, the historical elegy "Crossing the Rhine", 1814, etc.). Under the influence of the painful impressions of the war, the destruction of Moscow and personal upheavals, Batyushkov is experiencing a spiritual crisis.

His poetry is increasingly colored in sad tones (elegy "Separation", 1812-13; "Shadow of a Friend", 1814; "Awakening", 1815; Melchizedek, 1821). Batyushkov's best elegies include My Genius (1815) and Tauris (1817). A significant contribution to the development of Russian poetry was Batyushkov's deep lyricism, combined with an unprecedented artistry of form. Developing the tradition of Derzhavin, he demanded from the poet: "Live as you write, and write as you live." Many poems are, as it were, pages of Batyushkov’s poeticized autobiography, in whose personality the features of a disappointed, aged early, bored “hero of time” are already visible, which later found artistic expression in the images of Onegin and Pechorin. With regard to poetic skill, Batyushkov's models were the works of ancient and Italian poets. He translated the elegies of Tibull, the poems of T. Tasso, E. Parni, and others. tragic fate poet - a topic that persistently attracted Batyushkov's attention.

The genres of "light poetry", according to Batyushkov, require "possible perfection, purity of expression, harmony in style, flexibility, smoothness" and therefore are the best remedy for the "education" and "improvement" of the poetic language ("Speech on the influence of light poetry on the language", 1816). Batyushkov also wrote in prose, believing that this is also an important school for the poet (mainly essays, articles on literature and art; the most significant of them are "Evening at Kantemir", "Walk to the Academy of Arts"). Batyushkov's verse reached a high artistic perfection. Contemporaries admired his "plasticity", sculpture, Pushkin - "Italian" melodiousness ("Italian sounds! What a miracle worker this Batyushkov"). With his translations of "From the Greek Anthology" (1817-18) and "Imitations of the Ancients" (1821), Batyushkov prepared Pushkin's anthological poems. Batiushkov was weary of the narrowness of themes and motives, the monotony of the genres of his poetry. He conceived a number of monumental works filled with the content " useful to society worthy of himself and the people”, was fond of Byron’s work (translation into Russian from Childe Harold’s Wanderings). All this was cut short by a mental illness that forever stopped literary activity Batyushkov. The poet remarked bitterly: “What can I say about my poems! I look like a man who did not reach his goal, but he carried a beautiful vessel filled with something on his head. The vessel fell off his head, fell and shattered, go and find out now what was in it. Pushkin, objecting to critics who attacked Batyushkov's poetry, urged them to "respect the misfortunes and unripe hopes in him." Batyushkov played a significant role in the development of Russian poetry: along with Zhukovsky, he was the immediate predecessor and literary teacher of Pushkin, who carried out much of what was started by Batyushkov.

K.N. Batyushkov is one of the most talented poets of the first quarter of the 19th century, in whose work romanticism began to take shape very successfully, although this process was not completed.

The first period of creativity (1802-1812) is the time of creation of "light poetry". Batyushkov was also its theorist. "Light poetry" turned out to be the link that connected the middle genres of classicism with pre-romanticism. The article "Speech on the Influence of Light Poetry on the Language" was written in 1816, but the author generalized in it the experience of the work of various poets, including his own. He separated "light poetry" from "important genera" - epic, tragedy, solemn ode and similar genres of classicism. The poet included in "light poetry" "small genera" of poetry and called them "erotic". The need for intimate lyrics, conveying in an elegant form ("polite", "noble" and "beautifully") the personal experiences of a person, he associated with the social needs of the enlightened age. The theoretical prerequisites revealed in the article on "light poetry" were significantly enriched by the poet's artistic practice.

His "light poetry" is "social" (the poet used this word characteristic of him). Creativity for him is an inspired literary communication with loved ones. Hence the main genres for him are the message and the dedication close to it; the addressees are N.I. Gnedich, V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, A.I. Turgenev (brother of the Decembrist), I.M. Muraviev-Apostol, V.L. Pushkin, S.S. Uvarov, P.I. Shalikov, just friends, often poems are dedicated to women with conditional names - Felisa, Malvina, Liza, Masha. The poet loves to talk in verse with friends and loved ones. The dialogical beginning is also significant in his fables, to which the poet also had a great inclination. The seal of improvisations, impromptu lies on small genres - inscriptions, epigrams, various poetic jokes. Elegies, appearing already at the beginning creative way poet, will become the leading genre in his future work.

Batyushkov is characterized by a high idea of ​​​​friendship, a pre-romantic cult of "kinship of souls", "spiritual sympathy", "sensitive friendship".

Batyushkov's six verse letters to Gnedich were created between 1805 and 1811; they largely clarify the originality of his work at the first stage. The conventions of the genre by no means deprive Batyushkov's message of autobiography. The poet in verse conveyed his moods, dreams, philosophical conclusions. The lyrical "I" of the author himself turns out to be central in the messages. In the first messages, the lyrical "I" is by no means a disappointed person with a chilled heart. On the contrary, this is a person who acts in an atmosphere of jokes, games, carelessness and dreams. In accordance with the aesthetics of pre-romanticism, the lyrical "I" of the messages is immersed in the world of chimeras, the poet is "happy with dreams", his dream "makes everything in the world gild", "a dream is our shield". The poet is like a "madman", like a child, loving fairy tales. And yet his dream is not those romantic dreams, full of mysterious miracles and terrible mysteries, sad ghosts or prophetic visions, into which romantics will plunge. The dream world of the lyrical subject Batyushkov is playful. The poet's voice is not the voice of a prophet, but ... a "talker".

In "light poetry" a charming image of "red" youth, "blooming like a rose", like a May day, like "laughing fields" and "merry meadows" was created. The world of youth is subject to the "goddess of beauty", Chloe, Lilet, Lisa, Zafne, Delia, and an attractive female image constantly appears next to the lyrical "I". As a rule, this is not an individualized image (only individual moments of individualization are outlined in the image of the actress Semenova, to whom a special poem is dedicated), but a generalized image of the "ideal of beauty": "And golden curls, // And blue eyes ..."; "And the curls are loose // They flutter over the shoulders ...". The perfect maiden the art world Batyushkova is always a faithful friend, the embodiment of earthly beauty and the charm of youth. This ideal, which is constantly present in the poet's imagination, is artistically embodied in the elegy "Tauris" (1815): "Blush and fresh, like a field rose, / You share labor, cares and lunch with me ...".

In poetic messages, the revealing individual appearance of Batyushkov and feature Russian pre-romanticism, the motif of the native shelter. Both in his letters and in his poems, the call of the soul to native penates or lares, to "the hospitable shadow of the father's shelter" is repeated. And this poetic image is opposed to the romantic restlessness and vagrancy expressed later in poetry. Batiushkov, on the other hand, loves "home chests", his father's house.

The artistic world of Batyushkov is colored with bright, precious colors ("gold", "silver", "beaded"); all nature, and man, and his heart in motion, in a fit, feelings overwhelm the soul. The lyrical subject of Batyushkov's "light poetry" 1802-1812 - a predominantly enthusiastic person, although at times his enthusiasm is replaced by melancholy. The poet conveyed the emotion of delight in visible, plastically expressive images-emblems, poetic allegories. He was looking for "emblems of virtue." In "light poetry" four images-emblems stand out and are repeatedly repeated: roses, wings, bowls and canoes, which reveal the essence of his poetic worldview.

The images of flowers, especially roses, are Batyushkov's favorite, they give his poems a festivity, the image of a rose in him is a leitmotif, multifunctional. She is an exponent of the idea of ​​beauty; a fragrant, pink, young flower is associated with ancient times - the childhood of the human race: roses - Cupid - Eros - Cyprida - Anacreon, the singer of love and pleasure - such is the line of associations. But the image of a rose also acquires a semantic extension, it passes into the area of ​​comparisons: a beloved, in general, a young woman is compared with a rose as a standard of beauty.

Also, other images-emblems - wings, bowls - reflected the cult of elegant pleasure, the needs of a person who is aware of his right to happiness.

The conditional language of Batyushkov's poetry incorporates the names of writers, which also become signs, signals of certain ethical and aesthetic predilections: Sappho - love and poetry, Tass - greatness, Guys - the grace of love interests, and the name of the hero Cervantes Don Quixote (as Batyushkov) - a sign of subordination of real actions to lifeless and ridiculous reverie.

The fable beginning entered Batyushkov's "light poetry". Not only Gnedich, but also Krylov was a friend of the poet. Close to Krylov's fables and his satirical stories, especially "Kaibu", images appear in Batyushkov's messages and in his other genres. In poetic messages, the images of animals do not always create an allegorical scene. Usually they are only artistic detail, a fable-like comparison designed to express the discrepancy between what should be and what is: "Whoever is used to being a wolf, he will not forget how to // Walk like a wolf and bark forever."

The first period of Batyushkov's work is the formation of pre-romanticism, when the poet retains a connection with classicism ("middle" genres and "middle" style). His "communal" pre-romanticism in favorite genre the message to friends was marked, first of all, by the bright dreaminess and playfulness of a young soul, longing for earthly happiness.

It is known that the roots "light poetry » go deep antiquity . "Light poetry" was reflected in the work of poets associated with the depiction and idealization of sensual pleasures: Sappho, Anacreon, Horace, Tibullus, Grecourt, Gresse and Guys.

In Russian literature, "light poetry", embodying intimate experiences and passion, arose already in classicism. Its most prominent representatives were Derzhavin and VV Kapnist. In the article “Speech on the Influence of Light Poetry on Language,” Batyushkov himself explained that this is the poetry of private, social life, in which the defining place belongs to terrestrial "passion of love". Its main types are poem, story, message, song, fable.

It was in the creation of "light poetry" that the poet saw his main feature and merit.

The poet willingly and often identifies love with voluptuousness, which is spiritualized sensuality.

The poetry of Batyushkov, the singer of love, is characterized by the cult of the human body (“On Parisian Women”, 1814). But at the same time, it is difficult to find a poet more modest in describing female beauty than the creator of " bacchantes » (1815). He speaks of female beauty in words of ecstatic admiration, love passion is spiritualized by him with reverent-aesthetic feelings.

But there is no fullness of life outside of male friendship, and the poet glorifies “friendship”, support in doubts and sorrows, support in defeats and victories ( "Friendship "). Love and friendship are inseparable from the game of feeling and mind ( "Advice friends"). happiness in love ( "My Penates"), in friendship ( "TO Phylise"), in a peaceful, modest life, inseparable from conscience ( "Lucky") the poet in a playful imagination turns even the other world into an earthly one, transferring the pleasures of love into it ( "Ghost"). Death is drawn by him in these verses, according to ancient mythology, as an organic transition to the blessed world of bliss

Singing of a man estranged from all social ties and civic duties, limiting his desires and aspirations to earthly pleasures, Batyushkov's "light poetry" takes humanistic character . But this is not isolation from society in the name of selfish selfishness and unbridled self-will, predatory and cynically violating the elementary rules of human society. According to Belinsky's definition, the poet's ideal, "graceful epicureanism" is associated with the ideas of enlightenment humanism. It protests against socio-political system oppression human personality, a challenge to the false morality of the ruling nobility and church-religious hypocrisy, the protection of the spiritual value of the human personality, its natural right to independence and freedom, to earthly joys and pleasures. In the conditions of the "dull" romanticism, which was sympathetically perceived by conservative circles, Batyushkov's epicureanism was the opposition of optimism to pessimism, earth to heaven. Batyushkov's epicureanism arises during the period of the accelerating growth of capitalist tendencies in the conditions of the feudal-serf system, "in an atmosphere of the collapse of the old world" that contributes to the emergence and strengthening of Batyushkov's oppositional, progressive-humanist, liberal-democratic convictions.

Epicureanism - the doctrine according to which the basis of human happiness is the satisfaction of vital needs, reasonable pleasure and peace [named after the ancient Greek materialist philosopher Epicurus]

The mood of the poet, perhaps, was supported by purely personal reasons. He was born in Vologda in 1787 into an old but impoverished noble family. Fascinated by art and literature, he involuntarily pulled the hated service strap. Military service brought him neither rank nor glory. His rare properties of disinterestedness and honesty did not bring him laurels in the civilian field either. Opposition ideology led Batyushkov to the “Free Society ...” Communication with members of this society, with the sons of Radishchev, with poets I.P. Pnin and A.P. his sympathetic response "Death to I.P. Pnin", as well as in messages to Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky ( "My Penates").

"light poetry" and Batyushkov's romanticism do not oppose each other. In his work, “light poetry” is a form of expressing a sharp conflict with social reality, its rejection and the author’s departure from the self-interest of the ruling circles, from rough life prose into the sphere of earthly pleasures, beauty and grace, into the world created by imagination, dream.

Batyushkov's poetry, denouncing dishonesty, treachery, high society, bureaucratic circles, at the same time retained faith in just enlightened monarch and glorified the tsar Seeing social vices, taking up arms against them, pointing out their carriers, Batyushkov, however, remained aloof from the liberation struggle.

Batyushkov became the head of the so-called. "light poetry", dating back to the tradition of anacreontics of the 18th century, the most prominent representatives of which were Derzhavin and Kapnist ("a model in syllable", as Batyushkov called it). The chanting of the joys of earthly life - friendship, love - was combined in Batyushkov's intimate friendly messages with the assertion of the poet's inner freedom, his independence from the "slavery and chains" of the feudal-absolutist social system, whose stepson he acutely felt himself to be. The program work of this kind was the message "My Penates" (1811-12, publ. 1814); An example of "light poetry" is the poem "Bacchae" (published in 1817). The patriotic enthusiasm that seized Batyushkov in connection with the war of 1812 brought him beyond the limits of "chamber" lyrics (the message "To Dashkov", 1813, the historical elegy "Crossing the Rhine", 1814, etc.). Under the influence of the painful impressions of the war, the destruction of Moscow and personal upheavals, Batyushkov is experiencing a spiritual crisis. Many poems are, as it were, pages of Batyushkov's poeticized autobiography. In terms of poetic mastery, Batyushkov's models were the works of ancient and Italian poets. He translated the elegies of Tibullus, the poems of Tasso, Guys, and others. One of the most famous works of Batyushkov's elegy "Dying Tass" (1817) dedicated to the tragic fate of the poet - a topic that persistently attracted Batyushkov's attention. Batyushkov also wrote in prose (mostly essays, articles on literature and art; the most significant of them are " Evening at Cantemir”, “Walk to the Academy of Arts”) . Batyushkov's verse reached a high artistic perfection. Contemporaries admired his "plasticity", sculpture, Pushkin - "Italian" melodiousness Batyushkov prepared Pushkin's anthological poems. Batiushkov was weary of the narrowness of themes and motives, the monotony of the genres of his poetry. He conceived a number of monumental works filled with the content "useful to society, worthy of himself and the people", was fond of Byron's work (translation into Russian from Childe Harold's Wanderings). All this was cut short by mental illness, which forever stopped Batyushkov's literary activity. Batyushkov played a significant role in the development of Russian poetry: along with Zhukovsky, he was the immediate predecessor and literary teacher of Pushkin, who carried out much of what was started by Batyushkov.

/Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov/

The election of me as your fellow members is a new evidence, gracious sirs, of your indulgence. You turn attentive eyes to more than one talent, you reward weak labors and the slightest successes; for you have in mind an important goal: the future wealth of the language, so closely associated with civic education, with enlightenment, and, consequently, with the prosperity of the country, the most glorious and vast in the world. According to my merits, I have no right to sit with you; but if zeal for literature is a virtue, then from the ardent desire to improve our language, solely because of my love for poetry, I can boldly say that your choice corresponds to the goal of society. My studies were unimportant, but uninterrupted. They were before you eloquent witnesses of my zeal and gave me the happiness to sit in the most ancient sanctuary of the muses of our country, which is reborn from the ashes along with the capital of the Russian kingdom and in time will be worthy of its ancient greatness.

Surveying mentally the vast field of literature, the immense labors and feats of the human mind, the precious treasures of eloquence and poetry, I sadly recognize and feel the weakness of my strength and the unimportance of my occupations; but I console myself with the thought that success even in the smallest branch of literature can be useful to our language. Epic, dramatic art, lyric poetry, history, spiritual and civil eloquence require great efforts of the mind, lofty and fiery imagination. Happy are those who steal the palm in these generations: their names become immortal; for the happy works of the creative mind do not belong exclusively to one people, but are made the property of all mankind. Especially the great works of the Muses have an influence on the new and raw language. Lomonosov is a clear example of this. He has transformed our language, creating patterns in all genders. He did the same in the difficult field of literature that Peter the Great did in the civil field. Peter the Great awakened the people, lulled into shackles of ignorance; he created for him laws, military strength and glory. Lomonosov awakened the language of the lulled people; he created for him eloquence and poetry, he tested his strength in all kinds and prepared for future talents the right tools for success. In his time he raised the Russian language to the highest possible degree of perfection—possible, I say, because the language is always on a par with the success of weapons and the glory of the people, with enlightenment, with the needs of society, with civic education and humanism. But Lomonosov, this giant in the sciences and in the art of writing, testing the Russian language in important ways, wanted to enrich it with the tenderest expressions of Anacreon's muse. This great educator of our literature knew and felt that the language of an enlightened people must satisfy all its requirements and not consist of only grandiloquent words and expressions. He knew that among all peoples, both ancient and modern, light poetry, which can be called the charming luxury of literature, had perfect place on Parnassus 2 and gave new food to the poetic language.<...>

The main advantages of the poetic style are: movement, strength, clarity. In large genera, the reader, carried away by the description of passions, blinded by the liveliest colors of poetry, can forget the shortcomings and unevenness of the style and eagerly listens to the inspired poet or acting person created by him.<...>

IN light kind poetry, the reader requires possible perfection, purity of expression, harmony in style, flexibility, smoothness; he demands truth in feelings and the preservation of the strictest propriety in all respects; he immediately becomes a strict judge, for his attention is not much diverted by anything. Beautifulness in the style is necessary here and cannot be replaced by anything. She is a secret known to one talent and especially constant voltage attention to one subject: for poetry, even in small generations, is a difficult art, requiring all life and all the efforts of the soul; one must be born for poetry; this is not enough: being born, one must become a poet, in whatever way.

The so-called erotic and generally light kind of poetry has been perceived by us since the time of Lomonosov and Sumarokov. The experiences of their predecessors were of little importance: language and society had not yet been formed. We will not enumerate all the kinds, divisions, and variations of light poetry, which belongs less or more to important genera; but note that in the field fine arts(similar to the moral world) nothing beautiful is not lost, benefits over time and acts directly on the entire composition of the language. The poetic story of Bogdanovich 3 , the first and charming flower of light poetry in our language, marked by a true and great talent; the witty, inimitable fairy tales of Dmitriev 4 , in which poetry for the first time adorned the conversation of the best society; the epistles and other writings of this poet, in which philosophy is enlivened by the unfading colors of the imagination; his fables in which he wrestled with La Fontaine 5 and often defeated him; the fables of Khemnitzer 6 and the original fables of Krylov 7 whose witty, happy verses have turned into proverbs, for they show both the subtle mind of an observer of the world and a rare talent; poems by Karamzin, filled with feelings, an example of clarity and harmony of thoughts; the Horatian odes of Kapnist 8 , the passion-inspired songs of Neledinsky 9 beautiful imitations of ancient Merzlyakov 10 , the ballads of Zhukovsky, radiant with imagination, often capricious, but always fiery, always strong; Vostokov's poems 11, in which one can see the excellent talent of the poet, saturated with the reading of ancient and German writers; messages of the book<язя>Dolgorukov 12, filled with liveliness; some messages of Voeikov 13 , Pushkin 14 and other modern poets, written in a clean and always noble style, all these brilliant works of talent and wit less or more approached the desired perfection, and all - there is no doubt - benefited the poetic language, formed it, purified it, approved it . So bright streams flowing in different bends along one constant inclination, uniting in a valley, form deep and vast lakes: these beneficial waters do not dry out from time to time; on the contrary, they increase and increase over the centuries and eternally exist for the good of the land they irrigate!

In the first period of our literature, since the time of Lomonosov, we have written a lot in an easy way; but a small number of verses were saved from general oblivion. The main thing not one lack of talent or a change in language, but a change in society itself can be put as the cause; his greater education and, perhaps, greater enlightenment, requiring from the language and writers a greater knowledge of the world and the preservation of its decorum: for this kind of literature constantly reminds of society; it is formed from its phenomena, oddities, prejudices, and must be a clear and faithful mirror of it. Most of the writers I have named spent their lives in the midst of the society of Catherine's century, which was so favorable to the sciences and literature; there they borrowed this humaneness and politeness, this nobility, which we see an imprint in their creations: in the best society they learned to guess the secret play of passions, to observe mores, to maintain all conditions and relations of the world and to speak clearly, easily and pleasantly. This is not enough: all these writers have enriched their thoughts in the diligent reading of foreign authors, some of the ancients, others of the latest, and stocked up on an abundant harvest of words in our old books. All these writers have true talent, time-tested; true love to the best, noblest of the arts, to poetry, and they respect, I dare say in the affirmative, idolize their art as the best asset of an educated person, a true gift from heaven, which gives us the purest pleasures in the midst of the worries and thorns of life, which gives us what we call immortality on earth - a lovely dream for exalted souls!

All births are good, except for the boring one. In literature, all genders benefit language and education. Only ignorant stubbornness dislikes and tries to limit the pleasures of the mind. True, enlightened love for the arts is indulgent and, so to speak, greedy for new spiritual pleasures. It does not limit itself to anything, does not want to exclude anything, and does not despise any branch of literature.<...>She observes with curiosity the successes of the language in all kinds, does not shy away from anything, except that which can harm morals, the successes of education and sound taste (I take this word in a broad sense). She is pleased to notice the talent in the crowd of writers and is ready to give him useful advice.<...>

Neither splits, nor envy, nor partiality, no prejudices are known to her. The benefit of the language, the glory of the fatherland: this is her noble goal! You, gracious sovereigns, are an excellent example, calling together talents from all sides, without partiality, without partiality. You say to each of them: carry, carry your treasures to the abode of the muses, open to every talent, every success; do a wonderful, great, holy deed: enrich, form the language of the most glorious people, inhabiting almost half of the world; equate the glory of his tongue with the glory of war, the success of the mind with the success of weapons. Important muses here give a friendly hand to their younger sisters, and the altar of taste is enriched by their mutual gifts.

And when is it more convenient to accomplish the desired feat? which place is better? In Moscow, so eloquent and in its ruins, near the fields, marked by hitherto unheard of victories, in the ancient fatherland of glory and the new greatness of the people!<...>

Poetry itself, which is nourished by learning, grows and matures along with the formation of society, poetry will bear ripe fruits and bring new pleasures to sublime souls, born to love and feel graceful. Society will take a lively part in the successes of the mind - and then the name of the writer, scientist and excellent poet will not be wild to the ear: it will arouse in the minds all ideas about the glory of the fatherland, about the dignity of a useful citizen. In anticipation of this happy time, we will do everything that we can do. The active patronage of the guardians of education, to whom this society owes its existence; the zeal with which we embark on the most important works in literature; impartiality, which we wish to preserve in the midst of discordant opinions, not yet enlightened by sound criticism: everything promises us sure success; and we will reach, at least approach the desired goal, animated by the names benefits And glory guided by impartiality and criticism.