Russian Poetry Reader

Russian Poetry Reader

Author: Semeonoff, A. E., ed.

Year: 1917

London; New York: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.; E. P. Dutton & Co., 1917. — 100 p. Russian poetry holds a high place in the world's literature of the nineteenth century, and its future development may be awaited with confidence. The Russians are an imaginative race, and their melodious flexible tongue is lich in poetical words, while a traditional wealth of folk-songs and tales, as well as the stirring history of their country, supplies Russian poets with ample material for their craft, besides what they may take from the storehouse of Western Europe. At first imitative and falsely classical, the poetry of Russia in the hands of Pushkin and his great successors becomes both original and national. We in Britain, the friends of Russia and her arts, should therefore learn to know and love the works of Russian poets, even as Byron, Scott, and Shelley have claimed not a few of their admirers and disciples over there. If this little book can do anything to introduce British readers to such a course of study, the editors' object will have been gained. Apart from the beauty of the poems themselves, the perusal of verse has a recognized value in fixing the grammatical forms and t