ABSTRACT
The Golden Age of Russian poetry is roughly contemporary with the great age of romantic poetry in western Europe. But its poetry is not romantic; it is far more formal, active, selective—in short, classical—than any other nineteenth-century school of poetry. It was, in a sense, behind the times, a posthumous child of the eighteenth century. For general tone and atmosphere Púshkin has been compared to Mozart. The western European poets nearest in tone and feeling to those of our Golden Age are poets of the later eighteenth century—Burns, Chénier, Parny. What is particularly important—the technical efficiency of the poets of the Golden Age never lags behind their inspiration. Their poetry is perfect, even when it is minor poetry; and when it is major poetry, it is great without qualification. Its technical perfection marks off the poetry of the twenties both from the primitive rudeness of the age of Derzhávin and from the degenerate laxity of the later nineteenth century.
