Alexander Blok

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Alexander Blok, 1907

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (Russian: Алексаандр Алексаандрович Блоак, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪ
ˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok] ( listen); 28 November [O.S. 16 November] 1880 – 7 August 1921) was a
Russian lyrical poet.

Contents
[hide]

 1Life and career

 2Work

o 2.1Symbolism

 3Musical settings

 4References

 5External links

Life and career[edit]

Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into an intellectual family. His father was a law professor
in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg State University. After his
parents' separation, Blok lived with aristocratic relatives at the manor Shakhmatovonear Moscow,
where he discovered the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov, and the verse of then-obscure 19th-
century poets, Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet. These influences would affect his early
publications, later collected in the book Ante Lucem.
In 1903 he married the actress Lyubov (Lyuba) Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, daughter of the renowned
chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. Later, she would involve him in a complicated love-hate relationship with
his fellow Symbolist Andrei Bely. To Lyuba he dedicated a cycle of poetry that made him
famous, Stikhi o prekrasnoi Dame (Verses About the Beautiful Lady, 1904).
Black night.
White snow.
The wind, the wind!
It will not let you go. The wind, the wind!
Through God's whole world it blows

The wind is weaving

The white snow.
Brother ice peeps from below
Stumbling and tumbling
Folk slip and fall.
God pity all!

“
”
From "The Twelve" (1918)
Trans. Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky [1]

Night, street and streetlight, drug store,

The purposeless, half-dim, drab light.
For all the use live on a quarter century –
Nothing will change. There's no way out.

You'll die – and start all over, live twice,

Everything repeats itself, just as it was:
Night, the canal's rippled icy surface,
The drug store, the street, and streetlight.

“
”
"Night, street and streetlight, drugstore..." (1912) Trans. by Alex Cigale

Some night and street, some chemist's lantern

Is bringing senseless weary light.
Well, nothing changes, that's one pattern,
Live extra twenty-five and find.

You die to start a life all over,

All things repeat as did before.
That night, cold waters at quay border,
That light, that street, that chemist's store.

“
”
"The night, the street, the lantern, the drugstore..." (1912) Translated by Alexei Parphyonov
Blok's poem as wall poem in Leiden

During the last period of his life, Blok emphasised political themes, pondering the messianic destiny
of his country (Vozmezdie,1910–21; Rodina, 1907–16; Skify, 1918). Influenced by Solovyov's
doctrines, he had vague apocalyptic apprehensions and often vacillated between hope and despair.
"I feel that a great event was coming, but what it was exactly was not revealed to me", he wrote in
his diary during the summer of 1917. Quite unexpectedly for most of his admirers, he accepted
the October Revolution as the final resolution of these apocalyptic yearnings.
In May 1917 Blok was appointed as a stenographer for the Extraordinary Commission to investigate
illegal actions ex officio Ministers[2] or to transcribe the (Thirteenth Section's) interrogations of those
who knew Grigori Rasputin.[3] According to Orlando Figes he was only present at the interrogation.[4]
By 1921 Blok had become disillusioned with the Russian Revolution. He did not write any poetry for
three years. He complained to Maksim Gorky that his "faith in the wisdom of humanity" had ended,
and explained to his friend Korney Chukovsky why he could not write poetry any more: "All sounds
have stopped. Can't you hear that there are no longer any sounds?" [5] Within a few days Blok
became sick. His doctors requested that he be sent abroad for medical treatment, but he was not
allowed to leave the country. Gorky pleaded for a visa. On 29 May 1921, he wrote to Anatoly
Lunacharsky: "Blok is Russia's finest poet. If you forbid him to go abroad, and he dies, you and your
comrades will be guilty of his death". A resolution on departure for Blok was signed by members of
the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on 23 July 1921. But on 29 July Gorky asked
permission for Blok's wife to accompany him, since Blok's health had deteriorated sharply.
Permission for L.D. Blok to leave Russia was signed by Molotov on 1 August 1921, but Gorky was
notified only on 6 August. The permission was delivered on 10 August, after Blok had already died. [5]
Several months earlier, Blok had delivered a celebrated lecture on Alexander Pushkin, the memory
of whom he believed to be capable of uniting White and Soviet Russian factions.[5]

Work[edit]

Blok, 1917, The Winter Palace

The idealized mystical images presented in his first book helped establish Blok as a major poet of
the Russian Symbolism style. Blok's early verse is musical, but he later sought to introduce daring
rhythmic patterns and uneven beats into his poetry. Poetical inspiration was natural for him, often
producing unforgettable, otherworldly images out of the most banal surroundings and trivial events
(Fabrika, 1903). Consequently, his mature poems are often based on the conflict between
the Platonic theory of ideal beauty and the disappointing reality of foul industrialism (Little Mess,
1906).
The description of St Petersburg he crafted for his next collection of poems, The City (1904–08), was
both impressionistic and eerie. Subsequent collections, Faina and the Mask of Snow, helped
augment Blok's reputation. He was often compared with Alexander Pushkin, and is considered
perhaps the most important poet of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. During the 1910s, Blok was
admired greatly by literary colleagues, and his influence on younger poets was virtually
unsurpassed. Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, and Vladimir Nabokov wrote
important verse tributes to Blok.

Portrait by Konstantin Somov, 1907

Blok expressed his opinions about the revolution by the enigmatic poem "The Twelve" (1918). The
long poem exhibits "mood-creating sounds, polyphonic rhythms, and harsh, slangy language" (as
the Encyclopædia Britannica termed it). It describes the march of twelve Bolshevik soldiers (likened
to the Twelve Apostles of Christ) through the streets of revolutionary Petrograd, with a fierce winter
blizzard raging around them. "The Twelve" alienated Blok from many of his intellectual readers (who
accused him of lack of artistry), while the Bolsheviks scorned his former mysticism and asceticism.
Blok considered this poem to be his best work.[6] Searching for modern language and new images,
Blok used unusual sources for the poetry of Symbolism: urban folklore, ballads (songs of a
sentimental nature) and ditties ("chastushka"). He was inspired by the popular chansonnier Mikhail
Savoyarov, whose concerts during the years 1915–1920 were visited often by Blok.
[7]
Academician Viktor Shklovsky noted, that the poem is written in criminal language and in ironic
style, similar to Savoyarov’s couplets, by which Blok imitated the slang of 1918 Petrograd.[8]
Symbolism[edit]
Blok considered his poetical output as composed of three volumes. The first volume is composed of
his early poems about the Fair Lady. The second volume comments upon the impossibility of
attaining the ideal for which he craved. The third volume, featuring his poems from pre-revolutionary
years, is more lively. For Blok's poetry, colours are essential. Blue or violet is the colour of frustration,
when the poet understands that his hope to see the Lady is delusive. The yellow colour of street
lanterns, windows and sunsets is the colour of treason and triviality. Black hints at something terrible,
dangerous but potentially capable of esoteric revelation. Russian words for yellow and black are
spelled by the poet with a long O instead of YO, in order to underline "a hole inside the word".
Imitating Fyodor Tyutchev, Blok developed a complicated system of poetic symbols. In his early
work, for instance, wind represents the Fair Lady's approach, whereas morning or spring is the time
when their meeting is most likely to happen. Winter and night are the evil times when the poet and
his lady are far away from each other. Bog and mire represent everyday life with no spiritual light
from above.

Musical settings[edit]
Shakhmatovo, Blok's country house

 Dmitri Shostakovich wrote a late song cycle for soprano and piano trio, Seven Romances on
Poems by Alexander Blok, Op. 127.
 Mieczyslaw Weinberg wrote a song cycle for soprano and piano, Beyond the Border of Past
Days, Op. 50.

 Arthur Lourié wrote a choral cantata, In the Sanctuary of Golden Dreams.

 Alexander Blok was a favourite poet of Georgy Sviridov; such works as "Petersburg" (a vocal
poem), "Nightly Clouds" (cantata) and "Songs From Hard Times" (concerto) were written to
Blok's poetry.

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ Fragment from "The Twelve" re-printed in The Slavonic and East European Review Vol. 8,
No. 22 (Jun., 1929), pp. 188-198
2. Jump up^ The Rasputin File by Edvard Radzinsky

3. Jump up^ [1][dead link]

4. Jump up^ "Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of
1917". www.worldcat.org.

5. ^ Jump up to:a b c Orlando Figes. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924, 1996, ISBN 0-
7126-7327-X, pp 784-785

6. Jump up^ Pavel Fokin, Sv.Poliakova (2008). Blok without gloss. Saint Petersburg: Amphora. p. 360.

7. Jump up^ ed. Ouvarova (2000). Encyclopedia of Russian Variety Art, XX century. Moscow: «Rospen».

8. Jump up^ [2] Viktor Shklovsky The Writing Table // The Hamburg Account: articles, memoirs, essays
(1914-1933), Moscow, Sovetsky Pisatel, 1990. ISBN 5-265-00951-5, ISBN 978-5-265-00951-7.

External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations
related to: Alexander Blok

Wikisource has original

works written by or about:
Alexander Blok

 Works by or about Alexander Blok at Internet Archive

 Works by Alexander Blok at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

 The Lady Unknown

 English translations of 4 short poems. University of Albany. Retrieved 2010-10-28

 "Died and survived" review of new works published on Blok By Simon Karlinsky. 9 May
1982 New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-28

 Essay on Blok's poem "the Twelve", Maria Carlson, University of Kansas. Retrieved 2010-10-
28

 Essay on Blok by Leon Trotsky. Retrieved 2010-10-28

 Collection of Alexander Blok's poems in English

 Poetic translations into English

 Dark Maiden Чёрная Дева in English

 Alexander Blok poetry (rus)

 Rykov A. Politics of Modernism. Nikolay Punin and Alexander Blok