SOURCE: “‘The Feasts of Ill Intention’: Baratynskii and the Critics,” in Freedom and Responsibility in Russian Literature: Essays in Honor of Robert Louis Jackson, edited by Elizabeth Cheresh Allen and Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University Press, 1995, pp. 29-37.

In the following essay, Fusso and Stern explore Baratynsky's attitude toward his critics and the way in which he used his anger at their attacks as a stimulus to continue writing poetry.

 “Even in the grave?” “Even under the coffin lid.” “I cannot sing!” “Well, sing about that!” 

—Marina Tsvetaeva, 1928

[“Tak i v grobu?” —“I pod doskoi.” “Pet' ne mogu!” —“Eto vospoi!”] 

“On Planting a Forest” (“Na posev lesa”), written in 1842, two years before Baratynskii's death, is a cross between two of his favorite genres. It is in part an elegy, a farewell to poetry: the poet, who feels the approach of old age, sadly sets aside his lyre and...