Myth in Valery Bryusov's Verse: Restoring the Missing Links with J.-M. de Heredia and Gustave Moreau

Abstract

Myth, presented here as the ultimate vessel for the eternal essence of poetry, is a key to Bryusov’s verse, with its outstanding cross-cultural versatility, tendency for dramatic plots and visionary plasticity. For an in-depth understanding of Bryusov’s mythological poetry, it is illuminating to consider it in the context of the poet’s French models. Much has been written about Bryusov’s connection to major French Symbolists such as Mallarme, Verlaine and Rimbaud; yet two fi gures that constitute maybe equally vital links between the Russian poet and French Symbolism have been largely overlooked or underestimated hitherto: Jose-Maria de Heredia (1842–1905), a key exponent of the Parnassian poetic school, and Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), often recognized as a pioneer in the Symbolist use of myth in painting. Moreau’s art was deeply inspirational for Heredia’s sonnet collection Les Trophees (1893), which went on to infl uence Bryusov in his adaptation of the French Symbolist aesthetic to Russian poetry. Bryusov knew the primary mythological material extremely well, especially classical mythologies. Yet the poetic transformation of myth in his art was greatly indebted to the French artists, who were among the fi rst to contribute to the fi n de siecle resurgence of myth. I shall argue that a consideration of Bryusov’s mythological verse in the light of selected works by Heredia and Moreau enables us to reconcile two apparently incompatible tendencies in the Russian poet’s work: on