The Roots of Russian Sentimentalism

Abstract

In studying the literature, and in particular the poetry, of the early nineteenth century, the period when Pushkin was still a boy and had not yet made his appearance on the literary scene, we constantly encounter a problem that must be resolved if we are to understand several cardinal questions in the historical and literary processes of that era. I have in mind above all the question of the style of so-called "light verse." Anyone who has read the verse written by the sentimental and romantic poets of the first two decades of the nineteenth century, who is acquainted with the art of Zhukovskii and Batiushkov, who has looked at the journals of the period and read the many elegies and epistles written completely in the manner of Zhukovskii or Batiushkov, who has had anything at all to do with the style of the poetry of the beginning of the last century, has a very good general notion of the character of the "light verse" written by the pre-Pushkinian pleiade. On the background of the majestic and slightly crude poetry of Derzhavin, on the background of the difficult style of Bobrov or Shirinskii-Shikhmatov, of the verse of such epigones of Sumarokov as D. I. Khvostov, the style of the friendly epistles, elegies, and album poetry of the so-called "Karamzinian poets" has a very specific character. Many adjectives have been found to describe this general stylistic character, many others could be found, and all of them are correct—although for the most part, it seems to me, they do not really define the problem itself but only hint at it rather metaphorically. Thus, for example, it is correct to say that the poetry of Batiushkov and those around him is transparent, elegant, refined, harmonious, and balanced salon verse. But we must define more precisely what this all means. It would be correct to say, as has become common in recent years, that the Karamzinian poets cultivated a middle style (let's allow the use of this imprecise term for the time being)—if the stylistic system of these poets had not in general been rather clear about avoiding any notions of high, low, and middle styles.