Russian Poetry of the 19th Century

Many of the outstanding Russian poets of the 19th century – F.I. Tyutchev, A.A. Fet, N.A. Nekrasov, A.K. Tolstoy, A.N. Maykov – began their creative paths in the late 1830s – early 1840s. This was not a very favorable time for poetry. After the death of A.S. Pushkin and M.Y. Lermontov, as V.G. Belinsky wrote, it was difficult to be not only remarkable but any kind of poet. Another important factor was that prose captivated readers' minds, and magazine editors, responding to the spirit of the age, allocated pages to stories and novels, almost not publishing lyrical poetry. Although poets of the second half of the 19th century could not completely overcome readers' indifference to lyric poetry and make them eagerly await their poetry collections as they awaited, for example, the new novels of I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, they made their poems sing. Already in the 1860s, Fet's romances were sung by almost all of Russia. The remarkable musicality of the works of Russian lyricists attracted the attention of outstanding composers: P.I. Tchaikovsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M.P. Musorgsky, S.I. Taneyev, S.V. Rachmaninoff, who created musical masterpieces that were remembered and beloved by the Russian people.