Konstantin Batyushkov

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Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov Константин Николаевич Батюшков (1787, Vologda - July 7, 1855, Vologda) was an important precursor of Alexander Pushkin in the Russian poetry.

Batyushkov was brought up in the house of his uncle Mikhail Muravyov, who was reputed for his light and humorous poetry. At an early age he became fascinated with the Italian language and set out to Italianize Russian poetry. Batyushkov's most important poems were written between 1809 and 1812 and collected into a slender volume in 1817. We have Pushkin's copy of the book, with his curious remarks on the Italianate music and technique of Batyushkov's mellifluous verse.

About 1823 Batyushkov went mad. During the period of his mental illness, he still made weird attempts at versification. His rare poems from this period are impeccable metrically but do not make any sense, e.g., "I only wake to fall asleep / And sleep, to wake without end", his last lines from 1853. Such pieces fascinated the 20th-century poet Osip Mandelshtam, who repeatedly addressed Batyushkov's life and poetry in his essays and verse.