Konstantin Balmont is a Russian poet, translator, prose writer, critic, and essayist. Bright representative Silver Age. He published 35 collections of poetry, 20 books of prose. translated a large number of works of foreign writers. Konstantin Dmitrievich is the author of literary studies, philological treatises, and critical essays. His poems "Snowflake", "Reeds", "Autumn", "By Winter", "Fairy" and many others are included in the school curriculum.

Childhood and youth

Konstantin Balmont was born and lived until the age of 10 in the village of Gumnishchi, Shuisky district, Vladimir province, in a poor but noble family. His father, Dmitry Konstantinovich, first worked as a judge, later took up the post of head of the zemstvo council. Mother Vera Nikolaevna was from a family where they loved and were fond of literature. The woman arranged literary evenings, staged performances and published in the local newspaper.

Vera Nikolaevna knew several foreign languages, and she was characterized by a share of "free-thinking", "unwanted" people often visited their house. Later, he wrote that his mother not only instilled in him a love of literature, but from her he inherited his "mental system." In the family, in addition to Konstantin, there were seven sons. He was third. Watching his mother teach his older brothers to read and write, the boy taught himself to read at the age of 5.

The family lived in a house that stood on the banks of the river, surrounded by gardens. Therefore, when the time came to send the children to school, they moved to Shuya. Thus, they had to break away from nature. The boy wrote his first poems at the age of 10. But his mother did not approve of these undertakings, and he did not write anything for the next 6 years.

In 1876, Balmont was enrolled in the Shuya gymnasium. At first, Kostya proved himself to be a diligent student, but soon he got bored with all this. He became interested in reading, with some books in German and French he read in the original. He was expelled from the gymnasium for poor teaching and revolutionary sentiments. Even then, he was in an illegal circle that distributed leaflets from the People's Will party.

Konstantin moved to Vladimir and studied there until 1886. While still studying at the gymnasium, his poems were published in the capital's magazine "Picturesque Review", but this event went unnoticed. After he entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. But even here he did not stay long.

He became close to Pyotr Nikolayev, who was a sixties revolutionary. Therefore, it is not surprising that after 2 years he was expelled for participating in student disorder. Immediately after this incident, he was expelled from Moscow to Shuya.

In 1889, Balmont decided to recover at the university, but due to a nervous breakdown, he again could not finish his studies. The same fate befell him at the Demidov Lyceum legal sciences where he entered later. After this attempt, he decided to leave the idea of ​​​​getting a "state" education.

Literature

Balmont wrote his first collection of poems when he was bedridden after an unsuccessful suicide. The book was published in Yaroslavl in 1890, but later the poet himself personally destroyed the main part of the circulation.

Nevertheless, the collection "Under the Northern Sky" is considered the starting point in the poet's work. He was greeted with admiration by the public, as were his subsequent works - "In the vastness of darkness" and "Silence". He was willingly published in modern magazines, Balmont became popular, he was considered the most promising of the "decadents".

In the mid-1890s, he begins to communicate closely with,. Soon Balmont became the most popular symbolist poet in Russia. In poetry, he admires the phenomena of the world, and in some collections he openly touches on “demonic” topics. This can be seen in "Evil Charms", the circulation of which was confiscated by the authorities for reasons of censorship.

Balmont travels a lot, so his work is permeated with images of exotic countries and multiculturalism. It attracts and delights readers. The poet adheres to spontaneous improvisation - he never made changes to the texts, he believed that the first creative impulse was the most correct.

Contemporaries highly appreciated "Fairy Tales", written by Balmont in 1905. The poet dedicated this collection of fairy-tale songs to his daughter Nina.

Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont was a revolutionary in spirit and in life. Expulsion from the gymnasium and the university did not stop the poet. Once he publicly read the verse "Little Sultan", in which everyone saw a parallel with. For this, he was expelled from St. Petersburg and banned from living in university cities for 2 years.

He was an opponent of tsarism, so his participation in the First Russian Revolution was expected. At that time, he became friends with and wrote poems that looked more like rhymed leaflets.

During the December Moscow uprising of 1905, Balmont speaks to students. But, fearing arrest, he was forced to leave Russia. From 1906 to 1913 he lived in France as a political emigrant. Being in a kind of exile, he continues to write, but critics increasingly began to talk about the decline of Balmont's work. In his latest works, they noticed a certain stereotype and self-repetition.

The poet himself considered his best book"Burning buildings. Lyrics of the modern soul. If before this collection his lyrics were filled with melancholy and melancholy, then “Burning Buildings” opened Balmont from the other side - “sunny” and cheerful notes appeared in his work.

Returning to Russia in 1913, he published a 10-volume complete set of works. He works on translations and lectures around the country. February Revolution Balmont took it enthusiastically, like the rest of the Russian intelligentsia. But soon he was horrified by the anarchy that was happening in the country.

When the October Revolution began, he was in St. Petersburg, according to him, it was a "hurricane of madness" and "chaos." In 1920, the poet moved to Moscow, but soon, due to the poor health of his wife and daughter, he moved with them to France. He never returned to Russia.

In 1923, Balmont published two autobiographies - "Under the New Sickle" and "Air Route". Until the first half of the 1930s, he traveled all over Europe, his performances were a success with the public. But he no longer enjoyed recognition among the Russian diaspora.

The sunset of his work came in 1937, when he published his last collection of poems, Light Service.

Personal life

In 1889, Konstantin Balmont married the daughter of an Ivanovo-Voznesensk merchant, Larisa Mikhailovna Garelina. Their mother introduced them, but when he announced his intention to marry, she spoke out against this marriage. Konstantin showed his inflexibility and even went to break with his family for the sake of his beloved.

As it turned out, his young wife was prone to unjustified jealousy. They always quarreled, the woman did not support him either in literary or revolutionary endeavors. Some researchers note that it was she who addicted Balmont to wine.

On March 13, 1890, the poet decided to commit suicide - he threw himself onto the pavement from the third floor of his own apartment. But the attempt failed - he lay in bed for a year, and from his injuries he remained lame for the rest of his life.

In marriage with Larisa, they had two children. Their first child died in infancy, the second - son Nikolai - was ill with a nervous breakdown. As a result, Konstantin and Larisa separated, she married a journalist and writer Engelhardt.

In 1896 Balmont married a second time. His wife was Ekaterina Alekseevna Andreeva. The girl was from a wealthy family - smart, educated and beautiful. Immediately after the wedding, the lovers left for France. In 1901 their daughter Nina was born. In many ways, they were united by literary activity, together they worked on translations.

Ekaterina Alekseevna was not an imperious person, but she dictated the lifestyle of the spouses. And everything would have been fine if Balmont had not met Elena Konstantinovna Tsvetkovskaya in Paris. The girl was fascinated by the poet, looked at him as if at a god. From now on, he lived with his family, then for a couple of months he went on trips abroad with Catherine.

His family life was completely confused when Tsvetkovskaya gave birth to a daughter, Mirra. This event finally tied Konstantin to Elena, but at the same time he did not want to part with Andreeva. Mental torment again led Balmont to suicide. He jumped out of the window, but, like last time, survived.

As a result, he began to live in St. Petersburg with Tsvetkovskaya and Mirra, and occasionally visited Moscow to Andreeva and his daughter Nina. They later immigrated to France. There Balmont began to meet with Dagmar Shakhovskaya. He did not leave the family, but met with the woman regularly, writing letters to her daily. As a result, she bore him two children - a son, Georges, and a daughter, Svetlana.

But in the most difficult years of his life, Tsvetkovskaya was still next to him. She was so devoted to him that she did not even live a year after his death, she left after him.

Death

After moving to France, he yearned for Russia. But his health was deteriorating, there were financial problems, so there was no question of returning. He lived in a cheap apartment with a broken window.

In 1937, the poet was found mental illness. From that moment on, he no longer wrote poetry.

On December 23, 1942, he died in the Russian House shelter, not far from Paris, in Noisy-le-Grand. The cause of his death was pneumonia. The poet died in poverty and oblivion.

Bibliography

• 1894 - "Under the northern sky (elegies, stanzas, sonnets)"
• 1895 - "In the vastness of darkness"
• 1898 - Silence. Lyric poems»
• 1900 - “Burning buildings. Lyrics of the Modern Soul"
• 1903 - “We will be like the sun. Book of Symbols»
• 1903 - “Only love. Semitsvetnik»
• 1905 - “The Liturgy of Beauty. Elemental hymns»
• 1905 - "Fairy Tales (Children's Songs)"
• 1906 - "Evil Spells (Book of Spells)"
• 1906 - "Poems"
• 1907 - "Songs of the Avenger"
• 1908 - "Birds in the Air (Chanting Lines)"
• 1909 - "Green garden (Kissing words)"
• 1917 - "Sonnets of the Sun, Honey and the Moon"
• 1920 - "Ring"
• 1920 - "Seven Poems"
• 1922 - "Song of the working hammer"
• 1929 - "In the parted distance (Poem about Russia)"
• 1930 - "Complicity of Souls"
• 1937 - Light Service

From the symbolist Konstantin Balmont was for his contemporaries "an eternal disturbing mystery." His followers united in "Balmontov" circles, imitated him literary style and even looks. Many contemporaries dedicated their poems to him - Marina Tsvetaeva and Maximilian Voloshin, Igor Severyanin and Ilya Ehrenburg. But special meaning in the life of the poet had several people.

"The First Poets I Read"

Konstantin Balmont was born in the village of Gumnishchi, Vladimir province. His father was an employee, his mother arranged amateur performances and literary evenings, and appeared in the local press. The future poet Konstantin Balmont read his first books at the age of five.

When the older children had to go to school (Konstantin was the third of seven sons), the family moved to Shuya. Here Balmont entered the gymnasium, here he wrote his first poems, not approved by his mother: “On a bright sunny day they arose, two poems at once, one about winter, the other about summer.” Here he joined an illegal circle, which distributed proclamations of the executive committee of the Narodnaya Volya party in the town. The poet wrote about his revolutionary moods as follows: “... I was happy, and I wanted everyone to be just as good. It seemed to me that if it’s good only for me and for a few, it’s ugly.”

Dmitry Konstantinovich Balmont, poet's father. 1890s Photo: P. V. Kupriyanovsky, N. A. Molchanova. "Balmont .. "Sunny Genius" of Russian Literature". Editor L. S. Kalyuzhnaya. M.: Young Guard, 2014. 384 p.

Kostya Balmont. Moscow. Photo: P. V. Kupriyanovsky, N. A. Molchanova. "Balmont .. "Sunny Genius" of Russian Literature". Editor L. S. Kalyuzhnaya. M.: Young Guard, 2014. 384 p.

Vera Nikolaevna Balmont, mother of the poet. 1880s Image: P. V. Kupriyanovsky, N. A. Molchanova. "Balmont .. "Sunny Genius" of Russian Literature". Editor L. S. Kalyuzhnaya. M.: Young Guard, 2014. 384 p.

The Godfather Vladimir Korolenko

In 1885, the future writer was transferred to a gymnasium in Vladimir. He published three of his poems in The Picturesque Review, the then popular St. Petersburg magazine. Balmont's literary debut went almost unnoticed.

During this period, Konstantin Balmont met the writer Vladimir Korolenko. The poet later called him his "godfather". Korolenko was given a notebook containing Balmont's poems and his translations by the Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau.

The writer prepared a letter for the high school student Konstantin Balmont with a review of his works, noted the “undoubted talent” of the aspiring poet and gave some advice: to work with concentration on your texts, look for your own individuality, and also “read, study and, more importantly, live” .

“He wrote to me that I have a lot of beautiful details, successfully snatched from the natural world, that you need to focus your attention, and not chase after every passing moth, that you don’t need to rush your feeling with thought, but you need to trust the unconscious area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe soul, which is imperceptibly accumulates his observations and comparisons, and then all of a sudden it all blooms, as a flower blooms after a long invisible pore of accumulation of its forces.

In 1886, Konstantin Balmont entered the law faculty of Moscow University. But a year later he was expelled for participating in the riots and deported to Shuya.

K. D. Balmont. Portrait by Valentin Serov (1905)

Building of Moscow State University

Vladimir Korolenko. Photo: onk.su

"Russian Sappho" Mirra Lokhvitskaya

In 1889, the aspiring poet married Larisa Garelina. A year later, Konstantin Balmont published his first book, Collection of Poems. The publication aroused no interest either in literary circles or among the poet's relatives, and he burned almost the entire print run of the book. The poet's parents actually broke off relations with him after his marriage, the financial situation of the young family was unstable. Balmont tried to commit suicide by jumping out of the window. After that, he spent almost a year in bed. In 1892, he began to translate (for half a century of literary activity, he will leave translations from almost 30 languages).

A close friend of the poet in the 1890s was Mirra (Maria) Lokhvitskaya, who was called the "Russian Sappho". They met, most likely, in 1895 in the Crimea (the approximate date was restored from a book with a dedicatory inscription by Lokhvitskaya). The poetess was married, Konstantin Balmont at that time was married for the second time, to Ekaterina Andreeva (in 1901 their daughter Nina was born).

My earthly life is ringing,
The indistinct rustle of reeds,
They lulled the sleeping swan,
My anxious soul
In the distance they flicker hastily
In search of greedy ships,
Quietly in the thickets of the bay,
Where sadness breathes, like the oppression of the earth.
But the sound, born of trembling,
Slip into the rustle of reeds,
And the awakened swan trembles,
My immortal soul
And rush into the world of freedom,
Where the sighs of storms echo the waves,
Where in the changing waters
Looks like eternal azure.

Mirra Lokhvitskaya. "Sleeping Swan" (1896)

White swan, pure swan,
Your dreams are always silent
serene silver,
You slide, giving birth to waves.
Beneath you is a mute depth,
No hello, no answer
But you slide, drowning
In the abyss of air and light.
Above you - bottomless ether
With the bright Morning Star.
You slide, transformed
reflected beauty.
A symbol of impassive tenderness,
unsaid, timid,
Phantom feminine-beautiful
The swan is clean, the swan is white!

Konstantin Balmont. "White Swan" (1897)

For almost a decade, Lokhvitskaya and Balmont had a poetic dialogue, which is often called a "novel in verse." In the work of the two poets, poems were popular that echoed - without direct mention of the addressee - in form or content. Sometimes the meaning of several verses became clear only when they were compared.

Soon the views of the poets began to diverge. This also affected the creative correspondence, which Mirra Lokhvitskaya tried to stop. But the literary romance was interrupted only in 1905, when she died. Balmont continued to dedicate poetry to her and admire her works. He told Anna Akhmatovathat before meeting her he knew only two poetesses - Sappho and Mirra Lokhvitskaya. In honor of the poetess, he will name his daughter from his third marriage.

Mirra Lokhvitskaya. Photo: e-reading.club

Ekaterina Andreeva. Photo: P. V. Kupriyanovsky, N. A. Molchanova. "Balmont .. "Sunny Genius" of Russian Literature". Editor L. S. Kalyuzhnaya. M.: Young Guard, 2014. 384 p.

Anna Akhmatova. Photo: lingar.my1.ru

"Brother of my dreams, poet and sorcerer Valery Bryusov"

In 1894, a collection of poems by Konstantin Balmont “Under the Northern Sky” was published, and in the same year, at a meeting of the Society of Western Literature Lovers, the poet met Valery Bryusov.

“He first discovered in our verse “deviations”, opened up possibilities that no one suspected, unprecedented rehashing of vowels, pouring into one another, like drops of moisture, like crystal chimes.”

Valery Bryusov

Their acquaintance grew into friendship: the poets often met, read new works to each other, shared their impressions of foreign poetry. In his memoirs, Valery Bryusov wrote: “Much, very much became clear to me, it was revealed to me only through Balmont. He taught me to understand other poets. I was one before meeting Balmont and became different after meeting him.

Both poets tried to bring European traditions into Russian poetry, both were symbolists. However, their communication, which lasted a total of more than a quarter of a century, did not always go smoothly: sometimes conflicts that broke out led to long disagreements, then both Balmont and Bryusov again resumed creative meetings and correspondence. Many years of "friendship-enmity" was accompanied by many poems that poets dedicated to each other.

Valery Bryusov "K.D. Balmont"

V. Bryusov. Painting by artist M. Vrubel

Konstantin Balmont

Valery Bryusov

"The tradesman Peshkov. Nickname: Gorky

In the mid-1890s, Maxim Gorky was interested in the literary experiences of the Symbolists. During this period, his correspondence with Konstantin Balmont began: in 1900-1901, both of them were published in the journal Life. Balmont devoted several poems to Gorky, wrote about his work in his articles on Russian literature.

The writers met in person in November 1901. At this time, Balmont was again expelled from St. Petersburg - for participating in the demonstration and the poem he wrote "The Little Sultan", which contained criticism of the policies of Nicholas II. The poet went to the Crimea to Maxim Gorky. Together they visited Leo Tolstoy in Gaspra. In a letter to the editor of Zhizn, Vladimir Possa, Gorky wrote about his acquaintance: “I met Balmont. This neurasthenic is devilishly interesting and talented!”

Bitter! You came from the bottom
But with an indignant soul you love the tender, refined.
There is only one sorrow in our life:
We longed for greatness, seeing the pale circle, unfinished

Konstantin Balmont. "Gorky"

Since 1905, Konstantin Balmont actively participated in the political life of the country, collaborated with anti-government publications. A year later, fearing arrest, he emigrated to France. During this period, Balmont traveled and wrote a lot, published the book "Songs of the Avenger". The communication of the poet with Maxim Gorky practically ceased.

The poet returned to Russia in 1913, when an amnesty was announced in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The poet did not accept the October Revolution of 1917, in the book “Am I a revolutionary or not?” (1918) he argued that the poet should be outside the parties, but expressed a negative attitude towards the Bolsheviks. At this time, Balmont was married for the third time - to Elena Tsvetkovskaya.

In 1920, when the poet moved to Moscow with his wife and daughter Mirra, he wrote several poems dedicated to the young Union. This made it possible to go abroad, allegedly on a creative business trip, but the family did not return to the USSR. At this time, relations with Maxim Gorky are entering a new round: Gorky writes a letter to Romain Rolland, in which he condemns Balmont for pseudo-revolutionary poetry, emigration and the complicated situation of those poets who also wanted to go abroad. The poet responds to this with the article “The tradesman Peshkov. By pseudonym: Gorky”, which was published in the Riga newspaper “Today”.

The work of the famous Russian poet Konstantin Balmont of the Silver Age is rather controversial in terms of direction and style. Initially, the poet was considered the first symbolist to become so famous. However, his early work can still be attributed to impressionism.

All this affected the fact that basically Konstantin Balmont's poems were about love, about fleeting impressions and feelings, his work seems to connect heaven and earth, and leaves a sweet aftertaste. In addition, the early poems of the symbolist Balmont were accompanied by a rather sad mood and humility of a lonely youth.

The subject of poems by Konstantin Balmont:

All further work of the poet was constantly changing. The next step was the search for a new space and emotions that could be found in the works. The transition to "Nietzschean" motifs and heroes caused violent criticism of Balmont's poems from the outside. The last stage in the poet's work was the transition from sad themes to brighter colors of life and emotions.

In autumn, there is nothing better than to indulge in reading poems by Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont.

The Scottish surname, unusual for Russia, came to him thanks to a distant ancestor - a sailor who forever anchored off the coast of Pushkin and Lermontov. Creativity Balmont Konstantin Dmitrievich Soviet time was forgotten for obvious reasons. The country of the hammer and sickle did not need creators who worked outside socialist realism, whose lines did not broadcast about the struggle, about the heroes of war and labor ... Meanwhile, this poet, who has a really powerful talent, whose exceptionally melodic poems continued the tradition but for people.

“Create always, create everywhere…”

The legacy that Balmont left us is quite voluminous and impressive: 35 collections of poems and 20 books of prose. His verses aroused the admiration of compatriots for the lightness of the author's style. Konstantin Dmitrievich wrote a lot, but he never “forced lines out of himself” and did not optimize the text with numerous edits. His poems were always written on the first try, in one sitting. About how he created poems, Balmont told in a completely original way - in a poem.

The above is not an exaggeration. Mikhail Vasilievich Sabashnikov, with whom the poet was visiting in 1901, recalled that dozens of lines formed in his head, and he wrote poetry on paper immediately, without a single edit. When asked about how he succeeds, Konstantin Dmitrievich answered with a disarming smile: “After all, I am a poet!”

Brief description of creativity

Literary critics, connoisseurs of his work, talk about the formation, flourishing and decline of the level of works that Balmont created. short biography and creativity point us, however, to an amazing capacity for work (he wrote daily and always on a whim).

The most popular works of Balmont are collections of poems by the mature poet "Only Love", "We'll Be Like the Sun", "Burning Buildings". Among the early works stands out the collection "Silence".

Creativity Balmont (briefly quoting the literary critics of the early XX century), with the subsequent general trend towards the fading of the author's talent (after the three above-mentioned collections), also has a number of "gaps". Noteworthy are "Fairy Tales" - cute children's songs written in a style later adopted by Korney Chukovsky. Also of interest are "foreign poems", created under the impression of what he saw on his travels in Egypt and Oceania.

Biography. Childhood

His father, Dmitry Konstantinovich, was a zemstvo doctor and also owned an estate. Mother, (nee Lebedeva), a creative nature, according to the future poet, "did more to foster a love of poetry and music" than all subsequent teachers. Konstantin became the third son in a family where there were seven children in total, and all of them were sons.

Konstantin Dmitrievich had his own special Tao (perception of life). It is no coincidence that the life and work of Balmont are closely related. From childhood, a powerful creative principle was laid in him, which manifested itself in the contemplation of the world outlook.

From childhood, he was sickened by schoolboyism and loyalty. Romanticism often took precedence over common sense. He never graduated from the school (Shuisky male heir to Tsesarevich Alexei), he was expelled from the 7th grade for participating in a revolutionary circle. He completed his last school course at the Vladimir Gymnasium under round-the-clock supervision of a teacher. He later recalled only two teachers with gratitude: a teacher of history and geography and a teacher of literature.

After studying for a year at Moscow University, he was also expelled for "organizing riots", then he was expelled from the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl ...

As you can see, Konstantin did not easily start his poetic activity and his work is still the subject of controversy between literary critics.

Balmont's personality

The personality of Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont is quite complex. He was not "like everyone else." Exclusivity... It can be identified even by the poet's portrait, by his gaze, by his posture. It immediately becomes clear: before us is not an apprentice, but a master of poetry. His personality was bright and charismatic. He was an amazingly organic person, the life and work of Balmont are like a single inspirational impulse.

He began writing poems at the age of 22 (for comparison, Lermontov's first compositions were written at the age of 15). Prior to this, as we already know, incomplete education, as well as an unsuccessful marriage with the daughter of a Shuisky manufacturer, which ended in a suicide attempt (the poet jumped out of the window of the 3rd floor onto the pavement.) Disorder pushed Balmont family life and the death of the first child from meningitis. His first wife Garelina Larisa Mikhailovna, a beauty of the Botticelli type, tortured him with jealousy, imbalance and disregard for dreams of great literature. He splashed out his emotions from discord (and later from divorce) with his wife in the verses “Your fragrant shoulders breathed ...”, “No, no one did me so much harm ...”, “Oh, woman, child, accustomed to play ..”.

self-education

How did the young Balmont, having become an outcast due to the allegiance of the education system, turned into an educated person, an ideologist of a new one? Self-education. It became for Konstantin Dmitrievich a springboard to the future ...

Being by nature a real worker of the pen, Konstantin Dmitrievich never followed any external system imposed on him from the outside and alien to his nature. Balmont's work is entirely based on his passion for self-education and openness to impressions. He was attracted by literature, philology, history, philosophy, in which he was a real specialist. He loved to travel.

The beginning of the creative path

Inherent in Fet, Nadson and Pleshcheev, did not become an end in itself for Balmont (in the 70-80s of the XIX century, many poets created poems with motives of sadness, sadness, restlessness, orphanhood). It turned for Konstantin Dmitrievich into the path he paved to symbolism. He will write about this later.

Unconventional self-education

The unconventionality of self-education determines the features of Balmont's work. It was really a man who created with a word. Poet. And he perceived the world in the same way as a poet can see it: not with the help of analysis and reasoning, but relying only on impressions and sensations. “The first movement of the soul is the most correct”, - this rule, worked out by him, became immutable for his whole life. It raised him to the heights of creativity, it also ruined his talent.

The romantic hero of Balmont in the early period of his work is committed to Christian values. He, experimenting with combinations of different sounds and thoughts, erects a "cherished chapel".

However, it is obvious that under the influence of his travels in 1896-1897, as well as translations of foreign poetry, Balmont gradually comes to a different worldview.

It should be recognized that following the romantic style of Russian poets of the 80s. Balmont's work began, briefly evaluating which, we can say that he really became the founder of symbolism in Russian poetry. Significant for the period of the formation of the poet are considered poetry collections "Silence" and "In the boundlessness."

He outlined his views on symbolism in 1900 in the article "Elementary Words on Symbolic Poetry". Symbolists, unlike realists, according to Balmont, are not just observers, they are thinkers looking at the world through the window of their dreams. At the same time, Balmont considers “hidden abstraction” and “obvious beauty” to be the most important principles in symbolic poetry.

By its nature, Balmont was not a gray mouse, but a leader. A brief biography and creativity confirm this. Charisma and a natural desire for freedom ... It was these qualities that allowed him at the peak of his popularity to "become a center of attraction" for numerous Russian Balmontist societies. According to Ehrenburg's memoirs (this was much later), Balmont's personality impressed even arrogant Parisians from the fashionable Passy district.

New wings of poetry

Balmont fell in love with his future second wife Ekaterina Alekseevna Andreeva at first sight. This stage in his life reflects the collection of poems "In the boundlessness." The verses dedicated to her are numerous and original: "Black-eyed doe", "Why does the moon always intoxicate us?", "Night flowers".

The lovers lived in Europe for a long time, and then, returning to Moscow, Balmont in 1898 published a collection of poems "Silence" in the Scorpio publishing house. The collection of poems was preceded by an epigraph chosen from Tyutchev's writings: "There is a certain hour of universal silence." The poems in it are grouped into 12 sections called "lyric poems". Konstantin Dmitrievich, inspired by the theosophical teaching of Blavatsky, already in this collection of poems noticeably departs from the Christian worldview.

The poet's understanding of his role in art

The collection "Silence" becomes the facet that distinguishes Balmont as a poet professing symbolism. Developing further the accepted vector of creativity, Konstantin Dmitrievich writes an article called "Calderon's personality drama", where he indirectly substantiated his departure from the classical Christian model. It was done, as always, figuratively. He considered earthly life "falling away from the bright Primary Source."

Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky talentedly presented the features of Balmont's work, his author's style. He believed that the "I", written by Balmont, does not in principle indicate belonging to the poet, it is initially socialized. Therefore, Konstantin Dmitrievich's verse is unique in its heartfelt lyricism, expressed in associating oneself with others, which the reader invariably feels. Reading his poems, it seems that Balmont is filled with light and energy, which he generously shares with others:

What Balmont presents as optimistic narcissism is in fact more altruistic than the phenomenon of public demonstration of poets' pride in their merits, as well as equally public hanging of laurels by them on themselves.

The work of Balmont, in short, in the words of Annensky, is saturated with the internal philosophical polemicism inherent in it, which determines the integrity of the worldview. The latter is expressed in the fact that Balmont wants to present the event to his reader comprehensively: both from the standpoint of the executioner and from the standpoint of the victim. He does not have an unambiguous assessment of anything, he is initially characterized by pluralism of opinions. He came to it thanks to his talent and diligence, a whole century ahead of the time when this became the norm of public consciousness for developed countries.

solar genius

The work of the poet Balmont is unique. In fact, Konstantin Dmitrievich purely formally joined various currents, so that it would be more convenient for him to promote his new poetic ideas, which he never lacked. In the last decade of the 19th century, a metamorphosis takes place with the poet's work: melancholy and transience give way to sunny optimism.

If in earlier poems the moods of Nietzscheanism were traced, then at the peak of the development of talent, the work of Konstantin Balmont began to be distinguished by specific authorial optimism and “sunshine”, “fiery”.

Alexander Blok, who is also a symbolist poet, presented a vivid description of Balmont's work of that period very succinctly, saying that it is as bright and life-affirming as spring.

The peak of creativity

Balmont's poetic gift sounded for the first time in full force in verses from the collection "Burning Buildings". It contains 131 poems written during the poet's stay in Polyakov's house.

All of them, according to the poet, were composed under the influence of “one mood” (Balmont did not think of creativity in a different way). “A poem should no longer be in a minor key!” Balmont decided. Starting with this collection, he finally moved away from decadence. The poet, boldly experimenting with combinations of sounds, colors and thoughts, created "lyrics of the modern soul", "torn soul", "wretched, ugly".

At this time, he was in close contact with the St. Petersburg bohemia. knew one weakness for her husband. He was not allowed to drink wine. Although Konstantin Dmitrievich was of a strong, wiry build, his nervous system(obviously, torn in childhood and youth) "worked" inadequately. After wine, he was "carried" to brothels. However, as a result, he found himself in a completely miserable state: lying on the floor and paralyzed by a deep hysteria. This happened more than once while working on Burning Buildings, when he was in company with Baltrushaitis and Polyakov.

We must pay tribute to Ekaterina Alekseevna, the earthly guardian angel of her husband. She understood the essence of her husband, whom she considered the most honest and sincere and who, to her chagrin, had affairs. For example, as with Dagny Christensen in Paris, the verses “The Sun Has Retired”, “From the Family of Kings” are dedicated to her. It is significant that the affair with the Norwegian, who worked as a St. Petersburg correspondent, ended on the part of Balmont as abruptly as it began. After all, his heart still belonged to one woman - Ekaterina Andreevna, Beatrice, as he called her.

In 1903, Konstantin Dmitrievich hardly published the collection “We Will Be Like the Sun”, written in 1901-1902. It feels like the hand of a master. Note that about 10 works did not pass through the censorship. The work of the poet Balmont, according to the censors, has become too sensual and erotic.

Literary scholars, however, believe that this collection of works, presenting readers with a cosmogonic model of the world, is evidence of a new, the highest level poet's development. Being on the verge of a mental break, while working on the previous collection, Konstantin Dmitrievich, it seems, realized that it was impossible to “live in rebellion”. The poet is looking for truth at the intersection of Hinduism, paganism and Christianity. He expresses his worship of elemental objects: fire ("Hymn to Fire"), wind ("Wind"), ocean ("Appeal to the Ocean"). In the same 1903, the Grif publishing house published the third collection, crowning the peak of Balmont's work, “Only Love. Semitsvetnik.

Instead of a conclusion

Inscrutable Even for such poets "by the grace of God" as Balmont. Life and work are briefly characterized for him after 1903 in one word - "recession". Therefore, Alexander Blok, who in fact became the next leader of Russian symbolism, in his own way appreciated the further (after the collection "Only Love") Balmont's work. He presented him with a deadly characterization, saying that there is a great Russian poet Balmont, but there is no “new Balmont”.

However, not being literary critics of the last century, we nevertheless got acquainted with the late work of Konstantin Dmitrievich. Our verdict: it's worth reading, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there... However, we have no motives to distrust Blok's words. Indeed, from the point of view of literary criticism, Balmont as a poet is the banner of symbolism, after the collection “Only Love. Semitsvetnik "has exhausted itself. Therefore, it is logical on our part to complete this short story about the life and work of K. D. Balmont, the "solar genius" of Russian poetry.

Poems began to write in childhood. The first book of poems "Collection of Poems" was published in Yaroslavl at the expense of the author in 1890. The young poet, after the release of the book, burned almost the entire small print run.

Widespread fame came to Balmont rather late, and in the late 1890s he was rather known as a talented translator from Norwegian, Spanish, English and other languages.
In 1903, one of best compilations poet "We will be like the sun" and the collection "Only love".

1905 - two collections "The Liturgy of Beauty" and "Fairy Tales".
Balmont responds to the events of the first Russian revolution with the collections Poems (1906) and Songs of the Avenger (1907).
1907 book “The Firebird. Pipe Slav"

collections "Birds in the Air" (1908), "Dance of Times" (1908), "Green Heliport" (1909).

author of three books containing literary criticism and aesthetic articles: "Mountain Peaks" (1904), "White Lightnings" (1908), "Sea Glow" (1910).
Before October Revolution Balmont creates two more truly interesting collections, Ash (1916) and Sonnets of the Sun, Honey and Moon (1917).