Death of the Poet
"Death of the Poet" (
Pushkin was mortally wounded in a duel on January 27, 1837, and died on the 29th. Lermontov began his first formulation of the poem (ending with the phrase "...his lips forever sealed") as soon as he heard of the event, and within a short time copies of the poem began to be circulated in
On February 7, Lermontov added an acerbic final sixteen lines (beginning "And you, the arrogant descendants of infamous scoundrels...") to the poem. These lines called for divine justice upon the heads of the "greedy horde" of the court aristocracy, whom Lermontov condemned as executioners of freedom and the true culprits of the tragedy. Hand-written copies of this version of the poem circulated among the Petersburg intelligentsia and came to the attention of the authorities. Those final sixteen lines were regarded by the authorities as seditious
The poem was only published long after Lermontov's death. The first publication (a German translation under the title "Lermontov's lament at the grave of Alexander Pushkin") was in 1852 in
External links
- Russian text of «Смерть поэта» ("Death of the Poet") with English translation (Russian) (English)
- Another translation of "Death of the Poet" (English)
References
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_the_Poet