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Poet of Disappointment
11.01.2007 09:28
The Moscow News/ 21 number, 2002 year
Prominent poet of his age, Konstantin Batyushkov was born on May 29, 1787 - 215 years ago. In the minds of educated Russians Batyushkov is associated with Russia's premier poet Alexander Pushkin, his contemporary (Batyushkov was only 12 years older).
Konstantin Batyushkov was born in Vologda, north of Moscow, to an old gentry family. His ancestors were not particularly illustrious or rich. His grandfather's brother suffered from a mental illness. His father was unbalanced and suffered from hypochondria. Shortly after the boy was born, his mother went mad. Thus, insanity ran in the family, and this no doubt had an important effect on the future poet's fate.
Konstantin spent his childhood on a family estate in Novgorod Province. At ten he was sent to a boarding school in Moscow. The two schools he attended were run by foreigners and provided good knowledge of French, German and Italian. Batyushkov also gained general knowledge of science at school.
The future poet's education was also shaped by his relatives, among whom was the writer and statesman Mikhail Muravyov, and the literary milieu that surrounded him following graduation from school. In 1802 Batyushkov entered government service in the Public Education Ministry. Although this was a time when liberal ideas were in the air in Russia, he remained largely apolitical. His patriotic feelings were awakened, however, when Russia suffered a shattering defeat at the hands of Napoleon at Austerlitz.
In 1807, when the war was resumed, Batyushkov enlisted and took part in the Prussian campaign, being wounded the same year. Recovering in a German house, he fell in love with the owner's daughter and wrote two poems about his infatuation. At this difficult time in Batyushkov's life, his mentor Muravyov died. The poet fell ill again and was bed-ridden for months.
Nevertheless, he returned to military service and took part in the Swedish War and the Finnish expedition. In 1810-1812, during the lull in hostilities, he lived in Moscow. These were the best two years of his life. Batyushkov became close to a number of major literary figures, and his talent was fully appreciated. This was a time of maturity for the poet.
In 1812 Batyushkov returned to St. Petersburg, where he worked at the Public Library. The next year he was in the army again and took part in the campaigns that brought the Russians to Paris.
In addition to Germany and France, the poet visited Britain and Sweden.
The campaigns in Central and Western Europe led many Russian officers to political radicalism, which ended in the December 1825 mutiny. Batyushkov, though, remained loyal to the Czar, and his world outlook remained largely esthetic, not to say Epicurean.
Returning to St. Petersburg, the poet fell in love again, but owing to his indecision, the affair came to an abrupt and unfortunate end. He also had troubles at work, and when his regiment was sent to the remote town of Kamenets-Podolsky in the Ukraine, his depression became chronic. Nevertheless, 1815-1817 saw the flourishing of his talent.
In 1816 he retired and settled in Moscow, occasionally visiting St. Petersburg. But his lifelong dream of going to Italy with its beautiful scenery and art prompted him to arrange for a diplomatic appointment in that country. In 1818 he arrived in Naples. Italy, however, proved to be a bitter disappointment for Batyushkov. He found no friends there, and his diplomatic service was largely unsuccessful. In 1821 the poet decided to abandon his service and literary work and move to Germany.
Those were tragic years for Batyushkov. The poet felt that he was inexorably heading for insanity, but there was nothing he or his friends could do about it. In 1822 he returned to Russia. Several times he attempted to commit suicide. But he was destined to outlive virtually all the writers among his contemporaries. He never recovered his mental health, though.
Konstantin Batyushkov died on July 7, 1855, in a different Russia from the country he had lived in when he was still a poet. Instead of the patriotism of 1812, the country was in the throes of the catastrophic Crimean War.
As a poet, Batyushkov himself did not constitute an outstanding figure, but his importance lay in the fact that he exerted a significant influence on Pushkin in his youth and was instrumental in the transition from Derzhavin and his age to the new poetry of Pushkin. As one critic said about one of his plays, this is not Pushkin's poetry yet, but after it one should expect Pushkin's and not some other lines.
Although Epicureanism played a part in Batyushkov's works, it was an acute sense of disappointment that nourished his poetry, and through disappointment he fathomed the deepest layers of the human soul.
The poet turned to antiquity for esthetic rather than historical reasons. Not only were his poems influenced by antiquity's poets, but he also translated the Roman poet Tibullus and Greek poets. Batyushkov was never forgotten, and his works were republished regularly over the last two centuries. The classical edition was the collected works in three volumes edited by the poet Vasily Maikov in 1887. Maikov was also the author of the definitive biography of Konstantin Batyushkov.
Batyushkov is among those poets whose lines are remembered by all educated people, even though they might have forgotten who the author is.
In the bleakest Soviet years Batyushkov was regarded as an effete, aristocratic poet, but even the radical nineteenth-century critic Belinsky offered a more balanced appraisal of his work, drawing attention to his extraordinary style and language. Belinsky wrote: "Passion is the soul of Batyushkov's poetry, and in the passionate ecstasy of love lies its emotional content."
In our age of disillusionment, we find consolation in the lines written by the poet whose entire life was filled with disappointment. Batyushkov was too sensitive to endure the cruelties and loneliness of life. But for his mental illness, he could have become another Pushkin.
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