March and April in Brief

MARCH

2 Today is the bicentennial of the poet Yevgeny Baratynsky (1800-1844), a contemporary of Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov. He made his literary debut at the age of 19, immediately earning a place as a leading light of Russian poetry. Upon reading Baratynsky’s elegy, “Confession,” Pushkin wrote: “Baratynsky is a delight and a miracle ... ‘Confession’ is perfect. After him, I will never publish my elegies.” Baratynsky was not only an author of profound lyrical verses but also a philosopher, preoccupied with the riddles of the universe and of humans, with the contradictions between the senses and reason.