Apukhtin, Aleksei Nikolaevich

Apukhtin, Aleksei Nikolaevich 

Born Nov. 15 (27), 1840 (according to other data, 1841), in Bolkhov, Orel Province; died Aug. 17, (29), 1893, in St. Petersburg. Russian poet.

Apukhtin was born into the family of a nobleman. During the 1850’s, antiserfdom and civic moods appeared in his poetry (for example, the cycle Rural Sketches, 1859). Apukhtin’s lyric verse of the 1880’s is permeated with motifs of sadness and dissatisfaction with life and is marked by simplicity of poetic language and conversational intonations. His monologues in verse, gypsy romances, album dedications, and improvisations were part of reciters’ repertoires. Many of Apukhtin’s poems have been set to music by P. I. Tchaikovsky (for example, “To Forget So Soon,” “Whether Day Reigns,” and “Nights of Folly”).

WORKS

Sochineniia, 4th ed., vols. 1–2. [Contains a biographical sketch by M. Tchaikovsky.] St. Petersburg, 1895.
Stikhotvoreniia. [Introduction, text preparation, and notes by L. Afonin.] Orel, 1959.
Stikhotvoreniia. Leningrad, 1961.