a collection containing verses or various sayings and fragments by many authors. Anthologies have existed in the East and Greece since ancient times. They were widespread in Old Russian literature (izborniki) and in the literature of the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. Anthologies published at the beginning of the 20th century include Russian Muse (1907), by P. Ia. (P. F. Iakubovich), and Armenian Poetry from the Earliest Times to the Present Translated by Russian Poets, edited by V. Ia. Briusov (1916). In Soviet times a number of anthologies have been published containing poetry of the peoples of the USSR in Russian translation.
Anthology verses—a term dating from the first half of the 19th century—are verses written in the manner of ancient poetry. Examples are K. N. Batiushkov’s “To an Aged Beauty,” A. S. Pushkin’s “Nereid,” and later some poems by N. F. Shcherbina and A. N. Maikov.