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emotions, which is not affected by the close imitation of
Byron’s “Giaour,” “The Prisoner of Chillon,” and “The
Corsair.” Pushkin’s brigands certainly do not feel at all
like real brigands, but he has naïvely allowed his
emotional life to find free expression through them. “The
Gypsies” stands the highest. The fresh wildness with
which the figure of the gypsy girl appears makes a very
strong impression in comparison with the lack of moral
force in Alyeko, who flies from civilization and brings
one of its most disgusting vices with him: jealousy
which regards another being whom it has once loved as
its own property. Probably, this fine poem has given
Prosper Mérimée, who has translated it, the idea of his
masterpiece, “Carmen.”
Like the Prisoner in the Caucasus, Alyeko suffers from
the Byronic spleen and scepticism. The poem “Count
Nulin,” which assumes a lighter, more frivolous tone,
again reminds us of Byron, especially of “Beppo.” In
1823, Pushkin, entirely under the influence of the
English poet’s “Don Juan,” began his chief work, “Yevgeni
Onyégin,” without any plan; and to it he constantly
returned for seven years, in order to express there a
constantly more characteristic poetical delineation of
himself, and, above all, a far more complete
autobiography than is found in his other poems. Finally, his
great epic poem, “Poltava,” is evidently inspired by
Byron’s “Mazeppa,” although, regarded in and of itself,
it far surpasses the youthful poem of Byron in its
power of picturesque description, and in the historically
correct representation of the appalling character of the
old hetman, which forms a striking contrast to the
romantic stamp Byron has given to the figure.
With the exception of short lyrical poems and prose
novels, in which Pushkin stands independent, hardly a
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