Blok: Selected Poems

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880–1921) was a Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator, and literary critic.

Blok was born in Saint Petersburg to Alexander Lvovich Blok and Alexandra Andreevna Beketova. His father was a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather, Andrey Beketov, was a renowned botanist and the rector of Saint Petersburg State University. After his parents’ separation, Blok resided with aristocratic relatives at the Shakhmatovo manor near Moscow, where he was introduced to the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov and the poetry of the lesser-known 19th-century poets, Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet, which influenced his early works, later compiled in the book “Ante Lucem”.

In 1903, he married the actress Lyubov (Lyuba) Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, the daughter of renowned chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. His cycle of poetry dedicated to Lyuba, titled “Stikhi o Prekrasnoi Dame” (Verses About the Beautiful Lady, 1904), achieved critical success.

Blok’s early poetry was characterised by musicality, while later works introduced daring rhythmic patterns. He often created profound, otherworldly images from ordinary surroundings (Fabrika, 1903). His collections “The City” (1904–08), “Faina,” and “The Mask of Snow” cemented his reputation, making him a key poet of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. He greatly influenced the Silver Age poets Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Boris Pasternak.

Blok enthusiastically supported the 1905 Russian Revolution. In his later life, he focused on political themes, reflecting on Russia’s messianic destiny (Vozmezdie, 1910–21; Rodina, 1907–16; Skify, 1918). He even wrote a tribute to Mikhail Bakunin in 1906. Blok, vacillating between hope and despair, accepted the October Revolution as the culmination of his apocalyptic yearnings.

In 1921, disillusioned with the Revolution, Blok’s health deteriorated rapidly, and he died. Despite his earlier religious imagery and later disillusionment, the Bolsheviks continued to honour him. His poem “The Twelve” (1918), describing the experiences of 12 Red Guards during the Russian Civil War, gained substantive recognition, but his enduring legacy lies in his earlier more personal poetry.

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