The Elephant and LAlbatros: Baudelairian Subtext in Gumilevs Poem

Nikolai Gumilev's last collection of poetry “The Pillar of Fire” differs greatly from his previous works. In the last poetry collection Gumilev partly comes back to symbolism, a literary school which he had once quitted. The article is devoted to one of the possible factors which made Gumilev return to symbolism, namely, close reading of Baudelaire's “Flowers of Evil”, which Gumilev translated from 1919 to 1921 while working in the publishing house “Mirovaya literatura”. The article traces Baudelair’s influence in Gumilev's poem “The Elephant” and compares it with “L'Albatros” and other Baudelaire's poems. The article proves that Gumilev borrowed not only specific motives, but also one of his most significant poetic devices – the interpenetration of “the external” and “the internal” from the French poet.

Keywords

Nicolai Gumilev, symbolism, Charles Baudelaire, french poetry, subtext

Received

30.06.2020

Publication date

01.07.2020

Number of characters

15911

Cite

GOST	Bryleva K. “The Elephant” and “L'Albatros”: Baudelairian Subtext in Gumilev's Poem // Russkaya Rech’ – 2020. – Issue 3 C. 77-87 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/rusrech/s013161170009962-7-1-en (circulation date: 19.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013161170009962-7
MLA	Bryleva, Katerina V "“The Elephant” and “L'Albatros”: Baudelairian Subtext in Gumilev's Poem." Russkaya Rech’ 3 (2020):77-87. DOI: 10.31857/S013161170009962-7
APA	Bryleva K. (2020). “The Elephant” and “L'Albatros”: Baudelairian Subtext in Gumilev's Poem. Russkaya Rech’ (3), pp.77-87 DOI: 10.31857/S013161170009962-7

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