Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (1800-1844) was lauded by Alexander Pushkin
as the finest Russian elegiac poet. He was educated at the royal school
at St. Petersburg and then entered the army. He served for eight years
in Finland, where he composed his first poem, Eda. Through the interest
of friends he obtained leave from the tsar to retire from the army, and
settled in 1827 near Moscow. There he completed his longest work, The
Gipsy, a poem written in the style of Pushkin. As the time went by,
Baratynsky's mood progressed from pessimism to hopelessness, and elegy
became his preferred form of expression. He died in 1844 at Naples, where
he had gone in pursuit of a milder climate.
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