author
A. Blok
A leading voice of Russian Symbolism, he wrote poetry charged with music, mystery, and the feeling that ordinary life was hiding something larger just out of sight. His work later turned sharply toward the upheavals of his time, making him one of the defining Russian poets of the early twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
Het Esperanto in Twintig Lessen
by A. Blok
About the author
Born in Saint Petersburg in 1880, Alexander Blok grew up in an educated family and became one of the central figures of Russian Symbolism. Early in his career he was especially known for lyrical poems shaped by mysticism, beauty, and longing, including the cycle Verses About the Beautiful Lady.
As his writing developed, his poetry became darker, broader, and more tied to the tensions of modern Russia. He also wrote plays, essays, and criticism, and remains widely associated with The Twelve, his famous and controversial 1918 poem responding to the Revolution.
Blok died in 1921, but his influence on Russian literature remained enormous. Readers continue to return to him for the intensity of his language and for the way his poems move between dreamlike symbolism and the pressures of history.