Alexander Blok is the greatest Russian poet, one of the founders of symbolism. The image of Russia, identified with the mother figure, occupies a central place in the poet’s work. Blok couldn’t imagine his life without his native country: he loved its nature and people, tried to fathom its soul, to understand the present and determine the future. Pain for Russia wouldn’t let him go; he was tormented by vague forebodings—the poet’s work is permeated by a feeling of the epoch’s catastrophic nature.
The collection includes selected poems from the books “Ante Lucem,” “Verses about the Beautiful Lady,” “The Terrible World,” “Reprisals,” “Iambs,” “Harps and Violins,” “Carmen,” “Motherland,” the poems “Reprisals,” “The Scythians,” “The Twelve,” as well as poems that were not included in the main body of the poet’s works.