Harmony of Contrasts

Igor Severyanin (Igor Vasilievich Lotaryov), the poet of the “Silver Age” of Russian poetry. Reading Severyanin’s poems, you constantly feel the presence of something important, something original that we still don’t know...
Severyanin’s poems are musical, marked by a strong cantability and a distinctive lyricism. For his oral performances, he called them “poetry concerts,” and, according to contemporaries, he practically sang his poems. The poet often used a combination of “high” and “low” styles. From his youth, Igor Severyanin strove to be only a poet—and no one else.

Another poet—Alexander Blok—called Igor Severyanin “a poet with an open soul.” This inscription on the book given as a gift belongs to the time when Igor Severyanin was just entering the literary world. The words “a poet with an open soul” very precisely define the essence of Severyanin’s poetic gift—his personality, unusual for 20th-century Russian poetry, which has not been fully understood even to this day.

Contents:

Poems
1. A poem about the sun in the rising soul
2. A dream, cradled...
3. Amber elegy
4. The pale pomeranian-golden west
5. A June sketch
6. A phantom
7. What happiness…
8. Stanzas (Will you forgive my reproaches...)
9. A poem of the oddities of life
10. A square of squares
11. It was by the sea...
12. Valentina
13. A poem of opened eyes
14. The folk song
15. Praise of the fields
16. Russian
17. The letter of Feokla
18. I shall sing
19. Overture (Pineapples in champagne...)
20. The carriage of the courtesan
21. Kensel (In a noisy brocade dress...)
22. Today I won’t come...
23. Blue
24. Love—meaninglessness
25. Sonatas in a storm
26. When the ship comes
27. Norwegian fjords
28. In enchantment
29. Oh, everything seems to me...
30. A poem of refusal
31. Violet trance
32. Ice cream of lilacs
33. A Gatchina spring day
34. With a cross of lilacs
35. All of them talk about one thing
36. No more than a dream
37. Don’t be ashamed...
38. In the snows
39. An orchid
40. So many times!..
41. The world is made thus
42. Something isn’t here...
43. Autumn leaves
44. In forgetfulness
45. Yearning for the south
46. I dream...
47. Sleeping Beauty
48. The day before Easter
49. What you need to know
50. And it will soon be...
51. An aging poet
52. For only you are there!
53. A sincere romance
54. A boundless word

Romances
1. Mournfully it moans (author unknown)
2. At the carnival (D. Dorman, M. Yuzhny)
3. Not that I’m cheerful (A. Goncharov, N. Gubkina)
4. Night coolness came down (B. Prozorovsky, B. Timofeev)
5. Lights of sunset (A. Zorin, D. Mikhailov, M. Pugachev)
6. A caravan (B. Prozorovsky, B. Timofeev)
7. White night (B. Prozorovsky, B. Timofeev)
8. I’m alone again (N. Kharito, S. Grei)
9. Dreams of happiness (N. Kharito, A. Voloshin)
10. I can’t love you (B. Fomin, P. German)
11. There are moments (N. Kharito)
12. Sleep, my poor heart (O. Strok)
13. The piano weeps (B. Prozorovsky)