Poetry as Magic

K. D. Balmont’s treatise “Poetry as Magic” (1915) is the first original poetics in Russian literature: an attempt to describe the poetic word as something that constructs reality, redefining aesthetics as the science of universal sensitivity of the living. Some of the treatise’s propositions—such as the significance of individual sounds, magical plots at the basis of different poetic genres, universal human origins of lyricism—were continued in other authors’ poetics. Balmont’s work, distinguished by solemn and vivid presentation, is published with detailed commentary. In the appendix, a work by K. D. Balmont on musical experiments by Scriabin is provided, developing the poet’s main idea about the connection between sound, poetry, and the structure of the universe.