Nikolay Mikhailovich Yazykov – Biography
Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazikov is a well-known poet. Born March 4, 1803 in Simbirsk, in the landlord family; In the 12th year he was sent to the Institute of Mining Engineers in St. Petersburg, and at the end of the course he entered the engineering building; but, not feeling the call to study mathematics and taking a great interest in poetry, decided to go to this university (1820), on the advice of the professor of literature at the University of Dorpat, the well-known writer AF Voeikov. In Derpt, the poetic talent of Yazykov really developed and became stronger, mainly due to the conditions of a free and cheerful life of the then students, whose singer was predominantly a young poet. His poems were soon noticed. Zhukovsky fondled him, Pushkin sought to get acquainted with him and invited him through his university friend AN Wolfe to his Mikhailovskoye; Delvig was looking for his poems for his “Northern Flowers”, etc. He spent about 8 years in Derpta Yazykov, leaving there
Languages occupy a fairly prominent place among the poets of the so-called Pushkin Pleiades. If his poetry does not shine with the depth of thought or the variety of content, then in it nevertheless the bright and unique talent has undoubtedly affected. The correct development of the poetic talent of Yazykov was hampered by his impetuous, carried away nature, easily yielding to the impressions of the minute and incapable of sustained work; under more favorable conditions, a real artist could probably be developed from Yazykov, but he remained forever an amateur in art, however, one who sometimes had the gleams of truly high artistic creativity. The main motifs of Yazykov’s poetry – precisely those that he valued above others, proclaiming himself “the poet of joy and hop” – found expression in a form not always artistic; his bacchic lyricism is often too rude; most of the poems are notable tone, sometimes – an unsuccessful selection of expressions, sometimes – the artificiality of images and comparisons. In the poems of Yazykov one can, however, indicate a whole series of excellent poetic descriptions of nature (“Kambi”, “Trigorskoye”, etc.); then there are lyrical works full of high animation and featuring great artistic decoration (“Poet”, “Earthquake”, “Swimmers”, some transcriptions of psalms, etc.), which make it an honorary place in the row of our lyricists of the first half of the 19th century. Unfortunately, there are very few such works in the general literary heritage of Yazykov. The collections of the poems of Yazykov were published by him in 1833, 1844 and 1845; later ed. Ed. Perevlevsky, St. Petersburg. 1858, unsatisfactory.
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