Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (; 11 July 1844) was lauded by Alexander Pushkin as the finest Russian elegiac poet. After a long period when his reputation was on the wane, Baratynsky was rediscovered by Russian Symbolism poets as a supreme poet of thought. Biography A member of the noble , or, more accurately, Boratynsky family, the future poet received his education at the Page Corps at St. Petersburg, from which he was expelled at the age of 15 after stealing a snuffbox and five hundred roubles from the bureau of his accessory's uncle. After three years in the countryside and deep emotional turmoil he entered the army as a private. In 1820 the young poet met Anton Delvig, who rallied his falling spirits and introduced him to the literary press. Soon the military posted Baratynsky to Finland, where he remained for six years. His first long poem, Eda, written during this period, established his reputation. In January 1826 he married the daughter of Major-General Gregory G. Engelhardt. Through the interest of friends he obtained leave from the Emperor to retire from the army, and he settled in 1827 in Muranovo just north of Moscow (now a literary museum). There he completed his longest work, The Gipsy, a poem written in the style of Pushkin. Baratynsky's family life seemed happy, but a profound melancholy remained the background of his mind and of his poetry. He published several books of verse which Pushkin and other perceptive critics praised highly, but which met with a comparatively cool reception from the public, and with violent ridicule on the part of the young journalists of the "plebeian party". As time went by, Baratynsky's mood progressed from pessimism to hopelessness, and elegy became his preferred form of expression. He died in 1844 at Naples, where he had gone in pursuit of a milder climate. Poetry Baratynsky's earliest poems are punctuated by conscious efforts to write differently from Pushkin whom he regarded as a model of perfection. Even Eda, his first long poem, though inspired by Pushkin's The Prisoner of the Caucasus, adheres to a realistic and homely style, with a touch of sentimental pathos but not a trace of romanticism. It is written, like all that Baratynsky wrote, in a wonderfully precise style, next to which Pushkin's seems hazy. The descriptive passages are among the best — the stern nature of Finland was particularly dear to Baratynsky.