Anton Antonovich Delvig: biography and works

10 - 30 years of the 19 th century are characterized by a great rise in the nobility culture. This is due to the reforms of Alexander I, and the spirit of freedom that came to Russia after the victory over Napoleon, and a truly unique number of gifted writers that appeared at that time. And Delvig, whose biography, unfortunately, is short, is one of them.

Childhood

Anton Antonovich Delvig (1798 - 1831) belonged to an old, but impoverished baron family, long ago Russified by natives of the Baltic States. He was born in Moscow. The family was poor. She existed on the salary of her father, who served in the Kremlin. His education Anton Antonovich began in a private boarding house. There one of the teachers was interested in his history, literature, but the child did not like the exact sciences.

The Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum

At the age of 13, Anton Delvig was sent to study at the newly opened lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo. He was in the same class as A. Pushkin and V. Kuchelbeker, with whom he had made friends for life.

With such a poor, but gifted young people for six years, Delvig met. His biography will be filled with communication with these extraordinary people. Outwardly, Delvig was plump, rosy-cheeked, clumsy and rather clumsy. He studied not just mediocre, but, rather, even bad. He was considered lazy. Over it, the epigrams were laughed at and lamented. But where did slowness disappear when it came to writing or reading? He was happy to prepare lessons on the subject of interest. Even without knowing the German language, he cited by heart Schiller and Goethe. He early began to write poetry, imitating Horace ("To Dion", "To Lileta"). And in 1814, when the Russian troops entered the French capital, he wrote a poem "On the capture of Paris". It was published under the pseudonym "Russian" in the "Bulletin of Europe".

His poetic gift was appreciated so highly that the director of the Lyceum asked to write a poem that would mark the first issue of the Lyceum. And Delvig wrote "Six years". This work was put on music, and it became the anthem of the Lyceum for many years.

Service

After graduating from the Lyceum, wherever Delvig served, he showed himself as a negligent and disliked workman. Often changing agencies, indifferent to the affairs of Delvig. Biography says that his routine work was burdensome.

Real hobbies

Not a hobby, but almost work, but performed with the same laziness, became versification and publishing. When the poet, and Delvig was a poet, married Sofya Mikhailovna Saltykova, their house became a literary and musical salon.

It met Pushkin, Baratynsky, Zhukovsky, Pletnev, Yazykov. This was a considerable merit of his wife, who loved Russian literature, read a lot, and memorized poems memorized by heart. Even in the years of study, Sofya Mikhaylovna heard a lot about Delvig, Baratynsky, Ryleyev, Bestuzhev. She read their works with enthusiasm.

In addition, she read a lot in German and French and played beautifully on the piano.

In 1825, Delvig organized the publication of the Northern Flowers almanac. He skillfully recognized the emerging talent and attracted to print new authors both from St. Petersburg and from Moscow. But Delvig considered the publication of the Literary Gazette as his main business. She went out with the participation of Pushkin and Vyazemsky. Active critic criticized himself in her pages Delvig. The biography tells about the struggle against "commercial" literature, the lucky, sold by the author of which was the mediocre Bulgarin. He published almost forbidden Pushkin and the objectionable Kiichelbecker. So in the literary and organizational area developed Delvig. Biography shows that this man did not bend obsequiously before censorship. Political and social activities were uninteresting to him. He knew, and even close, the future Decembrists F. Glinka, A. Bestuzhev, K. Ryleev, but did not share the views. Anton Delvig was not a revolutionary. His biography in this respect has developed successfully, in contrast to the life path of Wilhelm Kiichelbecker, carried away by these ideas .

Poetry by Delvig

Delwig's poetry was influenced by his quiet life, far from social and political trends. The impoverished nobility was thrown out of participation in the government of the state. Anton Delvig was the representative of this estate. His biography is reflected in the fact that he was a representative of "pure" poetry, free from the shocks of political storms. He wrote about one hundred and seventy poems with virtuosic mastery. Delvig was looking for new forms of verse, he had a sonnet in his first in Russia. He wrote in the sizes of Russian folk verse. And all this variety of forms was used only for a very narrow theme of works. He dreamed of a quiet manor life, of the absence of worldly cares, of friendly amusements.

Two themes pass through all of his poetry. One idyllic, with Hellenistic motives, and another - imitation of folk songs. In his mature years, he even "crossed" these two genres ("The retired soldier"). On his poems wrote music Dargomyzhsky, Varlamov, Glinka. Almost everyone knows the "Nightingale" of Alyabyev, dedicated to Pushkin. Delvig's works are known in our days, but as nameless ones ("Do not fall a little rain", "Ah, are you the night, a night").

Relations with Pushkin

Friendship with A. Pushkin was the most sincere since the Lyceum years. The life of Delvig shows that he always admired the works of his friend, and Pushkin, in turn, greatly appreciated Delvig as a writer and his development of new poetic forms used in the work of Boldin in the autumn. After a long separation they met very gently, hugging and kissing each other. Such was Delvig-Pushkin's friend. The biography of each of the poets speaks of the kinship of their psychic system.

Last years

Delwig's favorite creation, Literaturnaya Gazeta, was closed, thanks to Bulgarin's denunciations, to the chief of the gendarmes Benckendorff, in 1830. The poet was yearning. And then he got sick and died of typhus. He was only thirty-two years old. The death of Delwig shocked Pushkin. In letters to Pletnev Alexander Sergeyevich directly says that Delvig "was the best of us".

Today they have established an annual literary award to them. Anton Delvig "For fidelity to the Word and Fatherland". The purpose of the award is to support the writers who develop the best domestic traditions in their work.