The poet of the piano in poetry: Chopin and Russian writers Miatlev, Fet, Severianin, Pasternak and Akhmatova

Abstract

The popular designation ‘poet of the piano’ becomes more meaningful when we understand that poets consistently turn to Chopin’s life and music for literary inspiration. Chopin’s short life – filled with nostalgia, melancholy and pain – exemplifies the Romantic notion of the suffering artist and provides fertile ground for poetry. The power of Chopin’s music – and especially the emotion it evokes – is a constant theme in the large, cross-cultural literary output on Chopin. This article samples several poetic texts by both famous and lesser-known Russian writers: Ivan Miatlev (1796–1844), Afanasii Fet (1820–92), Igor’ Severianin (1887–1941), Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) and Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966). In the poems by Miatlev, Fet and Severianin, Chopin’s music becomes emblematic of passionate love, the most frequently encountered trope. In the poems by Pasternak and Akhmatova, that music takes on a tragic dimension. Pasternak’s poem features a musical genre that Chopin pioneered, and the allusions in the poem reflect the fate of the Polish nation in the nineteenth century. The epigraph and diction in Akhmatova’s poem convey trauma and personal suffering – with which Chopin was only too familiar. Although Russia imposed oppressive policies, it was also an admirer of Polish culture, with Russians publishing complete Chopin editions and producing paintings and poems featuring Chopin and his music. When analysing these poems, it becomes clear that the tendency to characterise the relationship between Poland and Russia as one of animosity does not explain the whole picture.