Between joy and sorrow. On hope in the Nikolay Karamzin’s poetry

Abstract

The paper presents the poems by Nikolay Karamzin (1766–1826), which refer to hope. They include the following groups of texts: 1) reflection poems: To myself (1795), The song (1795), The hope (1796), To an unfaithful (1796), Sorrow and joy (1797), The coast (1802); 2) occasional poems: about the Tsar Pavel I (1796), about G. Khovanski (1796) and about P. Pelski (1803); 3) poems touching upon the life of a poet and poetry: To a poor poet (1796) and The talents (1796). Some poems are autobiographical (The coast was written after the death of Karamzin’s first wife). The hope, which is based on a comparison of a human’s life to a journey, is considered the most meaningful of his texts. According to Karamzin, life is filled with joy and sorrow, expectation and disappointment, but hope makes the plans easier to achieve, and brings a man closer to the goal. The meaning of his poems is optimistic after all. Karamzin’s letters to Ivan Dmitriev, a poet and a friend, serve as an interpretive background in the article.