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There were Christmastide,warmed by the fires,     
And coaches tumbled from bridges,
And the entire mourning city floated
For an unknown destination,
By Neva or against the flow –
Only away from their graves.
At Galley blackened arch,
In the Summer finely sung flyugarka,
And the bright silver Month
Above the Silver Age froze.
 
This is an excerpt from a poem by Anna Akhmatova "Poem Without a Hero", where for the first time in the literature the definition of "The Silver Age" was met, and although the "age" lasted not for a century, but what it was the epoch, compressed, as the coil, centred in two decades! This period was a true Russian Renaissance, characterized by the flowering of Russian spirituality, which gave the world brilliant scientific and artistic discoveries.

Poetry of the Silver Age, as compared with the poetry of Pushkin’s period (Golden Age) seems at first glance too philosophical, and it is no accident. She was born in the elements of Russian religious thought, formed by the end of 19 century in a harmonious system. On the religious and philosophical debates that took place in the salon of Merezhkovsky’s couple, N.Berdyaev, L. Shestov and B. Rozanov waged fierce debates. The main issue – the fate of Russia, the prospects of its revival.
Philosophy of Vl. Solovyov had a huge influence on the early Blok. Blok and his friends were carried away by the image of the mystical symbolist "World Soul", "Sophia", "Eternal Feminine" in lyric of Vl. Solovyov. Blok dedicated cycle "Poems About the Beautiful Lady" to this image.

This was the era when the very poetry, with its depth of feeling and instantly embodiment, brightness and power of feelings became the mouthpiece of the era. They were very different, the poets of the Silver Age: A. Block, S. Yesenin, N. Gumilev, B. Pasternak, and many others. They lived in the complex inner life, tragic and joyous, in search of fresh and vivid imagery, rhyme, rhythm and music of verse.

The Silver Age glorified the great love, rejecting the restrictions and boundaries; Symbolists were languishing on the eternal feminine (Vladimir Solovyov); spicy exotic of distant countries (N. Gumilev, O. Mandelshtam) was close to the Russian northern landscape (M. Voloshin); nostalgically portrayed Slavic world (K. Balmont); were immersed in the mystical dream (N. Kondratiev); gloomy ancient Scythians examined coquettish Parisian woman in black stockings "slanting and greedy eyes" (A. Blok).
 
The human history is presented in the myths in three eras: The Golden Age, then Silver, then Iron. The Golden Age of Russain culture was a time of Pushkin, it’s time to flowering; at sunset of the Nineteenth Century came the Silver Age, a brief, blinding, and lasted almost until the 1917. The Iron Age thundered, hurrying to replace silver.

By Lyudmila Chernysh

Lyudmila Chernysh lives in Primorje Region of Russian Federation. She is teacher and Specialist of Russian Literature and Russian language. To learn more about here works, visit her blog.

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