Silence (Balmont)


Silence is a third poetry collection by Konstantin Balmont, first published in August 1898 in Saint Petersburg, by Alexey Suvorin's Publishing House. Following In Boundlessness, it features 77 poems, most of which were based upon the author's impressions of his 1896-1897 European journey which took him to Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain, where he read Russian poetry in Oxford. The book's epigraph, "There is some kind of universal hour of silence" comes from Fyodor Tyutchev's poem "Videniye".
The book, divided into several cycles, was constructed as if it were a musical composition, poems linked both rhythms and inner associations. It bore the first marks of Nietzschean motifs and heroes, notably the "Elemental Genius," who transcends his own humanity in order to break free from all restrictions. Silence was praised by Prince Alexander Urusov who recognized it as a work of a great talent who was beginning to forge his very own, distinctive style in poetry.

Notable poems