Iakov Polonsky is considered, together with Afanasii Afanas'evich Fet and Apollon Nikolaevich Maikov, as one of the foremost lyric poets of a generation dominated by great prose writers. The three names were linked together by contemporary critics and remain so to this day; among them Fet is considered the most eminent. Polonsky was a prolific writer and produced works in a vast range of genres, including novels in verse and prose, novellas, short stories, plays in verse and prose, long poems, essays, memoirs, and libretti for operas and other works; yet, today he is known only for his poetry, which in itself comprised five volumes in the virtually complete 1896 edition of his verse, Polnoe sobranie stikhotvorenii. Polonsky's poetry is characterized by a mellifluousness and soft lyricism. His strongest genre is the short lyric poem; many of his long poems and larger prose works remained unfinished. His themes range...