Semen Sergeevich Bobrov played a notable role in the history of Russian poetry at the turn of the nineteenth century. His verses, which were heavy and awkward yet full of unique majesty and strength, elicited ardent praise from some and furious and witty jibes from others. Defenders and devotees of Bobrov's poetry advocated a serious, difficult, high literary style. Among contemporaries of the poet these included Aleksandr Radishchev and Gavriil Derzhavin, and in the next generation Vilgelm Kiukhel'beker, Aleksandr Griboedov, and the mature Aleksandr Pushkin. Among his bitter detractors were the followers of Nikolai Karamzin and proponents of the legkii slog (light style): Konstantin Batiushkov, Petr Viazemsky, and the young Pushkin. Intense, difficult to understand, and full of meditative thought, Bobrov's lyrics helped begin the tradition of Russian philosophical verse, that of Fedor Tiutchev, Evgenii Baratynsky, Konstantin Sluchevsky and others. Bobrov also wrote the first and one of...