SOURCE: "Alexander Blok," in Aspects of Modernism: From Wilde to Pirandello, Books for Libraries Press, 1968, pp. 115-38.

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1935, Lavrin investigates Blok's poetry in terms of romanticism and Russian symbolism.

I

Although the poetic work of Alexander Blok is striking and original enough to defy any labels, some of its aspects can best be understood if treated in connection with the Russian symbolism. The latter came mainly out of that "decadent" current whose devotees were anxious to raise the formal standard of poetry, and also to free the literature of their country from various social and other purposes. Realizing the dangers of too narrow an "art for art's sake" (combined with an equally narrow egotism, derived from Nietzsche), a few members of that group began to champion a deeper conception and a religious affirmation of life. This effort had to pass through numerous...