SOURCE: “The Eclipse of the Golden Age,” in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, April, 1976, pp. 176-88.

In the following essay, Harvie compares Baratynsky's poetry written in protest of industrialization with that of English poet William Wordsworth, concluding that Wordsworth was the more didactic in his approach.

The contemporary crusade against the excesses of science and technology should be viewed, not simply as a reaction to modern social conditions, but also as part of the continuing romantic protest against industrialisation, which goes back at least 200 years. It began with Rousseau in France, soon to be followed by Schiller and Novalis in Germany, whence the protest spread to England and finally to Russia. Here I wish to explore the similarities in the thinking of two protesting romantic poets, the one English and the other Russian.

While there can be no question of influence, Wordsworth and Baratynsky share an...