SOURCE: "The Morning of Acmeism," in The Russian Review, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, January, 1965, pp. 47-51.

In the following essay, which was first published in a Russian periodical in 1919, Mandelstam describes his poetic philosophy and defines the Acmeist movement in Russian literature.

In view of the enormous emotional excitement connected with works of art it is desirable that talk about art be distinguished by the greatest restraint. For the great majority of people, a work of art is seductive only to the extent that it reveals the artist's world view. For the artist himself, however, a world view is a weapon and a means, like a hammer in the hands of a stonemason, and the only reality is the work of art itself.

The artist's greatest pride is to exist. He desires no other paradise than existence, and when people talk to him about reality he only smiles ironically...