About Innokenty Annensky
Innokenty Fyodorovich Annensky (Russian: Инноке́нтий Фёдорович А́нненский, IPA:; was a poet, critic, scholar, and translator, representative of the first wave of Russian Symbolism, although he was not well known for his poetry until after his death). In fact, Annensky never wrote professionally; he made little to no income from writing. Instead, he spent his career in academia as a full-time professor and administrator, translator of classic Greek works, and writer of essays and reviews. Despite this, Annensky is considered to be one of the most significant Russian poets from the early 20th century. Critics have cited Annensky's connection to French Symbolism and to the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé for their shared use of "associative symbolism." Annensky was considered to be an under-recognized or neglected poet, but he later gained recognition, particularly in the West, because a number of later Russian poets, such as Mandelstam, Akhmatova, Pasternak, and Mayakovsky, were inspired and influenced by his work. Nikolai Gumilev valued these theoretical works very highly and considered Annensky to be the first true acmeist. Setchkarev, the author of the first critical study of Annensky, claims that Annensky was likely the "most pessimistic of the Russian Symbolists". His first collection of poems, entitled Quiet Songs, was published in 1904 under the pseudonym Nik. Nikolai Gumilev graduated from this school and called Annensky "the last of Tsarskoe Selo's swans." Annensky was somewhat reluctant to publish his original poems and first gained fame with his translations of Euripides and the French Symbolists.
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