Nikolay Gumilev Poems

Gumilev, the son of a naval physician, graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo lycee, whose principal at the time was the poet Innokenty Annensky. He studied philology at the University of St. Petersburg and in Paris from 1907 to 1914, when he also traveled widely in Italy, Africa, and the Near East. He was Anna Akhmatova’s first husband.

Gumilev led the Acmeist poets in their objection to the mysticism of the Symbolists, calling for a return to clear language and concrete imagery. In the precision of his lines we encounter classical models of the stanza. Gumilev poetry greatly influenced the early Nikolai Tikhonov and to this day serves as a school of creative craftsmanship for young writers. To some tastes, his verse seems overloaded with artificial romantic trappings; however, his best work will always remain treasures of Russian poetry, expressing a direct, virile, and heroic attitude toward life.

Gumilev fought as a volunteer in World War I and then served on the staff of the Russian Expeditionary Force in Paris. He made his way back to Russia in 1918, where he lectured widely and was invited by Maxim Gorky to work in the editorial office of the publishing house Vsemirnaya Literatura. He was elected to succeed Alexander Blok as president of the All-Russian Union of Poets, which came into being just after the Revolution.

Gumilev was shot in 1921 by the Bolsheviks on charges of counterrevolutionary conspiracy. His poetry was not published in the USSR from 1925 to 1986.