The Bronze Horseman

"The Outcast" by Alexander Pushkin (1814)

“The Outcast” is a short narrative poem about a young unwed mother who carries her newborn baby to a deserted place on a rainy autumn evening. She knows she cannot keep the child and feels keenly the disgrace of having had sex outside of marriage. Bitterly regretting the loneliness and rejection that the child will encounter in life, she reluctantly leaves the baby at the door of a hut.

"The Gypsies" by Alexander Pushkin (1824)

“The Gypsies” is a narrative poem just slightly longer than “The Bronze Horseman” and written in the same meter, iambic tetrameter. Much of the poem is in the form of a dialogue between and old man and his daughter. Pushkin was inspired to write it by the gypsy camps he observed in southern Russia. He was also influenced by English Romantic poet Lord Byron.

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (1833)

Considered to be Pushkin’s masterpiece, the tragicomic novel in verse Eugene Onegin is one of the great works of Russian literature. It follows Onegin, a young Russian aristocrat, who professes to be weary of life. When Tatyana Larina, a shy young woman from a well-to-do family, falls in love with him, Onegin rejects her. He also quarrels with his only friend, Vladimir Lensky, whom he kills in a duel. Two years later, Onegin sees Tatyana at a ball and finds that he is attracted to her. Tatyana, however, is now married and cannot respond to his overtures.