Russian poets of the 18th century

“Our literature suddenly appeared in the 18th century,” A. S. Pushkin noted. The 18th century in Russia is the era of the Russian Enlightenment, which is associated with the activities of a whole galaxy of brilliant scientists, publicists, and poets. In literature, this era began not with prose, but with poetry: it was poetry that was the first to respond to significant social and cultural transformations. V. K. Trediakovsky and M. V. Lomonosov, whose poetic work is inseparable from philological studies, carried out a reform of Russian versification, opening up the richest potential for using the intonational possibilities of the Russian language. A. P. Sumarokov, I. A. Krylov, G. R. Derzhavin, N. M. Karamzin - each of them went his own way in poetry, improving the genre, style and figurative system of Russian lyrics. Their creative experiments, often aimed at overcoming normative poetics, contributed to the extraordinary development of Russian literature.