This innovative work from Paul Friedrich surveys the Russian lyric scene from the mid-eighteenth century through the Modern period, in terms of the poets' own ideas as well as the author's interpretations.

Such themes as poetic craft, musicality, creativity, sociopolitical context, and multilingualism as musical competence, are discussed and interrelated through their variations in twenty-one of Russia's finest tyric poets, and then integrated through two "recapitulations." Combining broad theoretical perspectives with numerous detailed readings of key poems, Friedrich synthesizes recent Russian research with Western criticism to advance a unique series of hypotheses and generalizations.

Music in Russian Poetry is an indispensable tool for students of Russian lyric poetry, particularly its musical aspects, and will also be of value for those interested in comparative, structural, (auto)-biographical and musicological approaches to lyric poetry and poetic culture.