Kozlov, Ivan Ivanovich

Born Apr. 11 (22), 1779, in Moscow; died Jan. 30 (Feb. 11), 1840, in St. Petersburg. Russian poet and translator.

Kozlov was the son of a nobleman. He served in the guards, and in 1798 he joined the civil service. He was ill for a long time, blind and paralyzed. His works first appeared in print in 1821. He was acquainted with A. S. Pushkin and V. A. Zhurovskii, and his poetry reflects the style of the latter. Kozlov’s major work was the narrative poem The Monk (published in full in 1825), which was highly praised by Pushkin in his poem “To Kozlov.” Love of freedom is a motif seen in some of Kozlov’s poems, such as “Captive Greek in Prison.”

Kozlov’s poetry, marked by its faithful rendering of emotional experience and its vivid imagery, is at the same time characterized by a mystical, romantic tone and a sense of sadness. The latter elements become more intense after 1825 with the onset of political reaction. Kozlov was a talented translator of Byron, Dante, Tasso, Burns, and Mickiewicz. His translation of T. Moore’s “Those Evening Bells” became the basis of a popular Russian song.