Annenskii, Innokentii

Born Aug. 20 (Sept. 1), 1856, in Omsk; died Nov. 30 (Dec. 13), 1909, in St. Petersburg. Russian poet.

Annenskii graduated from the history and philology department at the University of St. Petersburg in 1879 and began to write poems in the 1870’s. He translated the tragedies of Euripides (vol. 1,1907). Annenskii’s original works appeared at the beginning of the 20th century and included tragedies based on plots drawn from ancient mythology: Melanippe the Philosopher (1901), Tsar Ixion (1902), Laodamia (1906), and Thamyris the Cithara Player (published in 1913). During his lifetime Annenskii published the collection of poems Quiet Songs (1904). Later collections include The Cypress Chest (1910) and Posthumous Poems (1923). Annenskii’s poetry expressed, in his own words, the “pain of the urban soul,” an impressionistic perception of moods, things, and phenomena. He influenced the Acmeist poets. Annenskii translated the poems of P. Verlaine, C. Baudelaire, Leconte de Lisle, and others. Also a critic, he wrote Book of Reflections (vols. 1–2, 1906–09).