On the authorship of the poem “Our Rampant Lifestyle in Karlsbad…”, or the “Karlsbad text” in Russian poetry

Abstract

The paper deals with the authorship of the anonymous poem “Razgul'noie zhit'io v Karlsbade my ved'om...” that had been circulating in manuscript copies, and supports the assumption that this poetic joke was created by P.A. Vyazemsky – the hypothesis that is being confirmed by some new archival data. The paper dwells at some length on the details of creation and circulation of the poem, its punning implications and overtones and illustrates cultural background and polemical context of the specific “Karlsbad text” in Russian poetry.

Keywords

• karlsbad
• russian poetry
• p.a. vyazemsky
• a.s. golitsyn
• m.yu. vielgorsky