es to him
and confesses her love, and in all the love poetry of the world there
is nothing more touching and more simple than this confession. It is
perfect. If Pushkin had written this and this alone, his place among
poets would be unique and different from that of all other poets.

Possibly some people may think that there are finer achievements in
the love poetry of the world; but nothing is so futile and so
impertinent as giving marks to the great poets, as if they were
passing an examination. If a thing is as good as possible in itself,
what is the use of saying that it is less good or better than
something else, which is as good as possible in itself also.
Nevertheless, placed beside any of the great confessions of love in
poetry--Francesca's story in the _Inferno_, Romeo and Juliet's
leavetaking, Phedre's declaration, Don Juan Tenorio's letter--the
beauty of Tatiana's confession would not be diminished by the
juxtaposition. Of the rest of Pushkin's work at its best and highest,
of the finest passages of _Boris Godunov_, for instance, you can say:
This is magnificent, but there are dramatic passages in other works of
other poets on the same lines and as fine; but in Tatiana's letter
Pushkin has created something unique, which has no parallel, because
only a Russian could have written it, and of Russians, only he. It is
a piece of poetry as pure as a crystal, as spontaneous as a
blackbird's song.

Onegin tells Tatiana he is not worthy of her, that he is not made for
love and marriage; that he would cease to love her at once; that he
feels for her like a brother, or perhaps a little more tenderly. It
then falls out that Onegin, by flirting with Olga at a ball, makes
Lensky jealous. They fight a duel, and Lensky is killed. Onegin is
obliged to leave the neighbourhood, and spends years in travel.
Tatiana remains true to her first love; but she is taken by her
relatives to Moscow, and consents at last under their pressure to
marry a rich man of great position. In St. Petersburg, Onegin meets
her again. Tatiana has become a great lady, but all her old charm is
there. Onegin now falls violently in love with her; but she, although
she frankly confesses that she still loves him, tells him that it is
too late; she has married another, and she means to remain true to
him. And there the story ends.

_Onegin_ is, perhaps, Pushkin's most characteristic work; it is
undoubtedly the best known and the most popular; like _Hamle