Prince Rostislav (poem)
Prince Rostislav (Князь Ростисла′в) is a poem by Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy first published in the April 1856 issue of The Russian Messenger (book 1, pp. 483-484), subtitled The Ballad.[1]
The poem was based on an episode in Slovo o Polku Igoreve concerning Prince Rostislav of Pereyaslavl (1070-1093) and his brothers' losing a battle with the Polovtsy. Fleeting from the enemy, he drowned in the Stuhna River. The quotation from Slovo was used in a corrupt form, common at the time.[2]
Later literary scholars found close similarities between this poem and Lermontov's Mermaid and Goethe's King Harald Garfager.
The poem was set to music twice, by Anton Rubinstein and Sergei Rachmaninoff.[2]
See also
[edit]- Prince Rostislav by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
References
[edit]- ^ Yampolsky, Igor (1981). "Commentaries to Prince Rostislav. The Works by A.K. Tolstoy in 2 volumes. Vol.I". Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
- ^ a b Yampolsky, Igor. Commentaries to Prince Rostislav. The Works by A.K. Tolstoy in 4 volumes. Vol.I. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. 1964. P.719.