Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin was both a romanticist in his works and not, all at the same time. Beginning at age fifteen, he published poems and prose, and eventually his novel, Eugene Onegin. He is the William Shakespeare of Russia, influencing even the language by supplementing with his own vocabulary. He wrote everything from lyric poetry, to short stories, even personal essays and journalism pieces.
Many of his works represent a highly romanticized view of the world. For example, “A Little Bird” refers to freedom as though it is the one thing that can console him. “Eastern Song” is about a person who inspired him by his or her appearance and demeanor, made him feel bliss and was a muse. These both represent romanticism because they are about things that not everyone gets to experience, and it uses broad concepts of love and freedom, rather than a more realistic view of things which gets down to the finer points of life, the bad side of freedom and the sorrow of lost love.
However, he also tackled realist ideas too, and drew them into other poems. For example, “Demon” is about a feeling that Pushkin had that made him feel dishonest to his country, because it made him look at the darker side of life, rather than the glory and splendor of the mask over top of life. And his poem “Goblin of the Steppes,” tells the story of storms upon his home, upon his happiness. A longer poem, this one repeats the line, “sad is the heaven, sad is the night,” emphasizing the darkness Pushkin could see on the rise all around him.
“Arion” could be taken as either way, from its dark story of a sunken ship as realistic, or from its romantic side as the sailors collapse on shore, all dead but at peace in the ocean. Even though it conquers a realistic topic of shipwreck without actual romance, it also seems to glorify it as a slightly romantic way of dying, drifting to the bottom of the sea, never to be seen alive and walking again.
His works are very complicated, Eugene Onegin, a