On the Main Text of the Poem by A. A. Fet “Apollo Belvedere”

Abstract

The article raises the issue of the main text of the poem by A. A. Fet “Apollo Belvedere” (1856). Not published during the poet’s lifetime, it was first published by B. V. Nikolsky in 1901 as a four-stanza text according to an autograph preserved in the so-called first workbook. Then, according to the same autograph (also consisting of four stanzas), it was printed by B. Ya. Bukhshtab. The study of the autograph in the workbook and the corrections contained in it, as well as its comparison with another autograph preserved in Fet’s letter to V. P. Botkin from October 21, 1857, gives good reason to talk about the existence of at least three versions of the poem , each of which consisted of three, not four stanzas. The version of the poem now accepted as the main one is a contamination that combines two versions (early and late) of the second stanza.