Афанасий Фет

Afanásy Fet (1820-92), the illegitimate son of a Russian Squire (the Squire was called Shenshin; 'Fet' was his German mother's maiden-name) was one of the most romantic, and Romantic, poets of his lush generation. Here is a Fet poem from 1843:

I have come to you with greeting,
Telling you the sun's awake
And that its hot light is fleeting
On the myriad green leaves' shake.

To say the forest is alive
Its trees are filled with springtime's thirst
Its many tremulous branches strive
And every bird within it stirs.

To tell you that I've come again
As passionate as I was before;
My soul prepared once more to frame
Our happiness, our true amour.

To tell you that joy's billowing
Blows over me from everywhere,
To say: I don't know what to sing;
I only know a song is there.