4
Alone amid his new possessions,
And merely as an idle scheme,
Eugene devised a few concessions
And introduced a new regime.
A backwoods genius, he commuted
The old
A quittent at a modest rate;
* His peasants thanked their lucky fate,
But thrifty neighbours waxed indignant
And in their dens bewailed as one
The dreadful harm of what he'd done.
Still others sneered or turned malignant,
And everyone who chose to speak
Called him a menace and a freak.
5
At first the neighbours' calls were steady;
But when they learned that in the rear
Onegin kept his stallion ready
So he could quickly disappear
The moment one of them was sighted
Or heard approaching uninvited,
They took offence and, one and all,
They dropped him cold and ceased to call.
'The man's a boor, he's off his rocker.'
'Must be a Mason;* drinks, they say . . .
Red wine, by tumbler, night and day!' '
Won't kiss a lady's hand, the mocker.'
'Won't call me 'sir' the way he should.
' The general verdict wasn't good.
6
Another squire chose this season
To reappear at his estate
And gave the neighbours equal reason
For scrutiny no less irate.
Vladimir Lnsky, just returning
From Gottingen with soulful yearning,
Was in his primea handsome youth
And poet filled with Kantian truth.
From misty Germany our squire
Had carried back the fruits of art:
A freedom-loving, noble heart,
A spirit strange but full of fire,
An always bold, impassioned speech,
And raven locks of shoulder reach.
7
As yet unmarked by disillusion
Or chill corruption's deadly grasp,
His soul still knew the warm effusion
