You are a king, alone and free to go
Wherever your unfettered mind may lead
Alexander Pushkin, To a Poet

The fact that Pushkin died aged 38 after a duel on a corner of St Petersburgit was 8 February, 1837and the fact that it was not the first time he had been challenged to a duel with pistols, shows at once how dramatic his life was. Even though this in itself cannot be taken as a way to assess his poetry.

What we can see is this: in the person of th