Eugene Onegin ( without commentary )

XI

In the wilderness where Eugene alone was able to appreciate his gifts, he cared not for the banquets of the masters 4 of neighboring manors $ he fled their noisy concourse. Their reasonable talk of haymaking, of liquor, 8 of kennel, of their kin, no doubt did not sparkle with feeling, or with poetic fire, or sharp wit, or intelligence, i ? or with the art of sociability; but the talk of their sweet wives was much less intelligent.