[1] Due to the erotic sensuality of her works, Lokhvitskaya was regarded as the "Russian Sappho" by her contemporaries, which did not correspond with her conservative life style of dedicated wife and mother of five sons.

Her father Alexander Vladimirovich Lokhvitsky (1830–1884) was a well-known lawyer of the time,[4] famous for his public speeches, the author of several academic works on jurisprudence.

The primary source of young Maria's creative aspirations, though, was her mother Varvara Alexandrovna (née Hoer), a well-educated Frenchwoman, fond of literature and poetry.

[6] At age fifteen, Lokhvitskaya started writing poetry and published two of her poems as a small brochure (approved by the college's authorities) not long before graduation.

"[8] Lokhvitskaya rose to fame in 1891 after her first long poem, "By the Seaside" (У моря), appeared in the August issue of the Russkoye Obozrenye (Russian Review) magazine.

[3] Lokhvitskaya's first major book, a collection called Poems, 1889–1895 (Стихотворения, 1889–1895), drew positive response and brought her the prestigious Pushkin Prize in 1896,[4] a year after its publication.

Her health started to deteriorate in the late 1890s: she complained of insomnia and violent nightmares, suffered from bouts of severe depression, and later experienced chronic and ever worsening stenocardia.

Balmont was continuously complaining in his letters of being 'possessed', while Lokhvitskaya submerged herself in a quagmire of violent visions which, coupled with feelings of guilt towards her family, might have led to an illness the roots of which were obviously psychosomatic.

The author fond of erotic imagery (whom some critics labeled 'pornographer') in reality was, according to Ivan Bunin, "the most chaste woman in Saint Petersburg, a faithful wife and most caring, protective mother of several children.

Still, according to Bunin, there was not a trace of pretentiousness behind this posturing; on the contrary, the hostess greatly enjoyed matter-of-fact chattering about funny and trivial things, displaying wit and disarming self-irony.

"[17] Good looks certainly played a part, first in Lokhvitskaya's meteoric rise to fame, then in the way people "refused to see beyond her beauty, remaining oblivious to the sharp intelligence that was becoming more and more obvious in her work."

"[3] Mirra Lokhvitskaya's poetry on the face of it wasn't innovative; contemporary critics praised it for lightness of touch, rare musical quality and occasionally dazzling technical perfection.

"[7] In that respect Lokhvitskaya is now considered the founder of Russian woman's poetry and a predecessor to such groundbreaking figures as Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva.

Another original aspect of Lokhvitskaya's poetry was its unusual frankness; she was the first woman in Russian literature to enjoy total freedom of self-expression, speaking openly of sensuality, passion and sex.

The critic and author Semyon Vengerov who rated her among the 'outstanding Russian poets' wrote (in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary):The history of Lokhvitskaya's literary eroticism can be divided into three periods.

Lokhvitskaya excluded all poems addressed to her "spiritual lover," and what was left amounted to a fine collection of elegies full of dark premonitions, quasi-religious fables and thinly veiled farewells to her children.

Я хочу умереть молодой... ... Пусть не меркнет огонь до конца И останется память о той, Что для жизни будила сердца.

For the fires to burn till the end And memories forever remain Of the one who disturbed people's hearts in order to bring them to life I'd rather die young There were numerous misconceptions about Lokhvitskaya, according to Vengerov who refused to see in her a 'decadent' poet.

"Totally devoid of sickly feebleness and vain extravagance" (generally associated with the Russian decadent movement), she was, "eager to enjoy life, declaring her right to put forth her feelings with all the mighty fullness of her soul," he maintained.

In fact, "the poetess's agility was very much akin to the challenges of Marxism," opined the critic (a Marxist himself), while her "views on the meaning and reason of life belonged to the Oriental tradition," even if "channeled through a narrow love theme.

Possessed by the devilish charms of the Middle Ages, she ecstatically turned into one of those witches who've known all the joys of Sabbaths and burning fires...[19] The modern scholar Tatyana Alexandrova (author of Mirra Lokhvitskaya: Doomed to Melt in Flight, 2008) too saw the poet more as mystic seer than 'sultry songstress.'

"[20] The Silver Age critic Alexander Izmaylov (writing in 1905) rated Lokhvitskaya as the greatest Russian woman poet ever ("or, rather, the only one, due to lack of competition").

"Full of fiery passions, yet occasionally sickly nervous, she entered this world as a strange amalgam of Heaven and Earth, flesh and spirituality, sinfulness and saintly aspirations, lowlife delights and longings for a higher plane, the future Kingdom of Beauty,"[21] he wrote.

[21] Mikhail Gershenzon deplored the way Lokhvitskaya has been totally misunderstood by the general readership; only "those enchanted by the subtle aromas of poetry, its musicality, easily recognized her exceptional gift."

Speaking of the posthumous compilation Before the Sunset (Перед Закатом), he wrote: "She could rarely fulfill all of her ideas in one piece, but her poetic designs worked best when she herself wasn't aware of their inner meaning.

"[22] Summarizing Lokhvitskaya's development over the years, Gershenzon wrote: "While in her earlier poems there prevailed a 'hurry up, lover, my oil is burning' kind of motif, her latter works documented the process of her soul getting deeper and quieter.

As if the moment she spotted this mysterious pattern of things beyond the passions adorning human life's fanciful facade, walls opened wide to let her see through into the unfathomable space."