K. D. Balmont’s treatise “Poetry as Magic” (1915) is the first author’s poetics in Russian literature: an attempt to describe the poetic word as constructing reality, redefining aesthetics as the science of the universal sensitivity of the living. Some of the provisions of the treatise, such as the meaning of individual sounds, magical plots at the basis of various poetic genres, and the universal origins of lyricism, were continued in other author’s poetics. Balmont's work, distinguished by its solemn and figurative presentation, is published with a detailed commentary. The appendix contains the work of K. D. Balmont on Scriabin’s musical experiments, developing the poet’s main idea about the connection between sound, poetry and the structure of the universe.