Already contemporaries noticed how often several key words were repeated in Blok’s lyrics. Thus, K.I. Chukovsky wrote that the favorite words of the early Blok were “mists” and “dreams.” The critic's observation corresponded to the professional "inclinations" of the poet. In Blok’s Notebooks there is the following entry: “Every poem is a veil, stretched on the edges of several words. These words shine like stars. Because of them the poem exists." The entire corpus of Blok's lyrics is characterized by a stable repetition of the most important images, verbal formulas and lyrical situations. They, these images and words, are endowed not only with dictionary meanings, but also with additional semantic energy, absorbing new semantic shades from the immediate verbal environment. But it is not only the context of a particular poem that determines the semantics of such signal words. The integral body of his lyrics turns out to be decisive for the formation of the meanings of individual words in Blok’s work.
You can, of course, read and somehow understand any individual poem by Blok. But the more of his poems we read, the richer the perception of each poem becomes, because each work emits a “charge” of its own meaning and at the same time is “charged” with the meaning of other poems. Thanks to the cross-cutting motifs, Blok's lyrics acquired a very high degree of unity. The poet himself wanted his readers to view his lyrics as a single work - as a three-volume novel in verse, which he called the “trilogy of incarnation.”
What is the reason for this position of the author of many beautiful lyric poems? First of all, with the fact that at the center of his lyrics is the very personality of modern man. It is the personality in its relationship with the whole world (social, natural, and “cosmic”) that forms the core of the problematics of Blok’s poetry. Before Blok, such problems were traditionally embodied in the genre of the novel. Let us remember that A.S. Pushkin used the phrase “novel in verse” as a genre designation for “Eugene Onegin.” Pushkin’s poetic novel has a clear, albeit unfinished plot, a multi-hero composition of characters, many extra-plot elements that allowed the author to freely “deviate” from narrative goals, “directly” address the reader, comment on the very process of creating the novel, etc.
Blok’s lyrical “novel” also has a unique plot, but not an event-based one, but a lyrical one - associated with the movement of feelings and thoughts, with the unfolding of a stable system of motives. If the content of Pushkin’s novel is largely determined by the changing distance between the author and the hero, then in Blok’s lyrical “novel” there is no such distance: Blok’s personality became the hero of the “trilogy of incarnation.” That is why the category of “lyrical hero” is used in relation to him in literary criticism. For the first time this term, today widely used in relation to the work of other lyricists, appeared in the works of the remarkable literary critic Yu.N. Tynyanov - in his articles on Blok’s poetry.
The theoretical content of the category “lyrical hero” is the synthetic nature of the subject of a lyrical utterance: in the pronominal form “I” the worldview and psychological qualities of the biographical “author” and various “role” manifestations of the hero are inseparably merged. We can say this differently: the hero of Blok’s lyrics may appear as a monk or a nameless warrior from the camp of Dmitry Donskoy, Hamlet or a visitor to a suburban restaurant, but each time these are the embodiments of one soul - one attitude, one way of thinking.
The introduction of the new term was caused by the fact that Blok’s “biggest lyrical theme,” according to Tynyanov, was the poet’s very personality. That is why, with all the variety of thematic material that makes up the “subject” background of Blok’s “novel,” the lyrical trilogy remains monocentric from beginning to end. In this regard, the entire body of Blok’s lyrics can be compared with such examples of prose monocentric novels as “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov and “Doctor Zhivago” by B.L. Pasternak. For all three artists, the most important category of the artistic world was the category of personality, and the plot and compositional features of their works are primarily subordinated to the task of revealing the world of personality.
What is the external composition of Blok’s “novel in verse”? The poet divides it into three volumes, each of which has ideological and aesthetic unity and corresponds to one of the three stages of “incarnation.” “Incarnation” is a word from the theological lexicon: in Christian tradition it denotes the appearance of the Son of Man, the incarnation of God in human form. It is important that in Blok’s poetic consciousness the image of Christ is associated with the idea creative personality- an artist, an artist, who with his whole life serves the re-creation of the world on the basis of goodness and beauty, performing the feat of self-denial for the sake of realizing these ideals.
The path of such a person - the lyrical hero of the novel - became the basis of the plot of the trilogy. Within each of the three stages of the general movement there are many particular episodes and situations. In a prose novel, as a rule, a specific episode constitutes the content of a chapter; in a lyrical novel by A. Blok, the content of a poetic cycle, i.e. several poems, united by the commonality of the situation. For a “novel of the path” it is quite natural that the most common situation is a meeting - a meeting of the lyrical hero with other “characters”, with various facts and phenomena of the social or natural world. On the hero’s path there are real obstacles and deceptive mirages of “swamp lights”, temptations and trials, mistakes and genuine discoveries; the path is replete with turns and crossroads, doubts and suffering. But the main thing is that each subsequent episode enriches the hero with spiritual experience and expands his horizons: as he moves, the space of the novel expands in concentric circles, so that at the end of the journey the hero’s gaze embraces the space of all of Russia.
In addition to the external composition, determined by the division into books (volumes) and sections (cycles), Blok’s trilogy is also organized by a more complex internal composition - a system of motifs, figurative, lexical and intonation repetitions that connect individual poems and cycles into a single whole. Motif, in contrast to theme, is a formal-substantive category: motive in poetry serves as a compositional organization of many individual poems into a tangible lyrical whole (genetically, the term “motif” is associated with musical culture and was initially used in musicology. First recorded in the “Musical Dictionary” ( 1703) S. de Brossard).
Since there are no direct plot connections between the poems, the motif complements the compositional integrity of the poetic cycle or even the poet’s entire lyrics. It is created by lyrical situations and images (metaphors, symbols, color designations) that are repeated many times and vary from poem to poem. The associative dotted line, drawn in the poet’s lyrics thanks to these repetitions and variations, performs a structure-forming function - it unites the poems into a lyrical book (this role of the motive became especially important in the poetry of the 20th century).
The central cycle of the first volume of Blok’s lyrical trilogy - the first stage of the poet’s path - “Poems about the Beautiful Lady.” It was these poems that remained Blok’s most beloved until the end of his life. As is known, they reflected love story a young poet with his future wife L.D. Mendeleeva and passion for the philosophical ideas of V.S. Solovyov. In the philosopher's teaching about the Soul of the World, or Eternal Femininity, Blok was attracted by the idea that it is through love that the elimination of egoism and the unity of man and the world are possible. The meaning of love, according to Solovyov, is the acquisition by a person of ideal integrity, which will bring a person closer to greater good- “absolute solidarity”, i.e. the fusion of earthly and heavenly. Such “high” love for the world is revealed to a person through love for an earthly woman, in which one must be able to discern her heavenly nature.
“Poems about a Beautiful Lady” are fundamentally multifaceted. To the extent that they talk about real feelings and convey the story of “earthly” love, these are works of intimate lyrics. But “earthly” experiences and episodes personal biography in Blok’s lyrical cycle they are not important in themselves - they are used by the poet as material for inspired transformation. It is important not so much to see and hear as to see and hear; not so much to tell as to tell about the “unsaid”. The “way of perception” of the world and the corresponding way of symbolization in Blok’s poetry of this time is a method of universal, universal analogies and world “correspondences,” notes the famous researcher L.A. Kolobaeva.
What are these analogies, what is the symbolist “cipher” of Blok’s early lyrics? Let us remember what a symbol is for the poets of Blok’s generation. This is a special type of image: it is aimed not at recreating a phenomenon in its material concreteness, but at conveying ideal spiritual principles. The components of such an image are alienated from everyday living conditions, the connections between them are weakened or omitted. The symbolic image includes an element of mystery: this mystery cannot be logically solved, but can be drawn into an intimate experience in order to intuitively penetrate the world of “higher essences”, to touch the world of the deity. The symbol is not just polysemantic: it includes two orders of meanings, and testifies on an equal basis to the real and the superreal.
The plot of “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” is the plot of waiting for a Meeting with your beloved. This Meeting will transform the world and the hero, connecting the earth with the sky. The participants in this plot are “he” and “she”. The drama of the waiting situation lies in the contrast between the earthly and the heavenly, in the obvious inequality of the lyrical hero and the Beautiful Lady. In their relationship, the atmosphere of medieval chivalry is revived: the object of the lyrical hero’s love is elevated to an unattainable height, the hero’s behavior is determined by the ritual of selfless service. “He” is a knight in love, a humble monk, a schema-monk ready for self-denial. “She” is silent, invisible and inaudible; the ethereal focus of faith, hope and love of the lyrical hero.
The poet widely uses adjectives with the semantics of uncertainty and verbs with the semantics of impersonality or passive contemplation: “unknown shadows”, “unearthly visions”, “incomprehensible mystery”; “the evening will come”, “everything will be known”, “I’m waiting”, “I’m watching”, “I’m guessing”, “I’m directing my gaze”, etc. Literary scholars often call the first volume of Blok’s lyrics a “poetic prayer book”: there is no event dynamics in it, the hero freezes in a kneeling position, he “wait silently,” “yearning and loving”; the rituality of what is happening is supported by figurative signs of religious service - mentions of lamps, candles, church fences - as well as the dominance of white, scarlet and gold colors in the pictorial palette.
The main section of “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” was called “Stillness” in the first edition (in the form of a lyrical collection). However, the external inactivity of the lyrical hero is compensated by a dramatic change in his moods: bright hopes are replaced by doubts, the expectation of love is complicated by the fear of its collapse, and the mood of incompatibility between the earthly and heavenly grows. In the textbook poem “I Anticipate You...”, along with impatient anticipation, there is an important motive of fear of the Meeting. At the moment of incarnation, the Beautiful Lady can turn into a sinful creature, and her descent into the world can turn out to be a fall:
The entire horizon is on fire, and the appearance is near.
But I’m scared: You will change your appearance.
And you will arouse impudent suspicion,
Changing the usual features at the end.
The final first volume of the “Crossroads” cycle is marked with particular tension. Light emotional atmosphere loving expectation gives way to moods of dissatisfaction with oneself, self-irony, motives of “fears”, “laughter”, anxieties. The hero’s field of view includes signs of “everyday life”: the life of the urban poor, human grief (“Factory”, “From the Newspapers”, etc.). “Crossroads” anticipate important changes in the fate of the lyrical hero.
These changes clearly manifested themselves in the second volume of the lyrical trilogy. If the first volume of lyrics was determined by the motives of expectation of the Meeting and high service, then the new stage of the lyrical plot is associated primarily with the motives of immersion in the elements of life, or, using the formula of Blok himself, “the rebellion of the purple worlds.” The consciousness of the lyrical hero is now turned to an unimagined life. She appears to him in the elements of nature (the “Earth Bubbles” cycle), urban civilization (the “City” cycle) and earthly love (“Snow Mask”). Ultimately, a series of encounters between the hero and the elements leads him to a meeting with the world of reality. The hero’s very idea of the essence of the world changes. The overall picture of life becomes sharply more complicated: life appears in disharmony, it is a world of many people, dramatic events, and struggle. Most importantly, however, the hero’s focus is now on the national and social life of the country.
The second volume of lyrics, corresponding to the second period of the poet’s work, is the most complex in the structure of motives and the variety of intonations (tragic and ironic, romantic and “farcical”). The element is a key symbol of the second volume of lyrics. This symbol in the poet’s mind is close to what he called “music” - it is associated with the feeling of the deep creative essence of existence. Music, in Blok’s view, resides in nature, in the feeling of love, in the soul of the people and in the soul of the individual. Closeness to the elements of nature and folk life provides a person with the authenticity and strength of his feelings. However, getting closer to the diverse elements becomes for the hero not only the key to a fulfilling life, but also a very serious moral test.
The element does not exist outside of earthly incarnations. The extreme embodiments of the “earthly” principle in the poet’s lyrics are the characters of folk demonology from the cycle “Bubbles of the Earth” (imps, sorcerers, witches, mermaids), who are both attractive and frightening. Among the “rusty swamps”, the former impulses upward, towards gold and azure, gradually disappear: “Love this eternity of the swamps: / Their power will never dry out.” Passive dissolution in the elements can turn into self-sufficient skepticism and oblivion of the ideal.
The appearance of the heroine of love lyrics also changes - the Beautiful Lady is supplanted by the Stranger, an irresistibly attractive “this-worldly” woman, shocking and at the same time charming. The famous poem “The Stranger” (1906) contrasts the “low” reality (the disharmonious picture of the suburbs, a group of regulars at a cheap restaurant) and the “high” dream of the lyrical hero (the captivating image of the Stranger). However, the situation is not limited to the traditional romantic conflict of “dreams and reality.” The fact is that the Stranger is at the same time the embodiment of high beauty, a reminder of the “heavenly” ideal preserved in the hero’s soul, and the product of the “terrible world” of reality, a woman from the world of drunkards “with the eyes of rabbits.” The image turns out to be two-faced, it is built on the combination of the incompatible, on the “blasphemous” combination of the beautiful and the repulsive.
According to L.A. Kolobaeva, “the two-dimensionality is now different than in “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.” There, the figurative movement is aimed at seeing a miracle in the visible, earthly, human, in love, something infinite, divine, from “things” to rise “upward”, to the sky... Now the duality of the image is not mystically elevating, but, on the contrary, debunking, bitterly sobering, ironic.” And yet, the emotional result of the poem is not in complaints about the illusory nature of beauty, but in the affirmation of its mystery. The salvation of the lyrical hero is that he remembers - remembers the existence of unconditional love (“There is a treasure in my soul, / And the key is entrusted only to me!”).
From now on, Blok’s poems are often constructed as a confession that through the “abominations” of the day being experienced, the memory of an ideal breaks through - either with reproach and regret, or with pain and hope. “Trampling on shrines,” Blok’s lyrical hero longs to believe; rushing into a whirlwind of love betrayals, she yearns for her only love.
The new attitude of the lyrical hero entailed changes in poetics: the intensity of oxymoronic combinations sharply increases, special attention is paid to the musical expressiveness of the verse, metaphors consistently develop into independent lyrical themes (one of the most characteristic examples of such “weaving” of metaphors is the poem “Snow Ovary”). This is how Vyach spoke about one of the cycles of the second volume (“Snow Mask”). I. Ivanov is the largest theorist among the symbolists of the 1900s: “In my opinion, this is the apogee of our lyricism approaching the element of music... The sound, rhythm, and assonances are captivating; Intoxicating, intoxicating movement, the intoxication of a blizzard... Wonderful melancholy and wonderful melodious power!
However, the world of elements is capable of overwhelming the lyrical hero and interrupting his movement. Blok feels the need to look for some new ways. In the diversity of the elements, choice is necessary. “Doesn’t it mean to understand everything and love everything - even hostile, even that which requires renunciation of what is most dear to oneself - doesn’t it mean to understand nothing and love nothing? “- he writes in 1908. A need arises to rise above spontaneity. The final section of the second volume of the trilogy was the cycle “Free Thoughts,” which marks a decisive transition to a sober and clear attitude towards the world. What does the lyrical hero take away from the experience of joining the elements? The main thing is the courageous idea of confronting a terrible world, the idea of duty. From the “antithesis” of unbelief and subjectivity, the hero returns to faith, but his faith in the ideal beginning of life is filled with new meanings compared to the early lyrics.
One of the fundamental poems of the second volume is “Oh, spring without end and without edge...”. It develops one of the most important motifs of Blok’s lyrics - “both disgust from life and mad love for it.” Life reveals itself to the lyrical hero in all its ugliness (“the languor of slave labor,” “wells of earthly cities,” “crying,” “failure”). And yet the hero’s reaction to all manifestations of disharmony is far from unambiguous rejection. “I accept” - this is the volitional decision of the lyrical hero. But this is not passive resignation to the inevitable: the hero appears in the guise of a warrior, he is ready to confront the imperfections of the world.
How does the lyrical hero emerge from the trials of the elements? It is characteristic of him to boldly experience life, not to renounce anything, to experience all the tension of passions - in the name of the fullness of knowledge of life, to accept it as it is - in conjunction with the “beautiful” and “terrible” principles, but to wage an eternal battle for its perfection. The lyrical hero now “courageously faces the world.” “At the end of the road,” as the poet wrote in the preface to the collection “Earth in the Snow,” for him “one eternal and endless plain stretches out - the original homeland, perhaps Russia itself.”
The third volume of the “novel in verse” synthesizes and rethinks the most important motifs of the first two parts of the trilogy. It opens with the cycle “Scary World”. The leading motive of the cycle is the death of the world of modern urban civilization. A laconic, expressive image of this civilization is represented by the famous poem “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...”. The lyrical hero also falls into the orbit of these forces of spiritual death: he tragically experiences his own sinfulness, a feeling of mortal fatigue grows in his soul. Even love now is a painful feeling; it does not relieve loneliness, but only exacerbates it. That is why the lyrical hero realizes how sinful the search for personal happiness is. Happiness in a “terrible world” is fraught with spiritual callousness and moral deafness. The hero’s feeling of hopelessness acquires an all-encompassing, cosmic character:
Worlds are flying. The years fly by. Empty
The Universe looks at us with dark eyes.
And you, soul, tired, deaf,
How many times are you talking about happiness?
An image of enormous generalizing power is created in the poem “Voice from the Choir” that concludes the entire cycle. Here is an apocalyptic prophecy about the coming triumph of evil:
And the last century, the most terrible of all,
You and I will see.
The whole sky will hide the vile sin,
Laughter will freeze on all lips,
The melancholy of nothingness...
Here is how the poet himself comments on these lines: “Very unpleasant poems... It would be better for these words to remain unspoken. But I had to say them. Difficult things must be overcome. And behind it there will be a clear day.”
The pole of the “terrible world” evokes in the minds of the lyrical hero the thought of impending retribution - this thought develops in two small cycles “Retribution” and “Iambics”. Retribution, according to Blok, overtakes a person for betraying the ideal, for losing the memory of the absolute. This retribution is primarily a judgment of one’s own conscience.
The logical development of the plot of the lyrical hero’s journey is an appeal to new, unconditional values - the values of people’s life, the Motherland. Russia theme - the most important topic Blok's poetry. At one of the performances, where the poet read a variety of his poems, he was asked to read poems about Russia. “It’s all about Russia,” Blok replied. However, this theme is embodied most fully and deeply in the “Motherland” cycle.
Before this most important cycle in the “trilogy of incarnation,” Blok places the lyrical poem “The Nightingale Garden.” The poem recreates the situation of a decisive crossroads in the plot of the lyrical novel. It is organized by an irreconcilable conflict, the outcome of which cannot but be tragic. The composition is based on the opposition of two principles of existence, two possible paths of the lyrical hero. One of them is daily labor on a rocky shore, the tedious monotony of existence with its “heat,” boredom, and deprivation. The other is a “garden” of happiness, love, art, enticing with music:
Curses do not reach life
To this walled garden...
The poet does not try to find a reconciliation between “music” and “necessity,” feeling and duty; they are separated in the poem with emphasized severity. However, both of life’s “shores” represent undoubted values for the lyrical hero: between them he wanders (from the “rocky path” he turns into the nightingale’s garden, but from there he hears the inviting sound of the sea, “the distant growl of the surf”). What is the reason for the hero’s departure from the nightingale garden? It is not at all that he is disappointed with the “sweet song” of love. The hero does not judge this enchanting force, which leads away from the “empty” path of monotonous labor, with an ascetic court and does not deprive him of the right to exist.
Returning from the circle of the nightingale garden is not an ideal act and not a triumph of the hero’s “best” qualities over the “worst”. This is a tragic, ascetic way out, associated with the loss of real values (freedom, personal happiness, beauty). The lyrical hero cannot be satisfied with his decision, just as he could not find spiritual harmony if he remained in the “garden”. His fate is tragic: each of the worlds necessary and dear to him has its own “truth,” but the truth is incomplete, one-sided. Therefore, not only does the garden, enclosed by a “high and long fence,” give rise to a feeling of orphanhood in the hero’s soul, but also returning to the rocky shore does not relieve him of his melancholy loneliness.
And yet the choice is made in favor of severe duty. This is a feat of self-denial that determines the future fate of the hero and allows us to understand a lot in the creative evolution of the author. Blok most clearly defined the meaning of his path and the logic of the lyrical trilogy in one of his letters to Andrei Bely: “... this is my path, now that it has been passed, I am firmly convinced that this is due and that all the poems together are the “trilogy of incarnation” ( from a moment of too bright light - through the necessary swampy forest - to despair, curses, “retribution” and... - to the birth of a “social” man, an artist, courageously facing the world... who received the right to study forms... to peer into the contours of “good and evil” - at the cost of losing part of the soul.”
Coming out of The Nightingale Garden, the lyrical hero of the trilogy parts with the “sweet song” of love (the most important love theme up to now gives way to a new supreme value - the theme of the homeland). Immediately following the poem in the third volume of the “lyrical novel” is the cycle “Motherland” - the pinnacle of the “trilogy of incarnation”. In poems about Russia, the leading role belongs to the motives of the historical destinies of the country: the semantic core of Blok’s patriotic lyrics is the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field”. The Battle of Kulikovo in the poet’s perception is a symbolic event that is destined to return. That is why the vocabulary with the semantics of return and repetition is so important in these verses: “The swans screamed behind Nepryadvaya, / And again, again they scream...”; “Again with age-old melancholy / The feather grass bent down to the ground”; “Again over the Kulikovo field / The haze rose and spread out...” Thus, the threads connecting history with modernity are exposed.
The poems are based on the opposition of two worlds. The lyrical hero appears here as a nameless warrior of Dmitry Donskoy’s army. Thus, the hero’s personal fate is identified with the fate of the Motherland; he is ready to die for it. But the hope for a victorious and bright future is also palpable in the verses: “Let it be night. Let's get home. Let’s illuminate the steppe distance with bonfires.”
Another famous example of Blok’s patriotic lyrics - the poem “Russia” - begins with the same adverb “again”. This lexical detail deserves comment. The lyrical hero of the trilogy has already come a long way - from unformed premonitions of grandiose achievements - to a clear understanding of his duty, from anticipation of a meeting with the Beautiful Lady - to a real meeting with the “beautiful and furious” world of folk life. But the very image of the homeland in the perception of the lyrical hero is reminiscent of previous incarnations of his ideal. “Beggar Russia” is endowed with human traits in the poem. The details of the lyrical landscape “flow” into portrait details: “And you are still the same - a forest and a field, / Yes, a patterned cloth up to the eyebrows.” The portrait strokes of the appearance of Rus' are expressive in another poem of the cycle - “New America”: “Whispering, quiet speeches, / Your flushed cheeks...”.
For the lyrical hero, love for the Motherland is not so much a filial feeling as an intimate feeling. Therefore, the images of Rus' and Wife in Blok’s lyrics are very close. In the appearance of Russia, the memory of the Beautiful Lady comes to life, although this connection is not logically revealed. The prehistory of the lyrical “I” is included in the structure of poems about the Motherland, and these poems themselves retrospectively enrich the early love lyrics Blok, confirm the poet’s idea that all his poems are about Russia. “...Two loves - for the only woman and for the only country on earth, the Motherland - two highest divine calls of life, two main human needs, which, according to Blok, have a common nature... Both love are dramatic, in each has its own inevitable suffering, its own “cross,” and the poet “carefully” carries it throughout his life...” emphasizes L. A. Kolobaeva.
The most important motive of poems about the Motherland is the motive of the path (“To the point of pain / The long path is clear to us!”). At the end of the lyrical trilogy, this is the common “way of the cross” for the hero and his country. To summarize the results of the trilogy, we will use the formula of one of the greatest blockologists - D.E. Maksimov: “The path of Blok appears... as a kind of ascent, in which the “abstract” becomes “more concrete”, the unclear - clearer, the solitary merges with the national, timeless, the eternal - with the historical, the active is born in the passive.”
A.A. Block. The main motives of the lyricsHe was far and close at the same time to our era... He sought merging with the cosmos, and not with humanity. Lived with a presentiment of mystery and miracle... P.S. Kogan
For creativityA.A. Blok (1880-1921) were seriously influenced by Russian romantic poetry, Russian folklore, and the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov. A strong feeling for L.D. also left a significant mark on his poetry. Mendeleeva, who became his wife in 1903. Blok's lyrics appear as a single work unfolded in time:“...I am firmly convinced that this is due and that all the poems together are a “trilogy of incarnation” (from a moment of too bright light - through the necessary swampy forest - to despair, curses, “retribution” and ... to the birth of a “social” man ", an artist courageously facing the world...)" - this is how Blok characterized the stages of his creative path and the content of the books that made up the trilogy.
The wind brought from afar
Songs of spring hint,
Somewhere light and deep
A piece of sky opened up.
In this bottomless azure,
In the twilight of near spring
The winter storms cried
Starry dreams were flying.
Shy, dark and deep
My strings were crying.
The wind brought from afar
Your sonorous songs.
I have a feeling about you...
And the heavy sleep of everyday consciousness
You will shake it off, yearning and loving.
Vl. Soloviev
I have a feeling about you. The years pass by -
All in one form I foresee You.
The whole horizon is on fire - and unbearably clear,
And I wait silently, yearning and loving.
The whole horizon is on fire, and the appearance is near,
But I’m scared: you’ll change your appearance,
And you will arouse impudent suspicion,
Changing the usual features at the end.
Oh, how I will fall - both sadly and low,
Without overcoming deadly dreams!
How clear is the horizon! And radiance is close.
But I’m scared: You will change your appearance.
I'm entering dark temples,
I perform a poor ritual.
There I am waiting for the Beautiful Lady
In the flickering red lamps.
In the shadow of a tall column
I'm shaking from the creaking of the doors.
And he looks into my face, illuminated,
Only an image, only a dream about Her.
Oh, I'm used to these robes
Majestic Eternal Wife!
They run high along the cornices
Smiles, fairy tales and dreams.
Oh, Holy One, how tender the candles are,
How pleasing are Your features!
I can't hear neither sighs nor speeches,
But I believe: Darling - You.
I'm scared to meet you.It's worse not to meet you.I began to wonder at everythingI caught the stamp on everything.Shadows walk along the streetI don’t understand whether they are living or sleeping.Clinging to the church steps,I'm afraid to look back.They put their hands on my shoulders,But I don't remember the names.There are sounds in my earsThe recent big funeral.And the gloomy sky is low -The temple itself was covered.I know: You are here. You're close.You are not here. Are you there.
However, social motives were also reflected in the first volume of poems. In the cycle “Crossroads” (1903), the finalfirst volume , the theme of the Beautiful Lady is combined with social motives - the poet seems to turn his face to other people and notice their grief, the imperfection of the world in which they live (“Factory”, “From newspapers”, “A sick man trudged along the shore”, etc.)
In the neighboring house the windows are zsolt.
In the evenings - in the evenings
Thoughtful bolts creak,
People approach the gate.
And the gates are silently locked,
And on the wall - and on the wall
motionless someone, black someone
Counts people in silence.
I hear everything from my top:
He calls with a copper voice
Bend your weary backs
There are people gathered below.
They will come in and disperse,
They will pile the coolies on their backs.
And they will laugh in the yellow windows,
What did these beggars do?
“From the Newspapers” Alexander Blok
She stood up in radiance. Baptized children.
And the children saw a joyful dream.
She laid it down, bowing her head to the floor,
Last bow to earth.
Kolya woke up. Sighed joyfully
I'm still happy about the blue dream in reality.
A glassy rumble rolled and died away:
The door slammed downstairs.
Hours passed. A man came
With a tin plaque on a warm cap.
A man was knocking and waiting at the door.
Nobody opened it. Played hide and seek.
There were cheerful frosty Christmastides.
They hid my mother's red scarf.
She left in a headscarf in the morning.
Today I left a scarf at home:
The children hid it in the corners.
Dusk crept up. Baby shadows
They jumped on the wall in the light of the lanterns.
Someone was walking up the stairs, counting the steps.
I counted. And he cried. And he knocked at the door.
The children listened. The doors were opened.
The fat neighbor brought them cabbage soup.
She said: “Eat.” Got on my knees
And, bowing like a mother, she baptized the children.
It doesn't hurt mommy, pink babies.
Mommy herself lay down on the rails.
To a kind person, a fat neighbor,
Thank you, thank you. Mom couldn't...
Mommy is fine. Mom died.
A sick man was trudged along the shore.
A line of carts crawled alongside him.
A booth was being transported to the smoking city,
Beautiful gypsies and drunken gypsies.
And they joked and screamed from the carts.
And there was a man dragging a bag nearby.
He moaned and asked for a ride to the village.
The gypsy girl gave her dark hand.
And he ran up, hobbling as best he could,
And he threw a heavy bag into the cart.
And he himself strained himself, and foam at the lips.
The gypsy woman took his corpse into the cart.
She sat me down in the cart next to her,
And the dead man swayed and fell on his face.
And with a song of freedom she took me to the village.
AND dead husband I gave it to my wife.
Also in this cycle a Hamlet motif (“Ophelia’s Song”) appears.
Separating from the dear maiden,
Friend, you swore to love me!..
Leaving for a hateful land,
Keep this oath!..
There, beyond happy Denmark,
Your shores are in the dark...
Val is angry, talkative
Washing tears on a rock...
Dear warrior will not return,
All dressed in silver...
The grave will shake heavily
Bow and black feather...
Looking closely at the world around him, the lyrical hero notices its troubles and comes to the conclusion that life in this world is ruled by the elements. This new view was reflected insecond volume , in the cycles: “Unexpected Joy” (1907), “Free Thoughts” (1907), “Snow Mask” (1907), “Earth in the Snow” (1908), “Night Hours” (1911). In parallel with these cycles, A. Blok creates a number of lyrical dramas: “Balaganchik”, “Stranger” (1906), “Song of Fate” (1908), “Rose and Cross” (1913). Creationsecond volume coincided with revolutionary events in the country. The poet's thoughts about the fate of the Motherland resulted inpoems about Russia , about his attitude to its past, present and future (“Autumn Will”, “Rus”, “Russia”, etc.).
“Autumn Will” Alexander Blok
I set out on a path open to view,
The wind bends the elastic bushes,
The broken stone lay along the slopes,
There are scant layers of yellow clay.
Autumn has sprung up in the wet valleys,
Revealed the cemeteries of the earth,
But thick rowan trees in passing villages
The red color will shine from afar.
Here it is, my fun is dancing
And it rings and rings and disappears in the bushes!
And far, far away it waves invitingly
Your patterned, your colored sleeve.
Who lured me onto the familiar path,
Smiled at me through the prison window?
Or - driven by a stone path
A beggar singing psalms?
No, I’m going on a journey uninvited by anyone,
And may the earth be easy for me!
I will listen to the voice of drunken Rus',
Relax under the roof of a tavern.
Should I sing about my luck?
How I lost my youth in drunkenness...
I will cry over the sadness of your fields,
I will love your space forever...
There are many of us - free, young, stately -
He dies without loving...
Shelter you in the vast distances!
How to live and cry without you!
RUS
You are extraordinary even in your dreams.
I won't touch your clothes.
And in secret - you will rest, Rus'.
Rus' is surrounded by rivers
And surrounded by wilds,
With swamps and cranes,
And with the dull gaze of a sorcerer,
Where are the diverse peoples
From edge to edge, from valley to valley
They lead night dances
Under the glow of burning villages.
Where is the sorcerers with a fortune tellerI mi
The grains in the fields are enchanting
And the witches are having fun with the devils
In road snow columns.
Where the blizzard sweeps violently
Up to the roof - fragile housing,
And the girl on the evil friend
Under the snow it sharpens the blade.
Where are all the paths and all the crossroads
Exhausted with a living stick,
And a whirlwind whistling in the bare twigs,
Sings old legends...
So - I found out in my slumber
Country of birth poverty,
And in the scraps of her rags
I hide my nakedness from my soul.
The path is sad, night
I trampled to the graveyard,
And there, spending the night in the cemetery,
He sang songs for a long time.
And I didn’t understand, I didn’t measure,
To whom did I dedicate the songs?
What god did you passionately believe in?
What kind of girl did you love?
I rocked a living soul,
Rus', in your vastness you are,
And so - she did not stain
Initial purity.
I doze - and behind the doze there is a secret,
And Rus' rests in secret.
She is extraordinary in dreams too,
I won't touch her clothes.
Russia
Again, like in the golden years,
Three worn out flapping harnesses,
And the painted knitting needles knit
Into loose ruts...
Russia, poor Russia,
I want your gray huts,
Your songs are like wind to me, -
Like the first tears of love!
I don't know how to feel sorry for you
And I carefully carry my cross...
Which sorcerer do you want?
Give me your robber beauty!
Let him lure and deceive, -
You won't be lost, you won't perish,
And only care will cloud
Your beautiful features...
Well? One more concern -
The river is noisier with one tear
And you are still the same - forest and field,
Yes, the patterned board goes up to the eyebrows...
And the impossible is possible
The long road is easy
When the road flashes in the distance
An instant glance from under a scarf,
When it rings with guarded melancholy
The dull song of the coachman!..
Blok's lyrical hero is connected with the Motherland by inextricable ties. The poet creates the initial image of Russia in line with the folklore tradition: Rus' is a mysterious, semi-fairy-tale land, surrounded by forests and surrounded by wilds,“with swamps and cranes and with the dull gaze of a sorcerer” (“Rus”, 1906). However, this imagefluid : already in the poem “Russia” (1908) the image ancient land imperceptibly transforms into a female image:“Give the robber beauty to whichever sorcerer you want” . The lyrical hero is convinced that Rus' is not afraid of anything, that it is able to withstand any test (“You won’t be lost, you won’t perish” ). The lyrical hero confesses his love for the Motherland, with which"and the impossible is possible" . A special place in Blok’s lyrics occupiescycle “On the Kulikovo Field” (1908). The poet believed that history repeats itself, so it is necessary to comprehend its lessons:“The Battle of Kulikovo belongs to symbolic events... Such events are destined to return. The solution to them is yet to come.” The lyrical hero of this cycle is both an ancient Russian warrior who is preparing for a mortal battle, and a philosopher reflecting on the fate of Russia: “...To the point of pain / The long path is clear to us! / Our path is like an arrow of the ancient Tatar will / Pierced into our chests.” . Despite"blood and dust" , despite the threatening“darkness - night and foreign” , foretelling trouble"sunset in the blood" , the lyrical hero does not think of his life separately from Russia. To emphasize the inseparability of fate - his own and the Motherland's - Blok resorts to a bold metaphor, unusual for traditional perception native land, - the poet calls Russia “wife”:“Oh, my Rus'! My wife!" . The cycle ends on an alarming note: the“the beginning / of high and rebellious days /... No wonder the clouds have gathered” . The epigraph preceding the fifth part of the cycle is also not accidental:“And the darkness of irresistible troubles / The coming day was shrouded (V. Solovyov)” . Blok's premonitions turned out to be prophetic: revolutions, repressions and wars regularly shook our country throughout the 20th century. Really,“And eternal battle! Rest only in our dreams…" . However, the great poet believed in Russia’s ability to overcome all trials:“Let it be night. Let's get home..." . Acutely perceiving social upheavals, Blok experiences a premonition of an impending catastrophe. His tragic attitudewas especially evident incycle "Scary World" (1910-1916), openingthird volume . In the “terrible world” there is no love, no healthy human feelings, no future (“Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...” (1912)).
"Scary world" theme sounds incycles “Retribution”, “Iambics” . Retribution in Blok’s interpretation is a judgment of one’s own conscience: the retribution for those who betrayed their destiny, succumbing to the destructive influence of the “terrible world”, is fatigue from life, internal emptiness, and spiritual death. In the “Iambic” cycle, the idea is heard that retribution threatens the entire “terrible world.” And yet the lyrical hero does not lose faith in the victory of light over darkness, he is focused on the future:Oh, I want to live madly: To immortalize everything that exists, To humanize the Impersonal, To embody the unfulfilled! The theme of Russia also continues here. The fate of the Motherland for the lyrical hero is inseparable from his own fate (“My Rus', my life, shall we suffer together?..” , 1910). A. Blok was deeply convinced that one does not choose one’s homeland, he was capable of loving Russia, which is terrible, ugly in its lack of spirituality - let’s remember the poem “To sin shamelessly, deeply” (1914):To sin shamelessly, unremittingly, to lose count of the nights and days, and, with your head heavy with drunkenness, to walk sideways into God’s temple. Bow down three times, sign the cross seven times, secretly touch the spit-stained floor with your hot forehead. Putting a copper penny into a plate, Three, and seven more times in a row, Kiss the hundred-year-old, poor And kissed salary. And when you return home, measure someone for the same penny, And the hungry dog from the door, Hiccup, and push it away with your foot. And under the lamp by the icon Drink tea, snapping the bill, Then salivate coupons, Opening the pot-bellied chest of drawers, And fall onto the feather beds in a heavy sleep... Yes, and so, my Russia, You are dearer to me than all the lands. August 26, 1914
A. Blok's lyrics are extraordinarymusical . According to the poet, music is the inner essence of the world.“The soul of a real person is the most complex and most melodious musical instrument...” “, - Blok believed, - therefore, all human actions - from extraordinary ups to falling into the abyss of a “terrible world” - are manifestations of a person’s loyalty or infidelity to the “spirit of music.” Like all symbolists, A. Blok attached special importance to the rhythmic and melodic pattern of the work. His poetic arsenal of versification tools includes free verse and iambic, blank verse and anapest. Also great importance The block gaveblossom . For his work, color is a means of symbolically depicting the world. Primary colors in Blok's poetry- white and black, due to aestheticssymbolism , viewing the world as a contrasting combination of the ideal and the real, the earthly and the heavenly. White color primarily symbolizes holiness, purity, and detachment. Most often, the white color is found in the first volume - images-symbols of purity, purity and unattainability are associated with it (for example: white birds, white dress, white lilies). Gradually, white color acquires other meanings:
1) passions, liberation:Will I get drunk and intoxicated with silvery, snowy hops? With a heart devoted to blizzards, I will fly to the heights of the sky.?? In the snowy distances wings are blowing, - I hear, I hear a white call;?? In a whirlwind of stars, without effort I will throw off the links of all shackles? Be intoxicated with light hops, Snow-eyed be you too...?? Ah, I lost count of the weeks In the whirlwind of white beauty!??1906-1907 2) death, destruction:<…>But she doesn’t hear - She hears - she doesn’t look, Quiet - she doesn’t breathe, White - she’s silent... She doesn’t ask for food... The wind whistles through the crack. How I love listening to the Blizzard Pipe! Wind, snowy north, You are an old friend to me! Give a fan to your young wife! Give her a white dress like you! Bring snow flowers to her bed! You gave me grief, clouds and snow... Give her dawn, beads, pearls! So that she is smart and white as snow! So that I can look greedily from that corner!.. Sing sweeter, blizzard, into the snow chimney, so that my friend sleeps in an ice coffin!<…>December 1906
The frequency of use of white decreases as Blok’s poetry develops from symbolism to the realism of a “terrible world” and revolution, and the use of black increases. The color black in Blok’s lyrics symbolizes obsession, fury, tragedy, despair, restlessness:
1) Spring awakens spring in her soul, But the black devil squeezes her mind... 2) As a mad and submissive slave, I hide and wait until the time comes Under this gaze, too black. In my burning delirium... 3) Only a wild black wind shaking my house...
Black color is also a sign of philosophical understanding of life - a sign of monastic service, and a symbol of the fullness of life:
1) I am an exemplary brother to sad brothers, And I carry a black cassock, When in the morning with a faithful gait I sweep away the dew from the pale grasses. 2) And the black, earthly blood Promises us, swelling our veins, Destroying all boundaries, Unheard of changes, Unprecedented rebellions...
There are also other color symbols in Blok’s lyrics, determined by the traditions of medieval aesthetics that the poet followed in his work: Yellow is a sign of vulgarity, social injustice, hostile force; Blue is a sign of betrayal, fragility of dreams, poetic inspiration. The poetic perfection of A. Blok's lyrics allowed him to take an honorable place among the Russian classics who created great Russian literature.
A. Blok was born on November 28 (16), 1880 in the family of a law professor and the daughter of the rector of the University of St. Petersburg. Since his parents separated, from the age of three Blok lived and was raised by his father’s parents, who belonged to the “cream” of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia. Constant rotation in the bohemian environment formed Blok’s special worldview, which manifested itself in the future in his literature. Blok began composing at the age of five (!), so it is not surprising that poetic expression became the norm of his life.
In 1903, Blok married Lyubov Mendeleeva, the daughter of the great Russian chemist D.I. Mendeleev. In the same year, the poet’s first collection of poems was published, written under the impression of first love and the first months of a happy family life. The initial stage of Blok’s work was greatly influenced by Pushkin and Vl. Soloviev. Blok experimented with poetic rhythm at that time, inventing more and more new forms. For him, the sound and music of verse were paramount in poetry.
Blok’s first collection of poems, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” 1904, represented the poet’s Platonic idealism, the realization of divine wisdom in the image of the world soul in a female guise.
In Blok's next poetry collections, "City", 1908, and "Snow Mask", 1907, the author concentrated on a religious theme, and his muse of their mystical lady turned into an unfamiliar courtesan.
Blok's later poems represent a mixture of the author's hopes and despair regarding the future of Russia. The unfinished "Retribution", 1910-1921, revealed the collapse of the author's illusions about the new Bolshevik regime. It is worth noting that Blok was optimistic about October Revolution 1917, placing high hopes on the new government. However, the subsequent actions of the Bolsheviks were so contrary to what Blok had assumed and what they themselves had promised that the poet could not help but despair of his own self-deception. However, he continued to believe in Russia's exceptional role in human history. This opinion was confirmed by the works “Motherland” and “Scythians”. In "Scythians" Blok used gypsy folklore, jumping rhythms, sharp transitions from intense passions to quiet melancholy. He seems to be warning the West that if it takes up arms against Rus', then in the future this will lead to a response from Rus', united with the militant East, that this will lead to Chaos.
Blok’s last work was his most controversial and mysterious poem, “The Twelve,” 1920, in which the author used polyphony of rhythms, harsh, even rude language so that the reader could imagine what was written on paper: a detachment of 12 Red Army soldiers is walking through the city, sweeping away everything in its path and carrying Christ ahead of itself.
Alexander Blok died on August 7, 1921 in St. Petersburg, abandoned by many friends of his youth and deprived of his last illusions regarding the new government.
Main themes of creativity. Theme of the Motherland. Blok defined Russia in two ways - either as a “poor” and “beautiful” Rus', or as a “New America”: “He could not, and did not want to combine these two principles, he tangibly opposed them to each other as hostile, asserting in this opposition the romance of his work." Blok created a special image of the Motherland. This is the image of a beautiful Woman, a beloved bride. Her face is bright, “bright forever,” she preserves the original purity of the poet’s soul. This is a woman with beautiful features, “robber beauty”, tied in a “patterned dress up to the eyebrows”.
Theme of love. In the work of A. Blok, this topic is one of the most important. The poet’s first book, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” published in 1903, gives a romantic interpretation of love as a feeling that in an incomprehensible way helps to connect the ideal world with the real world. Love in “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” is not directed towards any specific object. The object of love is the Eternal Wife, the Maiden of the Rainbow Gate, this is the embodiment of the ideal essence of the female soul. Therefore, love here is an impulse, an expectation, an unknown.
City theme. One of the leading themes of the poet’s lyrical work is the urban theme - the octopus city that takes hostages, absorbs personalities, individualities, even physical bodies its residents. Blok's city is not the real Petersburg, although the reader can easily recognize the northern capital in his poems. It is rather a “landscape of the soul” of the lyrical hero. The city is already mentioned here - in poems of the late 90s of the 19th century. The city is contrasted with the natural life of nature, and the advantage in this comparison is clearly not on the side of the first. Early Blok is a true romantic, he is attracted to everything beautiful and sublime. The lyrical hero still clearly separates himself from the noisy, bustling city, physically he is part of it, but spiritually he is an antipode. If in his early works Blok clearly separates himself - the lyrical hero - from the rest of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, now (1903) the poet is no longer a romantic loner, not an individualist, he subtly feels the troubles and misfortunes of the city, its inhabitants, and cannot turn a blind eye to them and continue to describe unreal, fairy-tale worlds, looking for their own peace and personal happiness in them. For example, the poem “Stranger” is filled with details of urban life; Reading it, we not only see pictures of St. Petersburg life, but also clearly hear drunken shouts, children's crying, women's squeals, and the creaking of a rowlock. Describing the streets, back streets, taverns of St. Petersburg, Blok shows the tragedy of the Russian man of the early 20th century, the fate of the inhabitants of the poet’s native city.
Lyrical heroine. Blok’s beautiful lady is a symbolic meaning of the refined, beautiful, spiritual essence of the world. Speaking about Her in letters to Andrei Bely, the poet had in mind the Soul of the World, Eternal Femininity, which in his poems appeared in the image of a Beautiful Lady. Her image in the young poet’s lyrics symbolized the inseparability of his love for the beauty of an earthly woman and the beauty of Eternal Femininity, signified the harmony of nature and culture, sensory and spiritual perception of the world. In the poems of this poet there are no specific images of either a woman or a lyrical hero. There are no concrete actions of his, and his experiences are elusive. All images only create a specific situation. The lyrical hero, in his quest to find moral support, is ready to believe any deception. The Beautiful Lady becomes such a desired deception for him. This can be seen in all of Blok’s poems, including “Stranger.”
Oh, I want to live crazy:
All that exists is to perpetuate,
The impersonal - to humanize,
Unfulfilled - make it happen!
The work of Alexander Blok, the great poet of the early 20th century, is one of the most remarkable phenomena of Russian poetry. In terms of the strength of his talent, his passion for defending his views and positions, his depth of insight into life, his desire to answer the biggest and most pressing questions of our time, the significance of his innovative discoveries that have become the invaluable asset of Russian poetry, Blok is one of those figures of our art who make up its pride and glory.
What attracts me to Blok's poetry? First of all, Blok translated all the phenomena of the surrounding world and all the events of history, all the legends of centuries, people's grief, dreams of the future - everything that became the theme of experience and food for thought into the language of lyricism and, above all, perceived it as lyricism. Even Russia itself was a “lyrical magnitude” for him, and this “magnitude” was so enormous that it did not immediately fit into the framework of his work.
It is also extremely significant that the great patriotic theme, the theme of the Motherland and its destinies, is included in Blok’s lyrics simultaneously with the theme of revolution, which captures the poet to the most hidden depths of his soul and gives rise to a system of completely new feelings, experiences, aspirations that arose as if from thunderstorms, in their dazzling light - and the theme of the Motherland becomes the main and most important theme in Blok’s work. One of his most notable poems, written during the days of the 1905 revolution and inspired by it, is “Autumn Will.” In this poem, which will be followed by a huge internal meaning and the artistic perfection of the “Motherland” cycle, were deeply affected by the poet’s experiences and thoughts, which gave his lyrics new and extremely important features.
All the same, former, and at the same time completely different beauty of his native land was revealed to the poet in the most inconspicuous plain for the “foreign gaze”, not striking with either bright flowers or variegated colors, calm and monotonous, but irresistibly attractive in the eyes of the Russian people, how the poet acutely felt and conveyed this in his poem: I set out on a path open to view, The wind bends the elastic bushes, Broken stone lay along the slopes, The meager layers of yellow clay.
Autumn has cleared up in the wet valleys, It has exposed the cemeteries of the earth, But the dense rowan trees in the passing villages The red color will dawn from afar...
It would seem that everything is monotonous, familiar, familiar for a long time in these “wet valleys,” but in them the poet saw something new, unexpected and as if echoing the rebellious, young, perky that he felt in himself; in the severity and even scarcity of the space that opened before him, he recognized his own, dear, close, grabbing his heart - and could not help but respond to the red color of the rowan tree in front of him, calling somewhere and delighting with new promises that the poet had not heard before. That is why he experiences such an unprecedented rise of inner strength, the charm and beauty of the fields and slopes of his native land appeared before him in a new way: Here it is, my joy, dancing and ringing, ringing, disappearing in the bushes! And in the distance, in the distance, your patterned, colorful sleeve waves invitingly.
Real forests, fields, slopes appear in front of him, and he is attracted by the path disappearing into the distance. This is precisely what the poet speaks about in his “Autumn Will” with some kind of inspired joy, bright sadness and extraordinary breadth, as if containing the entire native expanse: Shall I sing about my luck, How I ruined my youth in hops...
I will cry over the sadness of my fields, I will love your space forever...
The feeling that scorches the poet’s heart and his work, invariably mixed with every thought, every experience, is, in addition to love for the Motherland, also love for his mother. The mother, in whose son’s feat the radiance of the sun itself is seen, and let this feat cost the son his whole life - the mother’s heart is filled with “golden joy”, for the son’s light has overcome the surrounding darkness, reigns over her: The son did not forget his own mother: The son returned to die.
His lyrics became stronger than himself. This is most clearly expressed in his poems about love. No matter how much he insisted that the women we love are made of cardboard, he, against his will, saw stars in them, felt otherworldly distances in them, and - no matter how much he laughed at it - every woman in his love poems was combined for him with clouds, sunsets, dawns, each opened gaps in the Other, which is why he creates his first cycle - “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”. The Beautiful Lady is the embodiment of eternal femininity, the eternal ideal of beauty. The lyrical hero is a servant of the Beautiful Lady, awaiting the coming transformation of life.
Hopes for the coming of “eternal femininity” indicate Blok’s dissatisfaction with reality: I have a presentiment of You. Years pass by...
The Beautiful Lady, one and unchanging in her perfection, in her wondrous charm, at the same time constantly changes her features and appears before her knight and servant either as a “Virgin, Dawn,” or as a “Wife clothed in the sun,” and the poet calls to her in the aspirations of the times prophesied in the ancient and sacred books: To You, whose Twilight was so bright, Whose voice silently calls, - Raise the heavenly arches The ever-descending vault.
Love itself gathers ideal, heavenly features in the poet’s eyes, and in his beloved he sees not an ordinary earthly girl, but a hypostasis of a deity. In poems about the Beautiful Lady, the poet praises her and endows her with all the attributes of divinity - such as immortality, limitlessness, omnipotence, wisdom incomprehensible to earthly man - the poet sees all this in his Beautiful Lady, who now “goes to earth in an incorruptible body.”
Even when Blok’s lyrics seemed to speak only about the private, intimate, personal, for in it the great, the world, breaks through the personal, unique. “Unity with the world” - this motif, common to all of Blok’s lyrics, is extremely important for understanding the meaning of Blok’s works, his creativity, even beyond the scope of a direct response to a particular event.
The poet explored many areas of human relationships and experiences, experienced the whole cycle of feelings, passions, aspirations, matured and became tempered in trials and struggles - all this constitutes the content of that “novel in verse”, which is Blok’s lyrics, taken as a whole: I bless everything that happened, I didn’t look for a better life.
O heart, how much you loved! O mind, how much you burned! Even though both happiness and torment left their bitter mark, But in the passionate storm, in the long boredom, I did not lose my former light...
The main motives, images and symbols of A. Blok’s lyrics
The outstanding Russian poet Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880-1921) during his lifetime became an idol of both the Symbolists, the Acmeists, and all subsequent generations of Russian poets.
At the beginning of his poetic career, the mystical romanticism of Vasily Zhukovsky’s work was closest to him. This “singer of nature” with his poems taught the young poet purity and elation of feelings, knowledge of the beauty of the surrounding world, unity with God, and faith in the possibility of penetrating beyond the boundaries of the earthly. Far from theoretical philosophical doctrines and the poetry of romanticism, A. Blok was prepared to perceive the basic principles of the art of symbolism.
Zhukovsky’s lessons were not in vain: the “acute mystical and romantic experiences” he nurtured attracted Blok’s attention in 1901. to the work of the poet and philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, who was the recognized “spiritual father” of the younger generation of Russian symbolists (A. Blok, A. Bely, S. Solovyov, Vyach. Ivanov, etc.). The ideological basis of his teaching was the dream of the kingdom of divine power, which arises from modern world who is mired in evil and sins. He can be saved by the World Soul, the Eternal Femininity, which arises as a unique synthesis of harmony, beauty, goodness, the spiritual essence of all living things, the new Mother of God. This Solovyov theme is central to Blok’s early poems, which were included in his first collection “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” (1904). Although the poems were based on a real living feeling of love for the bride, over time - the poet’s wife - L. D. Mendeleeva, the lyrical theme, illuminated in the spirit of Solovyov’s ideal, takes on the sound of the theme of sacred love. O. Blok develops the thesis that world love is revealed in personal love, and love for the universe is realized through love for a woman. For this reason, the concrete image is covered by abstract figures of the Eternally Young Wife, the Lady of the Universe, etc. The poet bows before the Beautiful Lady - the personification of eternal beauty and harmony. In "Poems about a Beautiful Lady", there are undoubtedly signs of symbolism. Plato's idea of contrasting two worlds- earthly, dark and joyless, and distant, unknown and beautiful, the holiness of the elevated unearthly ideals of the lyrical hero, he was brought to them, a decisive break with the surrounding life, the cult of Beauty - the most important features of this artistic movement, were vividly embodied in Blok’s early work.
Already in the first works there were main features of poetic manner Block: musical-song structure, attraction to sound and color expressiveness, metaphorical language, complex structure of the image - everything that theorists of symbolism called impressionistic element, considering it an important component of the aesthetics of symbolism. All this determined the success of Blok’s first book. Like most symbolists, Blok was convinced: everything that happens on earth is just a reflection, a sign, a “shadow” of what exists in other, spiritual worlds. Accordingly, words and language turn out to be for him “signs of signs,” “shadows of shadows.” In their “earthly” meanings, the “heavenly” and “eternal” are always visible. All the meanings of Blok’s symbols are sometimes very difficult to count, and this is an important feature of his poetics. The artist is convinced that there must always remain something “incomprehensible”, “secret” in a symbol, which cannot be conveyed either in scientific or everyday language. At the same time, something else is characteristic of Blok’s symbol: no matter how polysemantic it is, it always retains its first - earthly and concrete - meaning, bright emotional coloring, immediacy of perception and feelings.
Also in the poet's early poems features such as intensity of lyrical feeling, passion and confession. This was the basis for Blok’s future achievements as a poet: unstoppable maximalism and unchanging sincerity. At the same time, the last section of the collection contained poems such as “From the Newspapers”, “Factory”, etc., which testified to the emergence of civil sentiments.
If "Poems about a Beautiful Lady" was liked primarily by symbolists, then the second book of poems " Unexpected joy"(1907) made his name popular among wide readership. This collection includes poems from 1904-1906. and among them are such masterpieces as “The Stranger”, “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir...”, “Autumn Will”, etc. The book testified to the highest level of Blok’s skill, the sound magic of his poetry captivated readers. Substantially The theme of his lyrics also changed. Hero of the Block acted no longer as a hermit monk, but as a resident noisy city streets who looks greedily into life. In the collection, the poet expressed his attitude towards social problems, the spiritual atmosphere of society. Deepened in his mind the gap between romantic dream and reality. These poems of the poet reflected impressions of the events of the revolution of 1905-1907,“which the poet witnessed. And the poem “Autumn Will” became the first embodiment of the theme of the homeland, Russia in Blok’s work. The poet intuitively discovered in this theme what was most dear and intimate to him.
The defeat of the first Russian revolution had a decisive impact not only on the fate of the entire poetic school of symbolism, but also on the personal fate of each of its supporters. Distinctive feature Blok's creativity of the post-revolutionary years - strengthening civic position. 1906-1907. were a period of revaluation of values.
During this period, Blok’s understanding of the essence changes artistic creativity, the purpose of the artist and the role of art in society. If in the early cycles of poems Blok’s lyrical hero appeared as a hermit, a knight of the Beautiful Lady, an individualist, then over time he began to talk about the artist’s duty to the era, to the people. Blok's change in social views was also reflected in his work. At the center of his lyrics is a hero seeking strong ties with other people, realizing the dependence of his fate on the common fate of the people. The cycle “free thoughts” from the collection “Earth in the Snow” (1908), especially the poems “On Death” and “In the North Sea”, shows a tendency towards democratization of the work of this poet͵ ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ reflected in the state of mind of the lyrical hero, in his attitude, and in the end, in the lyrical structure of the author’s language.
Nevertheless, a feeling of despondency, emptiness, complicated by personal motives, fill the lines of his poems. Awareness of the environment began reality as a "terrible world"", which disfigures and destroys Man. Born in romanticism, traditional for classical literature The theme of the collision with the world of evil and violence found a brilliant successor in A. Blok. Blok concentrates the psychological drama of personality and philosophy of existence in the historical and social sphere, sensing, first of all, social troubles. On the one hand, he strives to change society, and on the other, he is frightened by the decline of spirituality, the element of cruelty that increasingly engulfed the country (the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” (1909)). In his poetry of those years, the image of a lyrical hero appears, man of crisis era who has lost faith in old values, considering them dead, lost forever, and has not found new ones. Blok’s poems of these years are filled with pain and bitterness for tormented destinies, a curse on a harsh, terrible world, the search for saving points of support in a destroyed universe and gloomy hopelessness and found hope and faith in the future. Those included in the cycles “Snow Mask”, “Scary World”, “Dances of Death”, “Redemption” are rightly considered the best of what Blok wrote during the heyday and maturity of his talent.
The topic of the death of a person in a terrible world was covered significantly by Blok wider and deeper than his predecessors, nevertheless, at the top of the sound of this theme is the motive of overcoming evil, which is important for understanding Blok’s entire work. This, first of all, was manifested in the theme of the homeland, Russia, in the theme of Blok’s hero finding a new destiny, who seeks to bridge the gap between the people and that part of the intelligentsia to which he belonged. In 1907-1916. a cycle of poems “Motherland” was created, where the paths of development of Russia are comprehended, the image of which appears at times attractively fabulous, full of magical power, then terribly bloody, causing anxiety for the future.
We can say that the gallery of female symbolic images in Blok's lyrics ultimately finds its organic continuation and logical conclusion: Beautiful Lady - Stranger - Snow Mask - Faina - Carmen - Russia. Nevertheless, the poet himself insisted later that each subsequent image is not just a transformation of the previous one, but, first of all, the embodiment of a new type of worldview of the author at the next stage of his creative development.
The poetry of A. Blok is a kind of mirror that reflects the hopes, disappointments and drama of the era of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Symbolic richness, romantic elation and realistic specificity helped the writer discover a complex and multifaceted image of the world.